Review: The Wakening #1 - Dawn of Wonder

Title: Dawn of WonderAuthor: Jonathan Renshaw
Year of Publication: 2015
Series: The WakeningSeries #: 1
Goodreads Rating (Avg.): 4.35
Goodreads Rating (Mine): 4

Synopsis: Aedan’s carefree life at the Badgerfield farm is rudely disrupted when Lekrau pirates attack, and kidnap his best friend Kalry. Rumours about his involvement in the attack force his family to leave their home and journey to the mighty city of Castath. Once there, he catches the eye of the great general Osric, and joins a group of students training to be Marshals of the kingdom. All the while, mysterious happenings unfold inside and outside the city, and Aedan nurses his desire for revenge against the Lekrau.

Good writing shows. It is unhurried, and care is given to the placing of every word. It is difficult to attain that balance between humour and gravity, but Renshaw manages it by quietly slipping it into even the most mundane of sentences, making the reading experience even more pleasant. There is then no doubt that Jonathan Renshaw is a good writer. Thought goes into the development of his characters, and the narrative matches the protagonist, showing us only what would be obvious through the eyes of a teenage boy.

I’m a sucker for good fantasy, for good coming-of-age novels, and Dawn of Wonder is both. The world building is ambitious, but does not ring hollow. Renshaw promises us a mighty world, and fulfills that promise to the reader’s satisfaction. The plot does not stretch itself thin despite its sheer scope, and battle scenes, personal growth and the concept of family are all given equal importance, equally well written.

Far too often, authors writing from a male perspective write female characters badly. Kevin Hearne is a painful example of this phenomenon, but not Renshaw. Kalry is a delight to read, for what little time she appears in the book, and her role is taken over by Liru soon after. The women are well rounded and cannot be reduced to mere stereotypes, nor does the book imply that only the women who train as warriors have strength worth considering.

Renshaw tackles subjects like abusive relationships, intimate partner violence and PTSD with enlightened sensitivity, and with as much competence as he uses to describe intense training regimens, and student camaraderie. Aedan’s friends at the training academy are as fleshed out as the length and depth of this book allow them to be – they are clearly primed to break out as main characters by the time the sequel rolls around. I found the description of Peashot’s kleptomania especially endearing.

The treatment of abusive relationships in particular caught my eye. Aedan is an incredibly intelligent strategist and a talented fighter. Yet, he freezes up in certain situations, unable to use the tools at his disposal to fight back. When this happens in the middle of his first battle – with Liru being severely injured as a consequence – the soldiers around him take the time to understand why, and to talk to him about how he can work to overcome it. Ashamed of what he thought of as cowardice, Aedan had kept this proclivity a secret, earning him a reputation as a weakling among his enemies and the bullies around. His relationship with his abusive father too is depicted as complicated – both Aedan and his mother are aware of how much his father’s violence has affected them. His mother in particular berates herself of having been unable to adequately protect her son, but when Klauman abandons them, they both hope against hope that he will return. Following Aedan as he processes his desire for his father’s approval, and as he comes to terms with the fact that he may never receive it, is cathartic.

Harriet, a family friend who protects mother and son from the abuse of the father, is a similarly interesting minor character. She carries no malice, and certainly seems to care for Aedan’s mother a lot. However, Harriet is overbearing and controlling around Aedan, frequently expressing the opinion that without utmost adherence to her dictates, he would end up a failure or a wastrel. While Harriet gives Aedan the greatest physical care in her power, she is emotionally abusive to him, and the first quarter of the book shows Aedan struggling to throw off the chains that bind him to both his father as well as to Harriet.

The mythology of Dawn of Wonder deals with aspects of divinity, somehow connected to the appearance of giant beasts. Unfortunately, as is often the case with careful writers, the second book is still a WIP, 4 years after the release of the first. But it is definitely a sequel I will be keeping an eye out for.