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Book Title: Ocellus: The Story of the Twelfth Stone
Year: 2023
Writer: Emmanuel C Lachlan
Review:
This is a novel that I got the chance to check out when the writer, Emmanuel C. Lachlan reached out. To give background for myself, I grew up an avid reader. This is a past time that I do when I can find the time. Getting the chance to read this sci-fi/fantasy/adventure novel intrigued me, so I agreed to read this and review. I grew up loving these genres whether it was books, video games or movies.
The full title here Ocellus: The Story of the Twelfth Stone. We are following Joshua and his sister Alessa. While they're at their beach house, they discover this black stone that is different from others. It has markings on it and not something that would occur naturally. There are times that it is as light as a feather and others when it is too heavy to lift. They take it and it starts them on an adventure they'll never forget.
By finding this stone, it plunges them in the middle of a war between the Essentia and the KimMorii. The former live on their planet, Amnia, which was the first universe created. Their enemies live on the second, KimMoriN. There has been a war waging for millions of years and the end goal are these special stones. As you can gather, there are thirteen of them. If the Essentia can arrange them on this special place, they can effectively end the war. The KimMorii will stop at nothing to collect them and they've delved a special machine that can fracture them in a way where the power is diminished. There is such a rich mythology here. What helps to delve into it is bringing in these children, who have found stones, and having them learn. As readers, we are there learning their experiences as they do.
What I'll say though is that the mythology is so rich, I had trouble settling in. It took me longer than with similar books to find my footing and put things together. Once I did, I enjoyed learning more as the characters do. I should also point out that this is written for an audience that is ten and older. There are good lessons here for kids this age. We get things that aren't as adult, but I acknowledge that it isn't a problem. I'm reading something that I'm not necessarily the intended audience.
Something I appreciate here is that Lachlan knows everything in and out. If they don't, they've faked it enough where I believe that they do. There are glossaries at the end of the copy I read and I'm hoping they stay in for the final product. Having this information available helped if I was confused about something, I could look it up. The time and effort that were put into this just shows that it’s been thought out and developed. I do appreciate that.
There is another bit that I wanted to delve just a bit more into as it felt like I was giving this a slight. To preface what I'll say, it is interesting that this first book is approaching what feels like the end of the war. The beginning of this book has the Essentia already in possession of other stones that are needed. I have the second book in my possession so I'm curious as to where we will go. This wasn't the issue though. I know that I said the age range this is for. It gets dark as the story progresses. I'm the type of reader that I'll hit a point in most books where I can stop reading and need to see where it ends. I like where it did well in setting up real concern that things won't end well. It felt safe for a good part so I'm glad we got that tonal shift to build the necessary tension and suspense.
What I'll say then is that this is well written. It is difficult to create a whole different world from our own, so I'll credit Lachlan again. This succeeded here. It isn't just one either. I thought the writing was good to help me visualize these places. I like the characters that we are introduced to. We have a handful of alien species and characters within them that we meet. Even though I'm not the intended audience, I still enjoyed my time here. If I have a gripe, I think that it runs on a bit too long where I think certain things could have been developed a bit more. Not enough to remotely ruin this though, just a personal preference there.
My Rating: 6.5 out 10