The Slayer and the Sphinx

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

From the book description I was interested in my love for all things “mythical.” I then saw the cover of the book and wondered what in the heck I had gotten myself into. The cover of the book made me think that I was about to read a tween book. The first chapter of the book followed with this notion, with a younger type of dialogue and I was hesitant to press on.

Luckily I felt an obligation to give this book a fair shot and see it through to the end for a review since I had committed myself to it. Thank goodness I felt that way, because every chapter following just drew me into the story even more and was nothing at all like the first chapter. The book completely redeems itself from the youngster scene setting of the beginning.

The Slayer and the Sphinx is written by Adam Bolander and Adam has created a new and exciting fantasy world in this novel. The main characters that we are following are a female Sphinx named Sarah (whom I secretly wanted to have a majestic name) and a Slayer name Porter. As a slayer Porter is trained and lives to kill creatures referred to as mythics (and sort of creature we now like to say doesn’t exist that has gone into hiding). During a raid on Sarah’s house, Porter is hit in the head and get amnesia as to his past. This unlikely event leads Porter and Sarah to have to rely on one another for survival and they end up as close friends. Together they set off on a journey and encounter many new creatures that you don’t often find in stories and a great scene setting for an epic series. Alas the ending is such a cliff hanger that I felt as if I was watching a series finale on a tv show and wanted to yell “Noooo” at the book and get started on the rest of the story right away as this is merely Book 1 in a series already written out to Book 3.

Overall this book did not start well for me as stated before but it was spectacular after that. If not for the tween-like dialogue in the beginning I would give it a 5 star rating. Otherwise this book was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to read fantasy. It was a tiny bit on the young adult side, but that concept was lost as you get immersed into the story and journey that Sarah & Porter have embarked upon. There are so many pieces set up for action to come that I am interested to see what will happen and hope to see more the of same kind of great storytelling. I was captivated and couldn’t put it down, finishing it in a few short hours with minor life interruptions. Overall 4 stars and an eager hope for a 5 star remainder of the trilogy.