Osea: an Isarine story

Frightened about the future and left to a life of struggle without her family, Osea joins a group of ambitious students at West Camp to fight her way to the top. The Academy is everything to the group of eight, who have mostly been victims of a harsh fate, the Kingdom, or the Monarch. They go through the rigorous tasks of dueling, training, and studying, knowing that only half of them will continue to the Academy. Every day, they practice their magic and combat skills to be better and rank highly among their competitive peers. Does Osea have what it takes to make it to the next level while maintaining her sanity? Osea: an Isarine Story by S.E.T. is an action-packed young adult fantasy that’s woven around a group of strong-willed characters and their daunting quests in a dystopian world.

The action scenes in Osea: an Isarine Story are absolutely stunning. Similar to epic action movies like The Karate Kid, the book presents a continuous display of fighting skills in training sessions and combat competitions. Furthermore, the author’s descriptive words allow readers to follow the action closely. As swords break shields and blades collide, the reader feels the intensity of the fights closely, which are often depicted from a first-person viewpoint. The action is even more impressive when you consider the book’s riveting magical themes. Imagine freezing a target’s mouth with the flick of a wrist.

Osea’s background story and her emotional connection to her past allow readers to effortlessly connect with her deep emotions and goals. The pain she feels for the loss of her sister and her desire for vengeance feel genuine, as her emotions are communicated with raw, unfiltered intensity, like when she blinks her eyes open but can’t because “the pain overwhelmed me as they clamped shut again.”

Unfortunately, the fights got tedious after a while, because the pages that focus on them take up a good portion of the book. Also, several pages include multiple characters and often appear to be overly busy. I wished more scenes portrayed and maintained the relationships between a few characters instead of constantly relating what several characters are up to at once. I didn’t enjoy continuously seeing different names, like Maji, Osea, Aargo, and Ari, within a few lines.

Overall, I loved the book’s sensational characters, their amazing magical abilities, and their combat skills. However, I wasn’t comfortable with its monotonous scenes, and I wished more pages showed more close relationships and fewer group conversations. I look forward to seeing more projects by the author. This richly nuanced, imaginative, and stimulating young adult tale proves S.E.T. is a very creative writer with a lot of potential.