The Adventurers Guild

This was a 3 or 3.5 star read for me. I don't usually read a lot of middle-grade fiction right now, I have read some others that I thought were more unique and which I liked better than this one, but overall I had a good time and it was a quick and engaging story to sink my teeth into. I do think that the second half of this book was much more exciting than the first, and I was also pretty impressed by the overarching mysteries and plots that unfolded in the last 10-20% of the book.

Of all the characters, I was surprised by how much Brock stood out to me. I'm not sure if I like him yet, but he's certainly the most interesting. He's fiercely loyal and protective over Zed - in fact it almost seems like all his major decisions in this book stems from his desire to protect his friend, up until the very last bit where he rejects leaving the Adventurers Guild - but he's also very scarily manipulative when he wants to be. Unlike his other friends who have pretty straightforward paths and, I suppose, character development, Brock is the one that's most caught in between factions and allegiances so it'll be very interesting to see where he goes with that in later books.

Zed was colourless at first but I did find him increasingly endearing in the second half. Typically an ostracized character would have some spunk in them, but Zed just felt like a very naive and innocent child - no wonder Brock is so protective! He's only just discovered his propensity for sorcery so I really wonder where that's going to go. I liked the whole thing he had with Makiva - perhaps she's Silverglow herself... or something?

I liked that we had some strong female characters in this book, most prominently Liza and Frond but also others like Jayna. I do kinda wish that we see more from their perspectives though! We only swung between Brock and Zed, so I hope that later books we'll see more from the other characters.

The book also swung quite wildly between a fairly simple life in the guilds (no bullying, no treacherous plots from all sides, no assassinations), to some really crazy scary monsters in the wilderness. I expected most of the Dangers to be something more like wild beasts or the kobolds, but the monsters that appeared in the Shrine to Zed as well as Mother Brenner's final form in the end was just wow nightmare fuel that I wouldn't have expected in a book for this age group.

Overall, this was a pretty fun read and I'm glad that I got around to it!