Illborn is an exceptional start to a fantasy series, full of memorable POVs, exciting world building, and well-paced plot. From the gripping prologue to the fantastic conclusion, this is top tier fantasy!

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

This was really good! Loved the world building, and getting to know each of the main characters. Good pacing, and the jumps between characters didn't get too confusing. I am definitely going to be watching for the next book!

This was a very engaging epic fantasy. The multiple points of view kept the story moving along at a good pace and the world building was well fleshed out. I occasionally found myself bored with how wordy certain descriptions were, but that seems to be the nature of epic fantasy.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review!

I was given a free e-copy of Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson (author), Troubadour (publisher), and Net Galley. Illborn is the first book in the Illborn Saga.

This review will be spoiler free.

I would characterize Illborn as epic fantasy with multiple povs.

The world-building is a strength of this story. Mr. Jackson creates a well-developed world with distinct cities, cultures, and political intrigue. The setting appears to be something akin to medieval setting.

The magic system is revealed bit by bit throughout the part of the story I read. Each of the four main characters appear to have an innate magic ability and dealing with new powers derived from the magic. A religious organization investigates, tries, and punishes people who allegedly use magic. This organization is in close proximity two of the four main characters and these characters are trying to ensure the organization does not learn about their abilities.

The story has four main characters: two young women and two young men. I think their ages range from late teens to early twenties. I thought the main characters were two-dimensional and flat. It appeared to me that each of the main characters were not making choices nor being active, but more reacting and responding.

I was taken out of the story several times because I thought it is too wordy, more telling than showing, and repetitive. Most of the action was described in narrative text and I felt that I did not have an emotional connection to the story or the characters.

While I read the story, I thought there was no overall plot or story arc to the novel.

As a result of not identifying with the main characters and not engaging with the story, I stopped reading at fifty-two percent of the novel.

I rate Illborn 2 stars.

I would like to thank Mr. Jackson, Troubadour, and Net Galley for the free ARC.

Received arc from Matador and Netgalley for honest read and review.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read that had me hooked from the beginning.

Centres around four main characters who obtain supernatural abilities that help them in their forthcoming quest to save their kingdom.
This book had everything and had me hooked from the start,really excellent characters,especially Agbeth who was brilliant.
Will definitely read more from author in future especially there is more in this series.

Thank you to Matador and Netgalley for providing me with ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HIDDEN GEM ALERT!
I just love when it happens that I come across such a great book!
And I can safely say that I have a new favorite author in the face of Daniel T. Jackson!
The world building is so rich and immersing, with a full backstory of the world and what led to the events happening in the present.
We follow the story via four POVs and every character have his own distinctive “voice” and feel, which is an ambitious undertaking, but it was amazingly made!
Every POV fits like a piece from a puzzle….or more accurately said like a game of chess that you see unfold by your eyes and everything comes together!
Arion,Corin,Allana and Leanna, all of them have the same persisting dream that haunt their sleep. Over time, they start to remember more of that dream and start to seek answers….why they have that dream, why they started to develop strange powers, and what is the purpose of that given power?
Alas, they don't have much time to ponder on all of that because, as it turned out, they are hunted as heretics for the same reason.
Trying to survive, to figure out the grand picture of all the surrounding strangeness…and seeing that they are not alone in this fight, and they are stronger together.
This book is the first of many I hope because it's the tip of the iceberg of that remarkable story and truly can't wait for the next book.

One of my favourite reads of 2021!

I finished reading Illborn 30 minutes ago, and I am trying to summarise how I feel about this book. Illborn is simply put...FANTASTIC! It has been a while since a story has gripped and consumed me like Illborn. I don’t think that I will justify how much I enjoyed this book in a single review, but I will try my best to convince everyone to pick up this book.

Firstly, the character work is astonishing. Illborn follows four different main characters who all start to develop supernatural abilities. These magical abilities are strictly forbidden and add an element of chaos to the lives of these characters. It is rare for me to enjoy all the POVs when a book focuses on multiple characters. However, Daniel T. Jackson made me feel engaged and immersed in all four plotlines. Each character’s arc is exciting, impactful and gripping! I was emotionally invested in each plotline, which made reading this book so much more intense and riveting. The ending of this book is fantastic, and the epilogue shocked me!

