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J. Steven Young

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The Balance (Chronicles of Aurderia Book 1) Kindle Edition

by J. Steven Young (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A Land of Fantasy and Elemental Magic is falling into chaos from Ancient Sumerian interference.

What has happened to the magical world?

Ersetu, it is a land of wonders in sorcery, spells, and weaving of elemental magics. These abilities come from the Essence, an energy stored in all things. For eons these abilities in the people of the  realms went unchecked and chaos reigned. Multitudes of wars were fought over hundreds of generations and the toll on the lands was disastrous. Much of the world became poisoned and unlivable. People and magical creatures were dying off and all of Ersetu was on the verge of collapse.

The magical races come together...

A meeting of the lands great races was arranged to barter peace; it was decided that the only way to create a lasting truce was to bring about balance of the Essence. The Great Council was created with members of these seven main races to establish a plan for the balance. And so it was this council that devised the blending, a cross breeding of the races and thus combinations of the powers they each possessed. Through this program, the blended peoples could create offspring who could harness all the seven powers and forge a balance in the land to restore what had been devastated.

A sacrifice is made...

Two altars of power were constructed to represent both chaos and creation. Chaos altar, black as pitch, was made of dragon glass from the depths of Hell’s Mouth, land of the Drakkians. The Altar of Creation, carved from the purest of clear crystal from the mystic caves of Mount Aris high above the clouds in the Orenthal Mountains. Upon the completion of these altars, two zealots tapped the essence and poured power into the altars until the life force drained from them. Their sacrifice created the great balance, Lal-Li Mah, and allowed the lands to begin repairing millennia of destruction, bringing about a new era of peace and prosperity.

Prejudice causes the races to split...

After a few generations however, disdain and open prejudices of the blended race peoples turned to persecution. The “purists” sought to rid the lands of those with blended blood. These purists being of only single race blood lines feared those of mixed blood because of the abilities in Essence they possessed, however they used fear of a new unbalance to drive others to begin rounding up the abominations and putting them to death for the greater good. This was the great purification called, Sikil Mah.

Order is established under the rule of chaos...

Those who managed to escape notice left the healed lands of Aurderia and call themselves the forsaken. Some still lived among the realms of Aurderia but only because they could blend in and hide their powers or were protected by sympathizers and family. The Great Council forbade use of the Essence without sanction and schools were established for proper education until finally the Essence Academy was created in the capital city New Draven.

And so it was for hundreds of years... until Chaos was set loose upon the land by lust for power.

The balance between good and evil is a perilous thing. This is especially true for the world of Ersetu. Chaos has begun to manifest upon the lands threatening to tear the world apart again. Three children of seven elemental magic bloodlines are born to be instruments of change in the balance, but their roles are each different in this fantasy quest series.

Follow along on the journeys of Shuran and his friends as they seek a means to triumph against dark forces and rally the world against the Chaos. The first book in the series will see the rebirth of an old force for good while old enemies begin to return. The series blends fantasy and science fiction while adding a twist on the magic of dragons.

Take a "Look Inside" and read a sampling of the first sections

Print length

314 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

March 11, 2013
File size

1272 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"J. Steven Young has a strong passion for the genre in which he's placed himself--it shines through in his writing. It is clear he sees world he's created in The Chronicles of Aurderia vividly and has a personal tie to it--and it's easy to find yourself feeling the same way after finishing this book." - Matthew Keith
"Looking forward to reading more!" - Brent Lee Markee

From the Author

Chronicles of Aurderia: The Balance has been completely reformatted and edited.

From the Inside Flap

The balance between good and evil is a perilous thing. This is especially true for the world of Ersetu. Chaos has begun to manifest upon the lands threatening to tear the world apart again. Three children of seven elemental magic bloodlines are born to be instruments of change in the balance, but their roles are each different in this fantasy quest series.

Follow along on the journeys of Shuran and his friends as they seek a means to triumph against dark forces and rally the world against the Chaos. The first book in the series will see the rebirth of an old force for good while old enemies begin to return. The series blends fantasy and science fiction while adding a twist on the magic of dragons.

About the Author

Author J. Steven Young shares adventurous and imaginative observations on life across multiple genres, including children's activity books, young adult and fantasy. His Hashtag Magic collection is quickly moving up the fantasy charts on Amazon and the third book in the series is currently in development.

