Breach in the Watershed

by Douglas Niles

Reviewed by Ruby

To be completely honest, I was kind of confused throughout most of this novel. There are three lands that each have their own unique liquid. The humans have water; the magical land of Faerine has Aura (which has healing properties) and the evil land of Duloth-Trol has Darkblood (which is poisonous to everybody else). There is something called the Watershed that is supposed to keep the three lands and- more importantly- the three liquids separate. Only the crown prince of the humans (Garamis) has destroyed the Watershed under the instruction of Nicodareus, a high ranking member of the Duloth-Trol army. Now the evil minions are in the land of the humans and stirring up trouble, bringing with them gallons of Darkblood which is seeping into the water supply. The only ones who can stop him are a handful of unlikely heroes thrown together by fate. I am not exaggerating when I say that either. One of the characters actually says he is following his destiny and there isn`t any other reason I can think of other than ‘fate’ for Rudy to be carting around his young niece for the entire adventure.

It isn’t that confusing when written out like that but when you start to think about it, it makes no sense. Why did Nicodareus need the Watershed broken when people seemed to pass at their own will? Why was Garamis listening to Nicodareus? Why did he want to kill his own people? Why did he want to start a war with the Faerine? Why did he hate his brother? Why was Rudy dragging his young niece around? Why was there water in all three lands if it was just a human thing? None of it made any sense whatsoever. Garamis had absolutely no motivation and there was no logic behind any of his actions. If we are supposed to believe that he is just an evil person then the author failed at that too.

Everything was just so clunky that it was hard to find believable. Even the style of writing sounded forced and awkward for most of the book. I ended up skimming the last hundred pages or so because I just wanted to get to the end. I don’t see me continuing on with the series.

Grade: D