Journey to Altmortis by Thaddeus White



     Anybody who has followed my reviews knows that I'm a little partial when it comes to Fantasies, specifically ones that truly take you to a new world. Journey to Altmortis by Thaddeus White is one of those, and just to stay clear partial doesn't necessarily mean I liked it.

     Journey to Altmortis is a truly epic fantasy adventure that opens up on the main character named Thaddeus. Doing this, in my opinion, was a big risk on White's part. It does, however, become less noticeable fairly early on as you're introduced to more of the characters that become part of this world.

     One of the most notable things you see early on from White's writing is the consistency. Besides creating a new world, new people and an all around new journey, White gives each of these their own voice and you feel as though you've known the characters and the world.

     As is in any fantasy epic, the group is challenged in many different, and unique, ways throughout. Each stop on the way to the ruins of Altmortis is plagued by a new hurdle for the group, and it becomes apparent slowly that there is more than just corrupt city watchmen to worry about.

     I feel like I could rant and rave over the shear amount of pros to this story. From the characters, the story and writing in general there is something that makes this story worth reading throughout. I did manage to narrow it down to a few pros that I think stand out:

• The story may seem like a cut and dry adventure epic on the surface, but as you read you discover so many differences that make it truly special.
• The characters are incredibly thoughtful, and stable throughout. You can meet a character once and his/her speech patterns and personality remain the same, which can be daunting in a story as long and as full as this.
• The world follows the 'book' on what Fantasy worlds should be like, but at the same time feels new. The towns/environments the travelers encounter all have that classic, but original, feel.

     Call it bias or call it a great story but I had issues finding true cons to the story. I did end up narrowing down a couple minor issues I found:

• The main characters name caused a bit of an issue for me early on, as I stated above it sort of fades away as the story progresses.
• Though the story is written well, there are a couple of places where it is evident that this is a new author and could have been tightened up a little more, though there is only two or three instances of this over the course of the whole story.

     In the end Journey to Altmortis is a truly epic fantasy that creates both a huge world and characters that familiar but new at the same time. The thing in the end that really sets it apart from the multitudes of other fantasies brought out the veteran feel that White was able to bring out, when many of the titles released in this genre come out very amateurish.

     Overall I'm going to give Journey to Altmortis by Thaddeus White a 8/10 based on:

8/10 for readability - The story itself reads very well, with smooth transitions and very edited writing that keep you turning the page the whole time.

7/10 for characters - There are so many characters introduced throughout, most ancillary but there are a lot of characters that play a part in the overall story. The main group of characters are all written really well and feel very new. Some of the extra characters come off a little flat, but that's hard to avoid when writing on the scale that Journey to Altmortis is written.

8/10 for story - I know I've mentioned this a couple times already, but the story itself combines the classic adventure tale with some overhauls that really make it feel different.

8/10 for concept/execution - I really feel that the x-factor for this story stems from the concept that White had, and the execution with which it was completed.

     A big thanks to Thaddeus White for reaching out to me about this story, and giving me the opportunity to read such an epic tale. I definitely recommend this for any fantasy fan out there. It does its genre justice and is a voice among the over saturation and carbon copy fantasies that seem to come out quite often.

If you would like to pick up Journey to Altmortis for yourself, click here.