Raised in the Chicago area, J. Steven witnessed his fair share of injustice growing up and always imagined how he could make life better for everyone if only he'd had magic or super powers. It took years for him to understand that he did have a gift. Though he traveled the globe in his youth, he still favors the lands of his imagination and wants nothing more than to share his visions with the world. He hopes his gift will allow readers to escape from reality, if only for a spell.

Following his education in technology, with a focus in writing and communication, he's spent his career working in the tech and travel industries. It allows for some creativity, but it doesn't compare to the freedom of creating new worlds and magical creatures.

A passionate home chef, J. Steven, can often be found in the kitchen with his agreeable husband, Tom, and their self-important Siamese, Lexi, who rules the house with an iron paw. When he isn't working or writing, J. Steven is never more than a step or thought away from adventure. Whether spending time in his enchanted garden, conjuring up new recipes or spending time with family and friends, he's always dreaming up new fiction based on over-the-top characterizations of the people he meets.

J. Steven is the author of over a dozen books and lives in Chicago, Illinois.

For news, updates and to send inquiries, please visit J. Steven's website at jstevenyoung.com or join him on Twitter @jstevenyoung #magic

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00BWG4RAA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independent; 4th edition (March 11, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 11, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1272 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 314 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1492349755

Customer Reviews:
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J. Steven Young

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Author J. Steven Young shares adventurous and imaginative observations on life across multiple genres, including children's story & activity books, young adult, Scifi, and fantasy.

Raised in the Chicago area, J. Steven witnessed his fair share of injustice growing up and always imagined how he could make life better for everyone if only he’d had magic or super powers. It took years for him to understand that he did have a gift. Though he traveled the globe in his youth, he still favors the lands of his imagination and wants nothing more than to share his visions with the world. He hopes his gift will allow readers to escape from reality, if only for a spell.

Following his education in technology, with a focus in writing and communication, he’s spent his career working in the tech and travel industries. It allows for some creativity, but it doesn’t compare to the freedom of creating new worlds and magical creatures.

A passionate home chef, J. Steven, can often be found in the kitchen with his agreeable husband, Tom, and their spunky not so little Siamese cat, GusGus, who runs the house. When he isn’t working or writing, J. Steven is never more than a step or thought away from adventure. Whether spending time in his enchanted garden, conjuring up new recipes or spending time with family and friends, he’s always dreaming up new fiction based on over-the-top characterizations of the people he meets.

J. Steven is the author of nearly two dozen books and lives in Chicago, Illinois.

For news, updates and to send inquiries, please visit J. Steven’s website at http://jstevenyoung.com or join him on Twitter @jstevenyoung #magic

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

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John Adams Theibert Jr.

of THE CHRONICLES OF AURDERIA, THE BALANCE

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

Introduction:

In writing this review of THE CHRONICLES OF AURDERIA, THE BALANCE, as with any review I do, I will be referring to each star of the five star rating system as individual elements of the story. Each star is divided into two parts, of which each part can receive half a star. The five elements of storytelling are: Idea, Plot, Characters, Setting, and Theme. Idea is divided into the parts: Hook and World; Plot is divided into the parts: Conflict and Climax; Characters is divided into the parts: Development and Dimension; Setting is divided into the parts: Scenes and Senses; and Theme is divided into the parts: Lesson and Epiphany. As this is not a critique, I will not go into any detail, not only to ward off spoilers, but also for brevity's sake.

Review:

The Idea of this story had a good Hook, which was why I read it. 0.5 stars. On further examination the World was not entirely unique or groundbreaking. It seemed to be cobbled together with various tropes and clichés. 0.0 stars. Total stars for the Idea of the story 0.5 stars.

The Plot of the story did not have any true conflict, the decisions for the plot seemed to be spur-of-the-moment, and were ponderously explained during the process. 0.0 stars. The climax, on the other hand, was good; it provided a sense of resolution, suspense, and continuation. 0.5 stars. Total stars for the Plot of the story 0.5 stars.

The Characters of the story seemed well Developed, especially the main character. Dialogue and character emotion cues were used thoroughly and effectively. 0.5 stars. The Dimensions the characters aspire to were mostly 2 dimensions, with the main character reaching 3 dimensions. 0.5 stars. Total stars for the Characters of the story 1.0 stars.

