Salaset Reviews - THE SAVIOR'S CHAMPION - Jenna Moreci

One era of history that I don’t get to see written in fiction all that much is the Greek-Roman lifestyle. Most dark fantasies and adventure novels draw on a more European and medieval history for inspiration. Take stories such as The Lord of the Rings or A Game of Thrones, stories that are so ingrained in our modern life that we have almost grown to accept that time period as just ‘the norm’ in fantasy.

This is a shame, as there are so many other parts of history that we can draw on, not just the Greek-roman era, but era’s from before and after that. My personal theory is that, let’s face it, England took over the world back in the day, and Rome wasn’t far behind it in scope of sheer influence on the planet, but that doesn’t discount the Muslim Califate or the Chinese dynasties, any more or less. Books set in these periods would be amazing to read and learn more about, but currently, medieval European history is the main takeaway for most fantasy authors.

Given this information, it was surprising and nice to have book presented to me that took heavy inspiration from the Greek, roman empire. Growing up, outside of Percy Jackson, I didn’t get much exposure to it at all. Now, as an adult and having done my own research into the topic, I didn’t know how starved I was for it.

Unfortunately, my starvation will have to continue. Not for lack of trying, of course. As a reader, I find it very difficult to get engrossed into a novel of any type. A book has to grab and hold my attention, have reasonable stakes, relatable characters, believable decisions, and a story that I’m willing to gravitate to. This makes trying new books a bitch for me. Not just books, either, but things from movies to video games, I need to be captured quick.

So, when the Jenna Moreci book “The Savior’s Champion” was presented to me, I was excited. Though Jenna and I disagree a lot on terms of writing, I wanted to read her book, to support an author who was working hard to help others pursue a similar passion. Regardless of our differences, (I’m sure she is unaware of my existence, so I don’t think she’ll be offended by my review) I wanted to read her book. I waited eagerly for her book to come out and when it did, I snatched it up and began to read…

I purchased the audio book over a year ago… and I still haven’t finished, despite trying and trying and trying to do so, I have failed. This was not because of the narrator, Nick Denton. Denton did a reasonable job at preforming his job as a storyteller. Nor was this because of the concept, a man who enters a tournament to get money for his disabled family, and now must survive the tournament in order to see them again; that is a situation that is very believable.

It took me a long time to find out what my problem was with this story, an unreasonably long time, and I think I found why, despite my best effort, I was forced to DNF this book…

Why should I care about anything or anyone in this book?

Here are a list of the characters that I remember, and this took some digging and revisiting the book to get their names. The protagonist, Tobias, a brawny farmhand who’s also an artist with a disabled sister. Milo, the best friend who has the single personality trait of being the ‘best friend’, Layla, the love interest who has no justification for behaving the way she does (in so far as I could get), and Calao, the psychopathic villain of the book. Of a wide cast of dozens of characters, these are the only ones that I remember, and I think that speaks volumes, myself.

Now, before I get into this rather brutal review, please know that I am fully aware that I am in the minority of people here. “The Savior’s Champion” has been well received among its target audience, and that is a good thing. Despite mine and Jenna’s disagreements, I am super happy that she is finding success in her passion. If her books are keeping her happy as well as garnering an audience of fans, then by all means I support her, but I am afraid that her book falls well outside of my realm of enjoyment.

Before writing this review, I tried to get back into the book, tried to force myself to read it, but I still just ended up switching to a podcast or another book instead, despite telling myself that I had to read this book. It became a chore to do so, and that is not what a book should be. I managed to make to the same spot where I stopped the previous time, and that was right after a fight scene with the character known as ‘The Giant’, and again I was unable to keep going.

The book starts slow, which is fine, many books do so, but it unfortunately stays that way with ‘high stakes’ situations that are only ‘high stakes’ because the author tells you that they are. The book opens up with a prolog where the queen of the nation (The Savior) is assassinated in the streets and an emergency impromptu C-section is done to save her baby’s life. The book gets into graphic detail regarding this event, explaining blood and gore, but… unnecessarily. The gore wasn’t there to show the trauma, wasn’t there to show how dire the situation was, it was there just to be there. And it showed.

The following chapter introduces Tobias, our main hero of the story working a field. All things considered, this was a pretty good part of the book, for the first few pages, using situational circumstances to explain who Tobias was, what his strengths were, and the kind of man he was. The problem started though when it got into the following section of that same chapter, where Tobias, despite living in this world, had to have the rules explained to him, such as what the holiday was (The Savior’s birthday), why he should be getting paid extra, why the birthday was significant, and more. This is where the cracks started to show. As a person living in this world, wouldn’t Tobias be familiar with the rules of this home land?

