Tower of Parlen Min by Mat Xell

Synopsis: Ves Asirin wins a trip to the Tower of Parlen Min. There, with 19 other children, he competes in the Sword Challenge; a series of puzzles and tasks, for $12 million. As fantastic and glorious as the tower seems to be, Ves finds that it keeps a dark and secret history that he has been connected to for over 150 years, a secret that will define his destiny ... if he can escape 'The shadow'. -Goodreads

Review: At first, I had some trouble getting into this one, but once I was, it was a really intriguing read. The main character Ves deals with some pretty strange memory issues, has a chance to will $12 million and has to get through some pretty intense challenges to get there. 

I've always been a big fan of games, challenges, puzzles etc in books and this story has a bit of everything, as well as a great storyline to tie it all together. A lot of what Matt Xell decided to put his characters through was highly original and deeply engaging. There tends to be a lot of repeated content in books like these and so Xell's take added some much needed originality to the genre.

The main issue I had was with some of the writing. At times it was disjointed, awkwardly worded and hard to follow. There is a lot of potential here though, it just would have taken a bit more editing to get the book cleaned up. Unfortunately, it did take away a little from the book, but there was still a lot left over to enjoy. 

The Tower of Parlen Min has a lot to offer. Non stop action for one. Once you get into the bulk of the story there is a lot going on and the main character Ves, always has to be on top of his game (not an easy thing to do with a memory loss condition). Also, this book is highly, highly imaginative. There is a little bit of everything fantastical and it all comes together really well. I have never read anything quite like this. 

Overall, this story was a pretty fun read. There are some areas that could use some work, definitely, but it is still worth a read if you like adventure, puzzles and mythology! Enjoy!

Purchase
Tower of Parlen Min, Volume 1 (The Narrow Escapes of Ves Asirin)


Tower of Parlen Min via Smashwords