The Setting of the story had many scenes which were not entirely fleshed out, and seemed like most of the action occurred on a stage with a few props, yet, they were adequate to understand the environment in which the action occurred. 0.5 stars. On the other hand, very few senses were used in describing the Setting of the story. 0.0 stars. Total stars for the Setting of the story 0.5 stars.

The Theme of the story seemed to be summed up at the very end with a neat and tidy little Lesson. 0.5 stars. However, there were no Epiphanies in this story whatsoever. 0.0 stars Total stars for the Theme of the story 0.5 stars.

Total stars for the story 3.0 stars. In conclusion, the story was what you might call okay; on a five star rating system it would have a passable grade; however, there were many typos and misused words which hamper this story unnecessarily. In my opinion, this story is a run-of-the-mill commercial fantasy fiction.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Classic Fantasy

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

First off, to remain totally transparent, I know this author, he works at the same company as I do and sets accross the aisle from me. So when Steven published his first book, I downloaded it to my Android and read it on the train home and finished it that night. It was a great read. Good character development and a smooth story flow that carried my reading along.

I give it 5 Stars, becasue the book was readable and entertaining. I am not a picky critic, books are either good or not good. And this one was good.

I am glad he finished the two more books, as I have been waiting to jump back in and follow the story line and see how the characters are doing.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

The first 25 to 30% of the book, I felt like I was taking a foreign language class. So many words that I either had to look up in the glossary, or had to figure out by reading and re-reading the intention in the paragraph. There were parts where I couldn't tell if the character was getting a day older, a week older, a month older or even a year older with the space of a few pages. It felt like this was written in a different language, then translated into English, then someone went in and added back in key words from a third language. It was exhausting. Much of the language issues occurred even to the end of the epilogue. Also, there are a number of grammatical and spelling/misuse of homonyms in places.

Having said that, the basic premise of the story is fine. Having to create an entire world, let alone a universe of magic (essence) must be hard work. Some of the characters and their growth within the story were just ok. Others, made no sense whatsoever. Including the basic general types of characters used throughout Sci-Fi fantasy (Elves, Dwarves, etc.) helped somewhat. But the transitions between scenes or even chapters seemed chaotic at times, and not well placed.

With all of that out of the way, the story did progress (albeit at a strange pace), and I did somewhat enjoy it (when not perusing the glossary).

Helpful

Brent Markee

Really good first attempt at writing a book.

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It has all of the things we love about fantasy books but with a couple twists to the usual tropes. The pace of the book was good for me, I thought it moved along nicely. Some people might think too quickly, but I thought it did well in getting the point across without spending too much time being flowery. I was just informed that I had the older version of the book, and a lot of the spelling errors were fixed, so I'm putting my review from four stars to five. Looking forward to reading more!

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2013

The Chronicles of Auderia: The Balance, starts out pretty slow and a little confusing. You have no idea what a NABUSA is, and by the end of the book, you still don't know. It's not listed in the back of the book in the Glossary of Terms.

The first half of the book feels like it is written by a different person than the 2nd half of the book. It is very slow to start and the writing is confusing. Filling in the back story could be told in a better manner, its choppy, jumbled, and in a couple instances, could be left out completely, as the reader can figure out what is going on with out the back story.

The 2nd half of the book, the characters and the story move along nicely, decent plots, and the author did a really good job of drawing you in. The characters were a tad 2 dimensional, the main character was able to convince the other races to help him a tad too easily.

I think if the author re-wrote the first part of the book, fleshed out the characters a little more, gave them some more 3 dimensionality, this could be a great book. That said, as soon as I finished this book, I bought the 2nd book to see what happened.

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The Balance (Chronicles of Aurderia Book 1) Kindle Edition

A Land of Fantasy and Elemental Magic is falling into chaos from Ancient Sumerian interference.

What has happened to the magical world?

The magical races come together...

A sacrifice is made...

Prejudice causes the races to split...

Order is established under the rule of chaos...

Take a "Look Inside" and read a sampling of the first sections

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Author

From the Inside Flap

About the Author

Product details

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About the author

J. Steven Young

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

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