The world-building is also terrific. Illborn is set in a medieval world, which is threatened by war and religious persecution. I loved seeing the impact religion had on society and how the religious authorities were abusing the faith to further their own interest. However, Jackson never blames religion itself for being the reason for corruption or abuse of power. It is human beings twisting religion who are at fault – not the religion itself. Having religion as a central theme is always tricky, but Jackson handles this theme masterfully.

Illborn emotionally gripped me from the first chapter. There were several moments in this book that made my heart ache or made me gasp. Although this is a thick book at 700+ pages, there was not a chapter that I didn’t enjoy. Finishing this book instantly gave me a book hangover which is quite rare! It is quite remarkable that this is Daniel T. Jackson’s debut! Illborn is, without a doubt, one of my favourite reads of 2021.

Illborn is criminally underrated at the moment. If you are a fan of epic fantasy, then Illborn is a must-read!

5 / 5

The concept here was pretty interesting and the back-cover blurb was good enough to hook me. For a debut novel, it was not too bad … but it was not very good either. The opening scene starts with an encounter between a priest/witch hunter and a child with mysterious abilities that apparently are something of a threat to the established church (which is a dead ringer for the Catholic Church with a mashup of inquisition and crusades). What this threat is remains a mystery for the entire story (why are they hunted as heretics) … in fact … I can’t really identify what the main plot conflict actually is, other than 4 POV just trying to survive the world trying to kill them (and we never find out why; although they are apparently linked by a recurring dream that the author felt needed to be repeated nearly work for word ad nauseam). Without an identifiable plot conflict, you can’t really expect any resolution at the end right … which is what you get; a story that just sort of ends with just as many questions as it started with … except all the pieces have been moved on the board a little.

I had a tough time connecting to any of the four (4) main characters … they, just like the supporting characters, seemed pretty one dimensional and interactions too mechanical to make them natural or realistic. In fact, the only one to which I had any interest in was the priestess … just barely. The powers themselves were interesting, but they were revealed rather awkwardly with very little nuance or finesse (and they started to overlap toward the end … which for some reason didn’t seem right). There is potential for a great story in the guts of this story, it just hasn’t been fleshed out very well yet.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#ILLBORN #NetGalley

Despite being a 600+ page chonker of a book, this was a fast paced and engaging medieval esque fantasy. The four pov charcaters were well developed and sympathetic. The story was well plotted and the usual fantasy tropes were given fresh life here. I’m not a huge fan of cliff hanger ending but it worked well here – for one book. If every book in the series does this it might be a different matter. I look forward to seeing how the book progresses.

4/5

Thank you to the publishers for sending me this arc through NetGalley!
Illborn was an action-packed adult fantasy with a cast of enjoyable characters. One of my favorite things in books are multiple POVs and the author did this well. Each character's POV added something useful and memorable to their storyline that left me frustrated (in a good way) at the end of every chapter.
I thought the magic system in this book was pretty unique and I'm excited to see it develop further!

The beginning of the book immediately grabbed me and caught me off guard! Although, I'm not going to lie, getting into the story was a little tough because it felt a little slow. But, I chalk that up to world-building and character introductions, especially because once I got into the story, the pace picked up.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book and found it pretty impressive for a debut novel. I'll be keeping an eye out for the next book.

Excuse my word choice but just HOLY F*** this book is incredible.

I just finished it and my brain is just going crazy at the cliffhanger at the end. HOW COULD YOU DO ME LIKE THAT. (In a good way)

This book has four incredibly developed characters who all start to develop strange powers when they become of age. While all of the characters live insanely different lives, there is a dystopian like background based around a common, extremely intense religion.

The development of this entire universe, religion, and just overall story, is incredible. I am in shock that this is Daniel Jackson's debut novel. Have you ever read a book that you knew was destined to be something great, something that becomes iconic? That was how I felt reading this book. This is the kind of book that will last the testament of time.

If you love epic fantasy that you can really dive into, this is a book for you. The writing is incredible, and I had ALL the emotions while reading this. There were multiple times where I audibly gasped or reacted intensely IN PUBLIC because of this book.

I am so excited for the next book in the series. I also really feel like this is the kind of book that would appeal to a wide variety of audiences. It really is something special.

Thank you Matador and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book. This in no way affected my review.

