4 Star Reviews
Newest first
31st May 2013
This read takes you into a new world and a new way to look at it. The world is built on ice and long distance travel just is not in the stars here, so when a couple of twins show up from a far away land they are held as unusual and find themselves in a situation they could not have imagined. With their father having been killed in the wreckage and no one left to watch over them and tell them what to do life becomes a challenge and a mystery to them. they must unravel not only their lives both the lives of those around them. won on library thing for review.
30th March 2013
Hexult by Perry Aylen, this is an Enjoyable, quick read by a new author. This book is marketed to the young adult crown but even adult will enjoy this book. This adventure take place around two remarkable young people who has lost their father, Elya and Jacob, 15 year old twins, Aulf and Ingar find the twins and they adventure begin. This book is a book that I would think would be a good added to summer read for those in the 5th thru 9th grade.
21st March 2013
Cool!
I received the product free of charge in exchange for an honest review. Hexult by Perry Aylen is marketed as a young adult book, but don't be fooled. While it took some time to orient myself in this new and chilly world, the world has much potential. Reading this book is like browsing in a foreign market; colorful and filled with a variety of remarkable people. When a boat crash kills their father, Elya and Jacob, 15-year-old twins, are stranded in Hexult, a loose federation of island city-states on the brink of civil war. The twins know "advanced technology" and many citizens of Hexult consider them wizards. The two of them try better communication and new devices to reduce tensions between the islands. The part I liked best in this book was the ice itself. Hexult is unique from other worlds; a series of islands set in oceans of ice. While there are many things that the reader is expected to take on faith (for instance, all he islands are heated from below) it has beautiful descriptions of the terrain. Moreover, the place has a personality, a "soul", some of the characters considered it to have a name: Vajra.
I thought the ending was abrupt, perhaps not a cliffhanger, but certainly didn't wrap up the problems completely. Perhaps this is to leave room for a sequel. Alternatively, like in real life, there always will be another adventure waiting. People who like the realms of Diana Wynne Jones and enjoy reading about enterprising young people taking on the problems of their world would certainly find Hexult a good read.
14th March 2013
Good Read
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. I think a sequel is in order, and I would definitely recommend this book to others. I was reading it to my 5 year old and he enjoyed it as well. Great young adult story!
2nd November 2012
Interesting world of mystery
I liked this book a lot. Set in a world that may be fantasy or may be a distopian future (you never really know WHERE or WHEN on earth this is), the story moves at a fairly rapid pace as you follow the adventures of two teens orphaned in a society different and less technologically advanced than their own. The society and living conditions of the people stuck on a world of mostly ice and rock is interesting and internally consistant. The characters are well-portrayed and their reactions to the newcomers are very real: interest, superstitious dread, attempts to exploit them. I'm looking forward to the sequel explaining more about the world and what happens to the various characters.
11th July 2012
Thawing relations
A well-written rather pedestrian (considering the possibilities in the scenario) romp over the ice. The characters are well drawn and youngsters should find them endearing. Nice to find a book where science rather than pure fantasy or magic takes centre stage. Not sure about some of the cold world science but it is easy enough to suspend disbelief for it to work okay.
Seems as if the reason the ice tower was built, as look-out post for raiders, somehow got forgotten since it failed in this role.
There's Goodies and Baddies, prejudice, injustice etc. to keep YA interest and it rolls along at a decent pace. A touch of young romance might have added a dimension. The clean, clear writing is good enough to make it worth recommending to young teens.
1st April 2012
What a wonderful surprise!
What a wonderful surprise! I thoroughly enjoyed venturing into this new, exciting, and dangerous world. The characters are well thought out and just downright likeable. You can't help but be swept away by the action and the emotion of this story. I will admit I am a bit above the target age range of 12-15, but found the book both held my attention and made me wish the sequel was ready to read. I will be eagerly awaiting Hexult 2 and praise the author for creating a world that is fun to get lost in. Give it a try, you'll be glad you did.
