Title: The Warminster Series: The Last Keeper
Author: JV Hilliard
Publisher: Dragon Moon Press
Publication Date: 2022
The Last Keeper is the first book in JV Hilliard’s high fantasy Warminster Series.
The novel follows three main characters who separately must journey across the dangerous and politically volatile country:
Daemus Alaric is a young human man and the titular ‘Last Keeper’. Daemus is a Seer, with the most powerful Sight in his order. After he receives visions of the Fallen Keeper Greytorris, Daemus must return home before evil finds him.
Addilyn Elspeth is a vermillion elf and a highborn lady. The daughter of an ambassador, Addilyn receives a dark omen and hastens to warn the kingdom of the danger they are all in.
Ritter Valkeneer is proud of his half elf/half human linage. He is a skilled warrior and able to see through the eyes of his falcon. Ritter unwillingly becomes involved in the politics of court after successful defeating a group of bandits.
As Warminster is a brand new world I think Hilliard made a smart choice by separating his characters. It was exciting whenever one character mentioned a location that another character was close to – such as the Ghostwood seen in the prologue. This constant reference to locations gave the world a strong sense of depth and built the anticipation of the main trio finally meeting.
The novel starts well with an intriguing and action-packed prologue that introduces us to the series’ overarching antagonists of Greytorris and the bestial Antlered Man. As the story progresses Hilliard ensures that each chapter contains an important moment. There are no filler chapters which means to plot is continually moving at a good pace. The flow to the narrative makes the story easy and fairly quick to read despite its 400 page length.
One place where is novel does falter is through its over use of side characters. Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective – often Daemus, Addilyn or Ritter – however a large portion of the narrative is shown through the eyes of secondary characters. Hilliard clearly loves the world he has created and it’s great that he wanted to share as much as possible in this book, unfortunately there were times when I found it hard to keep track of names and remember which character connected to whom. A possible solution could have been if these additional scenes were shown as Daemus’ visions – leaving him and the reader to work out what was happening in the wider world.
In the acknowledgements for the book, Hilliard references his games of Dungeons and Dragons as inspiration for parts of the novel. Reading this made me realise why there are so many fight scenes included within the story – as combat is a large part of D&D. The various fight scenes were some of the strongest moments in the book and we are treated to a wide variety – from a siege, to ambushes, to a naval battle.
The Last Keeper does have its issues – mainly with an over-abundance of characters and repetitive dialogue when the same point is being explained to different people – however as a new high fantasy series it has potential. Greytorris is an interesting villain and I hope we see more of his story in future novels; along with more character development for my favourite character Daemus. Time to see what the next instalment has to offer!
A digital copy of ‘The Last Keeper’ and the images used in this review were kindly provided by the team at JV Hilliard Books. For more information check out Hilliard’s website.
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