Triad by Guy Estes is a fantasy novel about three gifted people called Chosen. The Chosen are rarely born and there have never been three born at the same time before. They are gifted with long life, beauty, and a major and minor talent. In Triad two of the chosen are born with a major talent of the warrior and one of a sorcerer. One of the Chosen is destined to be taken, another exiled, and the third driven mad.
Triad focuses mostly on Aleena the Chosen warrior destined to be taken. Her journey through the badlands and back home again acts as the perfect metaphor for her personal journey and struggles. Aleena starts as a young girl riddled with guilt and unable to cope with her powers as Chosen. By the time she reaches home again she is a confident warrior woman who embraces what she is.
Aleena meets her Chosen warrior brother Anlon on her journey and their relationship is rocky to say the least. Anlon is headstrong and can’t control his temper. Everything is there for Anlon’s taking, or at least that’s what Anlon thinks. After the two part ways in a very disappointing way for Anlon he can’t let it go. From that point on everything in Anlon’s life is about hunting down Aleena for revenge.
Beazha is the third Chosen sister whose main talent is sorcery. Her presence is felt early in the book but she isn’t formally introduced until the book is nearly over. She seeks out Aleena after seeing visions of her brother’s conquests and destruction. Beazha’s secondary talent is that of the warrior which makes her a formidable foe. When the pair combines it takes overwhelming numbers to capture them. At Anlon’s fortress Beazha must face his sorcerer while Aleena deals with Anlon. It’s an all out fight with good coming out on top.
Triad has all the making of an epic fantasy with dragons, sorcerers, and ugly beasts. The world is magical and believable. Estes has a knack for world building and imagery that makes you want to turn pages. The same illustrative powers tend to get him into trouble and the descriptions bog down the story at times and I found myself skipping some of them.
If you like action this book has it in scores. Aleena and Anlon killed more people than an army. Most of the action sequences were well written with a few exceptions that were hard to follow. Unfortunately, one of those was the final battle between Anlon and Aleena. The main characters felt like restless spirits that were never content unless a sword was in hand. I’m sure this was intentional on the authors part however, it got somewhat tedious.
There were a couple loose ends in the book that were never addressed and even seemed ignored for convenience sake. Honestly the first didn’t have to be there at all and the plot would not have suffered. Aleena’s parents had some mysterious ailment while she was gone and an evil aunt swooped in to “care” for them. When Aleena returns they suddenly recover. It was never said if the aunt was to blame or some other cause. Second, Aleena earns the power of the dragon and never fully learns to control it. Seems like a wasted tool for a warrior.
Triad has realism and plenty of raw emotion that isn’t always seen in epic fantasy. A few hard to follow action sequences and tedious descriptions were detraction from the story. The plot was well thought out and the series has potential, so I am giving this book 3.5 stars.Overall if you want an action packed novel with plenty of violence and some gore this is the book for you.
If you want to find out more about Guys Estes or his work find him on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6207574.Guy_E_Estes
R. Tran Books 