Review - Xor: The Shape of Darkness by Moshe Sipper

Xor: The Shape of Darkness by Moshe Sipper
Released: March 24, 2012
Publisher: CreateSpace
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 296 pages
Format: Paperback
Source: Author
Rating: 3/5
Author Site: Moshe Sipper

On his twelfth birthday Lewis Nash comes home from school to find that his house has blown up to smithereens, killing his father. Having lost his mother in an accident four years earlier, Lewis realizes he is now an orphan — but he has no time to dwell on it. The moment he gets off the school bus a fearsome wolf-man tries to grab him. The boy is saved in the nick of time by Master Long, who reveals to him that he’s a Shaper from a place called Xor, which is being devoured by the Realm Pirates.

The preface and beginning lured me in quickly with lots of promise of a whirlwind of a tale but after my initial excitement, sadly the magic wore off for me. I was onboard up until the point that all the world building and training took place but it was just too descriptive for me and where I began to lose interest.

Lewis had been whisked away to Xor after coming home to find his adoptive parents home blown up and his father perished and told he now was the only person who could save this strange new world and his birth parents but nobody knew how to really train him so basically time was running out and the blind was leading the blind so to speak and Lewis's sadness over losing his adoptive parents was really interferring with what training he was getting but gosh I can't imagine having to save a planet and family I knew nothing about when my own world had just come crashing down around me either!

The story in itself was a good one and I do recommend to middle graders or anybody who loves fantasy to read it but I think it lacked the action I was craving and in need of.