Review of EMPIRE PALADIN

[Nathaniel Owolabi]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "EMPIRE PALADIN" by M.S. Valdez.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Empire Paladin is a book that has its plot set in a time which is about a thousand years ago. The story began with a chapter titled “Prelude to the Death of a Paladin”. This chapter is very captivating and entertaining. If there is ever a great way to begin a book M.S. Valdez achieved that with the first chapter of this book, albeit a preface.

This book is of the historical fiction genre, and It features several topics. One thing that makes it such a good read is the way it takes subjects that readers would likely not have considered to be in the same books and mixes them up. I was not expecting to be reading about zombies in the same book where there is much talk about the Roman church, the pope, and medieval Europe.

Paladins are knights who were ordained by the Roman church, and the self-righteous Lady Camila Chastaine is among this order of knights. Due to the fact that this was a time when the Roman Empire ruled most of the world, she was assigned to Austria to defend the realm.

The high priestess Savina Lourdes is a member of the Roman Church and so is Supreme Commander Lord Ian Arkon, one of the leaders of the paladin order. The priestess is against the paladin order and would love nothing more than to see them disbanded. However, this is not the only conflict of interest that exists in this book. The late Pope Gregory IX excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, before his death. This made Emperor Frederick react by attacking papal states. This caused anarchy and lawlessness; however, there were other internal problems going on in the church due to the death of the pope. The church was having problems appointing a successor.

The commotion caused by these situations led to the brutal massacre of a village. This would have been just another village marauded among many others but for the fact that one of the paladins had his family living there. Lord Vhaldrynn Malleus is the paladin who lost his entire family to a marauding party, and in his grief he renounced his role as a paladin and became hellbent on destroying all of God's creation. This is the beginning of the chronicle of the “Lord of the dead”.

In addition to what I have written above, I really loved the inclusion of a map at the beginning of this book. It helps the readers understand the lay of the land much better. This makes it easy to follow each plot as it travels around medieval Europe. This book was also professionally edited, and I was unable to find any errors.

Before writing this paragraph, I had to think really hard. This book is so flawless, and that makes it almost impossible to find a fault. However, while this does not bother me, I believe some readers might be bothered by the vulgar content it contains; even though it is not overly vulgar.

This book has taken a spot at the very top of my list of great fictional books. It also claims the first spot on my list of great historical fiction books. It has unique characters, a captivating storyline, and a professionally constructed plot. Not only that, but it is among the absolute best out there and therefore gets a 4 out of 4 stars rating from me.

I recommend this book to people who love reading historical fiction, fiction, and action.

******
EMPIRE PALADIN
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Apple 7]

Top notch, action packed review........thanks for the nice write up

[leonard cavallaro]

I am a great fan of historical fiction but I have a preference for YA. Thanks for the review!

[Ekezie1998]

Quite an intriguing storyline here. Would definitely love to have this book on my shelves. Great review.