Svelt by Chris Whyatt: When Fantasy Story Goes Unepic, Out of the Blue

★ ★ ★

Unepic fantasy, get ready to be disappointed ...

Daftar Isi

1. Book Information
2. Blurb
3. Review
4. Conclusion

Book Information

• Title: The Whirled Series #1: Svelt 
• Author: Chris Whyatt
• Year: 2021
• Page: 242
• Format: E-book

Blurb

Landos. A chaotic, multi-species, semi-evolved mire inhabited by a kaleidoscope of comical and devious characters.

A wizard is murdered in a desperate attempt at stalling the progress of invention, randomly throwing an innocent into the middle of an age-old conflict after he 'inherits' the old trickster's puzzling map. With the drawing as his only guide, Svelt reluctantly begins searching for the unnamed artefact.

But he is not alone...

A determined, ruthless 'messenger' heaven-bent on preventing it from being discovered.

And an ancient, mischievous, time-travelling soul resurrected by a powerful sorceress, 'aiding' the confused soul along the way.

Unwanted attention in Landos isn't conducive to life expectancy much beyond lunchtime... particularly for a dwarf troll. (Goodreads)

Review

I'm just really confused about how to summarize this book. I finished reading it like 50 days ago, but I still haven't written a review because I'm just not getting it. So, Svelt is this story about a half-dwarf, half-troll guy named Svelt who gets a map from a dying wizard. You'd think it'd be this epic adventure, but nope, it's actually pretty boring. Svelt just goes to some taverns, tries to find a book, and visits his elf crush at a flower shop.

The author, Chris Whyatt, was going for a funny, unepic vibe, but I just didn't find it that funny. The jokes and the way the characters talk just didn't click with me. And honestly, I had to reread some parts multiple times because I just wasn't getting it. My expectations were also kind of ruined because the relationship between Svelt and Vaessa just fizzled out and left Vaessa all disappointed. And don't even get me started on how Svelt got defeated by a thunder strike because of Gord's carelessness.

I guess one thing I did like was the posthumous tribute to Svelt due to the idea of the river bridge's rules. And some of the quotes were pretty cool, like "There are some things money just can't buy" and "Hey, Death! I'm over here!" But yeah, those were pretty much the only highlights for me.

Conclusion

Anyway, I'm still struggling to write a proper review, but I guess I'd recommend Svelt if you're into weird, funny fantasy stories or just want to see how mundane a story can be.