About Books #48: Waker (Watcher)

This might not be obvious from the books I usually review, but I used to love fantasy and science fiction. As in: at one point, that was just about all I read. And then that stopped, and I didn’t really realise I missed it. At which time, naturally, I read this one. You guys – it’s a thing!

The book

Amara is just about done with her studies of psychology when she starts getting hallucinations. Just as she fears she might be going crazy, it turns out that nothing is what it seems. She discovers the secret of the Watchers; an immortal race that has been given a heavy task: to save humanity from the evil Vexers.

She becomes an invaluable player in an invisible battle between immortals. Will Amara be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save humanity from its downfall?

The opinion

I have to be honest with you guys – I came into this book not really knowing what to expect. I mean, it was written in approximately 4 months. That doesn’t quite scream “well-thought out plot”, now does it? But that’s actually, if anything, the thing that stuck with me most as I was reading this book.

There’s a couple of things I really like in a scifi-plot. A “chosen one” is always a good thing, especially if that’s combined with secondary characters that are actually allowed to do their thing and to be awesome in their own right. The “sudden revelation of a world that has always been there, only no one knew about it” is another “yes” from me. Add in some female power, well-packaged reflections on the state of the world and – of course – some well-rounded representation (Kathleen’s moms come to mind)? That’s a lot of things for me to love in just one book.

Quite frankly, if I had to say something negative about this book? (Just to balance things out, you know…) It would probably be that I wish there was more of it. Sure, this was literally the first – very limited – edition. But, you know… I would quite happily read this story spread out over about twice the amount of pages.

I mean, come on – both the Watchers and the Vexers are immortal. Can we just have an entire collection of stories for how each of them found out they were a Watcher or a Vexer? Can we get the story of the First Watcher? (Seriously, you have him in there, it’s only fair we get to know every single thing he’s ever done, right?) Can we get flashbacks to the previous lives of the other Watchers? Can we get a scientific essay on the logistics of exactly what it takes to become a Watcher or a Vexer?

It’s not too often that I leave a book feeling like, sure, the story is done… But I need like 8 more stories yesterday. This one, though? Yeah, this one did just about that :p

The rating: 4.25/5

Honestly, the only reason I’m not giving this one a 5 is because I’m saving that rating for books that absolutely transformed me. Oh, and there’s a .25 detraction for the famish for more I’ve been left with. No responsible author should do that to their readers!

In other words: I guess you could say I kind of loved Waker. And if you liked books like Divergent and The Next Together? You should probably give it a read as well! (I got to read the Dutch version, but if you don’t do Dutch? Don’t worry, the English version should be out near the end of this year or the start of 2019.) You will want more, though – don’t say I didn’t warn you 🙂

-Saar