Because it is the Savior’s birthday, it means that she is available to be married to the greatest warrior who is able to win a tournament, and thus become the next Sovern, the leader of their realm. To quote Monty Python “that’s no way to have a system of government”, but hey, it’s fantasy. What I can’t overlook however was the fact that despite other nations being mentioned, it plays off as though this is the only one worth mentioning, and even allows for foreign participants to take part in the tournament.

I… I genuinely am having a hard time completing this review, now that I sit and write it. So, I’ll do us both a favor and explain, very briefly the plot to where I managed to get. Now, keep in mind that I DNF’d this book, so there may be plot points that are explained later that I did not get to, but I couldn’t get to them despite trying my best to do so.

Tobias’ sister was in an accident, so in order to care for his family, Tobias became a laborer in the fields and abandoned his dream job as an artist. He struggles on for a few years, his sister having normal bouts of pain and “shocks” due to her disability. Tobias knows that by entering the tournament, if he is selected, there is a 10000-gold compensation given to the families. He figures that it would help his sister to have all this money to help her with her disability (I don’t know how money is going to help her when they are still poking each other with swords but okay (I wonder if they have MRI’s in this world)).

Tobias entered the tournament and BOOM is selected, despite entering at a time where he should’ve been disqualified, despite literally thousands of others trying to sign up and be selected. Why was he allowed to enter despite being late to the sign up?

Don’t worry about it.

Come to find out, Tobias’ best friend, Milo, has also entered the tournament and was accepted. Milo, a person who’s only personality trait has been a degrading ass and little pervert of a character was chosen to be one of twenty from thousands of participants. Why?

Don’t worry about it.

Twenty people total are allowed to enter the tournament, and each is given a ‘laurel’ in place of their names, a moniker to make sure we can know who is who among the fluff characters. Tobias is named the Artist because he used to be an artist, while Milo is named the Benevolent for reasons not explained, once again because his character is practically nonexistent. Why was he named the benevolent?

Don’t worry about it

All the other fluff characters are named, and then they are all sent into an underground tunnel for a while. Within the first few minutes, our main bad guy of the book, Calao, decides to be a dick and kill one of the Randoms that we don’t care about by slamming his head into a wall. Without joking, I actually missed this part the first time around and had to re-listen to it because I was starting to wonder off mentally. Another bad guy decides to kill another random by shoving a spike through his mouth (More gore for shock factor), and they continue on. Then we get to what is supposed to be an important part…

As they approach a ‘safe room’, they see a sign that says stop. Milo wonders aloud what would happen, so Calao pushes him forward and Milo is gruesomely crushed by rocks in one of the most graphicly described scenes that we have had so far or since. This is supposed to be a gut-wrenching scene, a scene where the reader is supposed to go “Oh no! Not Milo” and all that was going through my head was “Oh for f***’s sake, just move on!”

To be fair, this was a scene where the gore is justified. The protagonist's best friend was just brutally killed in a traumatizing way, so that alone doesn't ruin the scene.

Tobias attacks Calao and the two scuffles around before being broken up. They continue about their days. Why does Calao, a person who’s demonstrated to have no qualms about killing randoms at the drop of a hat, not kill Tobias at the next opportunity and chooses to toy with him instead.

Don’t worry about it.

Are you starting to see a theme?

I don’t want to rip into this book any more than I already have. Suffice it to say that despite by best and most honest intentions, I cannot finish this book, but I will give credit where credit is due. Jenna can write a fight scene.

Right before the point where I set the book down for good, I finished the fight between Tobias and the Giant, a riveting unique fight that I was able to follow and not get bored. The reason for the fight, the setup, and the literal divine intervention needed for Tobias to win was nonsensical, but the fight itself was amazing and cleverly done with actual stakes that I cared about. It was done so well that, as the characters were returning to their cave, I was shouting out “NO! DON’T GO BACK! GIVE ME MORE OF THIS!”. Unfortunately, that was not how it ended up.

All in all, I wish I could recommend this book, but I can’t. I just can’t. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to give it a five-star review, but in truth I can’t even rate it because I was unable to finish it. So, because of this, I need to add another option to my book review scale; a DNF option.

Jenna, if you read this (I doubt it but just in case) know that this isn’t an attack on you, but I had high hopes. Obviously, your book has an audience and an enthusiastic one at that, but I’m afraid I’m not in that audience. Good luck on your next book, on your next adventure, and keep on keeping on.

-Jayde Salaset