12th February 2012
Review by Madame Diotte
An original premise, good character development, and lots of action make this a truly enjoyable read! You will love getting to know Aulf, Ingar, Jacob, and Elya in this unusual adventure! Great for teens and adults alike!
4th January 2012
Review by killie81
"Hexult" by Perry Aylen is an enjoyable adventure story with the shadings of a post-apocalyptic and dystopian tone. It is firmly aimed at the earlier end of the young adults market although I believe that even younger children will also enjoy having this light and easy going story read to them. The genre of this story was am interesting aspect as I had to decide on if I would call this Science-Fiction or Fantasy. However, as the premise appears to imply the story is set in the Earth at an undefined future date I decided just to lean towards classing this as a Science-Fiction novel.
The story is set on a world where the temperature has dropped substantially and is now mainly covered in ice and people now use boats adapted to slide across the ice rather than sail upon water. On this world there is the land of Hexult which is a collection of islands that poke out of the ice, the islands are kept habitable thanks to the heating effects of various elements of geothermal activity.
When, Aulf a mailman and his crew member, Ingar discover a wreck on the ice they find two survivors, mysterious twins named Jacob and Elya who claim to have come from a land far across the frozen wasteland. These two youngsters have an understanding of science far beyond that of those on the islands and this science is soon mistaken for magic by a people who have forgotten much of the knowledge that may have been known in the past. Very soon, the twins find themselves the centre of fearsome prophecy and their attempts to save both their lives and reputation leads them on an adventure across the frozen wastes to all corners of the Hexult island chain.
I have to admit that I am well past the target age group for this novel but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it as the plot was engaging and moved at a decent rate. The world that has been created by the author is imaginative and exciting although I will say that it was a shame that it felt like the surface has only just been scratched. I now hope that in the proposed sequel we get to uncover even more about this interesting place and the people who live there.
One element I really appreciated was the various utilisations of knowledge and technology thrown into the book regarding things such as compasses, steel, ice lenses, mirrors, etc. I can actually envision children reading this novel and then asking their parents or teachers more about the interesting elements contained. I myself actually went and read up a little bit more on steel production and its history after reading "Hexult". Any book that can inspire the search for more information and knowledge in either me or others is a great thing in my opinion.
I found the main characters to all be rather endearing and there was an innocence present that was quite nice to behold. It really helps to draws you in so that you actually care about them and wish them on to succeed in their various endeavours. However, it did feel like there was something lacking a little in the characters to make them feel fully rounded. Basically, the large amount of innocence present within the various people in the story meant that it was hard to see any other elements personality, especially in regards to charisma. Even some of the various leaders in the isles just seemed to be missing a spark that I would have expected to see. It doesn't spoil the story but it just meant that the characters feel slightly unreal to me.
Overall, this was an enjoyable and interesting adventure story that should appeal to most young readers. I fully intend to read it with my own children when they are old enough to understand it and hopefully it will inspire some interest in the science and technology utilised in the novel. If you are a younger reader who wants to read something different form the current trend in vampires, zombies, etc. then you should give this a try.
4th November 2011
There are several great descriptions of the story on here. I will add that it is a lovely epic for early teens. I have to add that I really enjoyed the story and it would make a good "chapter" book, as each chapter added something to the story. I look forward to seeing more written in the Hexult world.
21st October 2011
Hexult
This was an enjoyable read. The genre is only very loosely science fiction (I would hesitate to even call it as loosely). I would describe this as a YA fantasy adventure with suggestions of post apocalyptic and dystopian tones. Even though it wasn't the genre I was expecting, I enjoyed the story very much. I think this would be a great read for children as it should keep their attention but would also provide some very important lessons.
I was happy about the message but also pleased that the author created believable characters that were fairly well developed. It was also nice that the ending wasn't wrapped up in a nice tidy bow- yes the story took care of the bulk of loose ends but not specifically with an unrealistic "happy ever after".
