Thank you so much to W.N. Cleckler for sending me the second book in The Wisprian World series, The Day Star! This is an epic fantasy series that is unapologetically Christian in nature, perfect for the Easter time of year. I am totally delighted by this book filled with cunning and gore, hope and hopelessness, war and betrayal, as well as found family, faith, friendship, and sacrifice.
Click here for my review for Book 1, Tears of Alphega
Quick Facts:
- Title: The Day Star
- Series: The Wisprian World, #2
- Author: W.N. Cleckler
- Publisher & Release; Whisper Press, 12/25/20
- Length: 402 pgs
- Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ yes for those who like a healthy dollop of faith with their fantasy!
Here is the Synopsis from GoodReads:
Perfect love.
Ancient rebellion.
Overwhelming redemption.The shattered heavens empower unlikely heroes to overcome the origin of darkness.
Before the spoken earth, Alphega treasured His whispered world, Wispria, from the heavenly realm of Agapia. Yet, after destruction of the Agapian Gate, by the Archeon leader, Lure, and his legions, Alphega wept tears of power over seven Wisprian companions. These survivors must discern when to use them, journey to find magical shards of agapate, and use their elemental abilities against the evil that seeks the stones. As the darkened world grows colder ushering in an age of ice, can these unlikely heroes overcome Lure before he reaches Agapia and enslaves The Wisprian World?
With a cast of fantastical characters, new adventures in undiscovered lands, ancient rebellion, overwhelming redemption, and perfect love, W.N. Cleckler’s fantasy series will have you unearthing a new world of possibilities in our ultimate origin story.
The Plot and Story: I find it endlessly difficult to summarize these books! Basically now that Lure has formed his armies, he is ready to march across Wispria to the main city and this book encompasses what I would call the first open conflicts.
The seven adventurers from book one also reunite and learn more about their destinies. Vague prophecies don’t help so much, but they must discover how to use their gifts and agapate to survive, and fight back against Lure.
I felt some of the same disjointedness from book one in this novel as well, except it made more sense as we learn a lot more about each hero and Lure’s history on Wispria. I think the author realized where the holes in the World Build were and really shored it all up so the books can move forward!
I was certainly never bored though, there is just so much going on in the different storylines, and the battles were so exciting!
The Characters: The original seven tear bearers from book one are back, and we learn a lot more about their back stories. Duolos became an unexpected leader, Pales and Animus became real people, and each character really has to accept their role as an uncelebrated ‘hero’ in this war.
I liked spending more time with each character and how they embraced each other as newfound family.
There is one new character, Kit, who deserves mention – Telle the unicorn took him under his wing to go accomplish side tasks, and I am extremely interested in his role moving forward. There is so much juxtaposition of good vs evil in this book and Kit (a nephilim) vs the various depravities of the Dephilim are in as much contrast as the Archeon (angels) vs Archestokos (essentially fallen angels).
Themes: Really if you haven’t guessed yet, good vs evil is the main theme in these novels. This splits beautifully into faith in the creator, trusting Him, free will and choice, identity, personal sacrifice, and obviously a soul crushing war as well.
Animus’ speech about heroes and family was absolutely everything
The World: I’ve already described how intricate and well fleshed this world is, in both reviews. The Day Star expands on individual kingdoms, weather, customs and highlights in individual regions, and some of the utter atrocities that Lure is committing.
I liked Tears of Alphega quite a bit, but The Day Star truly takes the time to invest the reader in the world and characters.
Where did I dock a star? I hate to do it but this book honestly needed one more proof read. Nothing too glaring but there were typos, inconsistencies in the narrator’s voice (most of the time when Alphega spoke to the reader directly, it was italicized – but not always. This was confusing). Additionally towards the start there were just a ton of commas, and intermittently words that I think were left when edits were made.
This is a beautiful book with gorgeous artwork, rich development, and so many intricacies. I think it’s an absolute must for epic fantasy fans and Christian readers!
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