A Door into Evermoor by Kent Wayne

19 year old Jon Dough is desperate to find purpose in life and strains against society’s expectations that fill his future with a boring and unfulfilling life.

After an unusual meeting at a military recruitment office, Jon begins to have visions of other worlds, until one day he takes the leap into Evermoor. As a high fantasy world complete with an evil tyrant, Jon feels at home because of his love of fantasy books and games. However, it’s a bit different living it to reading about it, and without magic, can Jon successfully navigate the complex and troubled world of Evermoor?

There’s a lot to like in this fantasy adventure, that felt better aimed at a new adult audience than the young adult book it claims to be. I loved Jon’s desire for purpose and to take a different path in life, even if I felt the theme was a little repetitive and heavy handed at times.

I struggled to connect with Jon at first. He seemed obsessed with the evils of a 9 – 5 job, yet he didn’t appear to have any friends, family, study or work commitments. This life vacuum made his philosophical musings seem to come more from the author than driven by the character. However, Erany, one of the characters from Evermoor, was immediately relatable as someone who, like Jon, struggled to break free of the expectations her family put on her.

I finally came to appreciate Jon when he changed from an observer in the story to an active participant in the narrative. I found the second half of the book exciting and compelling, with well written action scenes and imaginative displays of magical weaponry.

The author writes action extremely well, and I enjoyed the fight for Elerica. Some of the descriptions of magic and interdimensional travel in the latter part of the book were beautiful.

Evermoor itself is a fascinating, magical world that I would like to get to know better. I also liked how the author brought in elements of his other books, introducing a vast interconnected universe.

As the first in the series, this book had a lot to explain and introduce, and while that distanced me from the story at first, I ended up looking forward to continuing Jon’s adventures when the next book is released.

I award A Door into Evermoor…