Phantasia

Phantasia by Darien Meredith

Summary: Phantasia is a faery "princess" living in the logic ruled society of the Water Queendom. The Queendom goes to war with a rogue queen who succumbed to the powers of darkness. Phantasia receives a mysterious tattoo from the Prince before he meets a tragic end. Now it is up to Phantasia to travel the world and learn more about herself and her mysterious past.

Likes: The concept of faery queendoms was pretty awesome. Very rarely do we get a true matriarchal society. The different queendoms follow vastly different practices. For example, the water queendom is governed by logic, whereas the wind queendom is more free-spirited. Humans seem to have an irreversible impact on these queendoms and humans are seen as corruptors (funny how that theme turns up in a lot of fantasy. But I digress). Phantasia wonders if the paranoid fear of humans is warranted as no one she knows has ever met a human before. Humans are equally afraid of faeries as well. The theme of ignorance is written about pretty well without being too heavy-handed. When humans do come into the story, things become a little less extraordinary, but still interesting. There's a hint of something sinister going on.

Dislikes: The prologue was a little odd and the beginning was a little strange. A lot of things that should be interesting were glossed over. For example, in chapter 2, it is mentioned that Phantasia went to various Queendoms and learned a lot of their culture. This sounds very interesting to me, but we only get it in passing not as a scene, which is a little bit frustrating as a reader. The writing is a little rough and has a few odd phrases here and there that don't detract from the overall story as a whole, but they do distract within their various situations.

Overall: I didn't know this was a school story. It seems like this story might be directed to a younger audience. At any rate, it's an entertaining read and does pass the time. It's not one of my favorites in the genre, but it is something I'd continue to read. Maybe not as often as the more well-known stories, but I definitely may pop in every now and again to see what's happened to Phantasia and her friends.