This was an interesting read. The cover and description intrigued me. With Illborn being a debut novel the world was intriguing and the magic system was great. The differing POVs throughout the book was great as the different POVs allowed for a greater understanding of the world. The characters were great and my favourite were Corin and Agbeth. I will definitely read more from Daniel T Jackson in the future.

Illborn by Daniel Jackson is very well written and interesting to read. It has a great plot and does a good job of keeping readers interested in the novel. It does jump around more than I personally like but I understand why all the parts are important for the reader to know and understand the characters. I found it difficult to follow due to all the different perspectives and keeping track of each character and remembering their back story was somewhat difficult.

Sitting here, trying to write this review, and my brain is just making noises that my fingers don't know how to translate into letters that make any kind of sense. "Illborn" is flipping fantastic! The setting and characters are solid and richly constructed. The writing is astonishing. The plot is far more than enjoyable - it's all-consuming. Pack a survival kit for this one because you are not going to want to stop after you start reading... and this is only the beginning!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Disclosures are required. First, I received a free advance copy of the book via #Netgalley, and they expect an honest review in return. Too many negative reviews, and my requests for an advance copy via Netgalley may well be disregarded by some authors. This isn't a glowing review, but its not a negative, either. Second disclosure - I tend tend to favor books with strong religious undertones, much less overtones. Narnia, for instance, I found to be a punishing, painful read.

The summary of this book intrigued me, and I was between other readings, so I figured I'd give it a try. That brings us here.

tl;dr - Its 3 1/2 stars, a decent read, surprisingly good for a new author. Under other circumstances, I might have paid for the book and not been disappointed in the price. Certainly plan to read the next in the series.

Longer - the good, the bad, and the ugly. On the positive side, there's an interesting magical system, not the typical Vancian blah-blah, or some variety of Elemental magicians. The system isn't explained, its rules rather loose seemingly, but none of the characters (even those capable of magic) seem to understand it either. Even the societies in this book can't agree on what to call those marked with magic, or how best to employ their unique talents. Characters, and there are many, are complicated creations not wholly good or evil, changing believably in response to temptation, tragedy, and travails before them, A decent amount of character growth in places, though spread between a number of focus characters.

On more neutral footing, the book opens to an inexplicable scene, coming full circle at its conclusion, yet devoting almost nothing of explanation along the way. The story's "hook" has no line attached, and readers expecting some solution to that mystery will likely be disappointed. The riddle is answered in shadows, we see the shape of the thing, but no real detail. At other points, the author offers much needless explanation from inside a focus character's head. I needed less guidance to infer their feelings, but perhaps other readers will benefit.

The ugly. Character arcs in the work are imbalanced, showing more - or less - development to various players along the way, spending many pages on characters that, frankly, aren't very likeable and become less complex in their motivations with time. Perhaps this merely establishes their descent into darkness, the first steps of the redemption arc of later books, but it does leave the reader feeling incomplete at the conclusion of the work, too many threads left hanging for the next novel. The religious was overt, not undertones, but rather in your face symbolism, impossible to ignore. If that's your thing, great. Its not mine.

I was completely and utterly blown away by this debut fantasy. Jackson is a master storyteller sucking me in from the prologue. This book has all the makings of high fantasy without the need to drone on for pages about how the sunset looked on a particular night. The dialogue and the style of writing was absolutely brilliant. I honestly can’t believe this is a debut. Illborn reads like a well established experience writer. Switching soo many points of view usually leads me to not have a string of attachments to characters however this has the opposite effect. It was done superbly and has me reading long into the night because i just did not want to stop reading.

I do believe Corin and Agbeth have taken place as my favorites. Seeing as they were the underdogs who have to overcome soo many obstacles. Allana I am on the fence about as well as Arion… but time will tell. Leannas story was heart wrenching and my pulse was pounding towards the end of this book soo hard I was sure others could hear it.

Needless to say I 100% would recommend everyone who enjoys fantasy to pick this one up immediately. Give this author all of the support he needs. Because you will immediately need the next book in this series… I honestly do not know how I will possibly be able to wait for the next one.

Another great read and great new name in fantasy. This is crazy how many pop out in the recent years! This one as amazing characters, great world and very immersive and engaging story! I will continue on this series. Don't know how long I will have to way but I will be here waiting!