How was this relatively short book able to encompass tones of dealing with politics, superstition, irrationality, science and prejudice all wrapped up in an adventure story? Well- to find out that I would recommend reading it.
7th October 2011
Sample only - Extensive and atmospheric
I didn't know what I expected from the title and the cover (which, by the way, looks very good on the Kindle, as does the 'Part 1' image page), but it wasn't really this. The story is like an icy mixture of Mad Max, Waterworld, The Postman, Icelandic sagas and a few of Jules Verne's old Winter Amid the Ice type tales, but not really like any of them and better than most. It started off a little slowly, but by the time I finished the sample, I really wanted to read on, despite this not really being my favourite genre. I think kids aged 10-15 would love it, and many adults would give this 5 stars too. Very good.
6th October 2011
when's the sequel out?
This story is great and I like the characters; Grim, the blacksmith, is my favourite and I also really like Elya and Isambard. The story is exciting with the raiders and interesting. Sailing on ice sounds cool. I like books that have more in a series too. E.E.M. age 10
3rd October 2011
Action, adventure and fantasy all rolled into one!
I love a good fantasty novel, especially as I'm one of those people who can imagine themselves in the places described in a book and I had no problems in doing so with this one. The text is so richly descriptive and highly imaginative that I found I could picture everything with clarity, from the Varja Crevasse and on to the wonderfully named Islands of Orking Do, Quayven and Pelago (among others!). With regards to this, perhaps the only issue I had with this novel was that there was a lot of new terms and places to absorb and at first I found myself struggling to take it all in, but by the time I was further into the novel and place names and people had been repeated I found that it had all sunk in, so much so that even with the huge gap in reading this book due to my broken kindle, I was able to remember names of places and people with ease when I went to finish it.
For those who love your adventure and magic (erm science, I mean) this is also an adventure story with a twist and I found myself laughing on occasion at the citizens of Hexult who, in the bigger part, drove me nuts with their superstitions, and I found myself wanting to yell at them all. One of the things that I quickly came to wonder was if the seas did rise and the world froze over and people forgot about science and common sense, would we go back to believing such things as magic, prophecy and judging people on such things? Or would we at least retain some of our knowledge? To me it would feel like a step backwards, but reading this book, it makes complete sense, because it would be quite easy in the absence of knowledge to revert to a very medieval attitude.
All that aside, the trips across the ice coupled with the fights, the raiding and the fantastical buildings that are created captured my imagination with ease and had my heart racing in some instances and I was left fascinated by some of the ideas and by the simple thought that it only takes a small group of people to change the world, even in the face of so much adversity and superstition. Character wise I loved the twins and how they dealt with the situation they were dropped into despite everything that was against them and I got rather attached to Aulf and Ingar too so I will definitely be reading the sequel to this to find out what happens next.
If your looking for something different to read give this a go, you won't be disappointed.
24th September 2011
Are You Looking for a Book for Your Tween?
What a exciting change from the vampires and werewolves I have been reading lately. This book was a wonderful and entertaining adventure. Hexult is the story of two teens who are shipwrecked and saved. They are brought to a land where they are very different from the people around them. They are attacked verbally and physically due to fear and ignorance. The teens bring with them knowledge and information on how to build helpful items that are considered "magic".
I am always looking for a lesson learned and this story has a few. Perry expertly weaves in a lesson about predjudice. We learn along with the characters that just because someone or something is different doesn't make it "bad". Secondly, there were bits of science woven throughout the story. I found myself wanting to build an ice tower!
This story is aimed at ages 12-15 but I believe that it can be read aloud to younger children. Even adults will like it. Although it took me a chapter or two before I "got into" the story once I was in I didn't go to bed until I finished the book!
11th August 2011
This book has a very unique plot. I really liked this new world that the author created. The characters were also very unique and interesting.
At some points throughout the story, though, it was kind of hard to tell where the story was heading and what the purpose was, but the ending was great. I really hope this is part of a series.