The Death You Deserve by Jonathan Techlin is an absolutely amazing book! It was hard to tear my eyes away from the pages as I read about the Blessed Soul and the journey that it took to find him; the mystery around who he was and where he was. At the beginning of Theel’s journey, he had so many obstacles. My favorite of these was how he managed to defeat some of the soldiers sent after him and then survive going over a waterfall with a knife that his father gave him planted in his heart. He managed to survive it and do the impossible, just like his father did. Only thing is, Theel hated his father because to him, the man wasn’t his father; he was Theel’s master knight.

Now Theel is on a quest to find the Blessed Soul and complete the mission on which his father died. Theel doesn’t want to complete the quest but he must, or at least according to his brother he does. As Theel and his brother go on their quest in the present, you are taken back to the past to find out what actually happened to the Blessed Soul. Who was he and what became of him? Read and find out like I did. This book will take your mind somewhere else and will fill it with a story so good, you will hope that it never ends. I loved this book and you will too.

In The Death You Deserve by Jonathan Techlin, Theel inherits a mixed legacy from his heroic father. Tales of his courageous exploits as a master Knight of the Southern Cross are juxtaposed against memories of the hard lessons Theel endured as his not quite willing squire and apprentice. Wrapped up in this heritage is a seemingly impossible quest - to find the child that embodies the Blessed Soul of Man before the world is engulfed in brutal and endless warfare against monstrous enemies. His natural (but mostly unschooled) gift to see into past and future could aid this mission, but his most relentless enemy is the demon of his own sardonic doubt and resentment towards his father. Before he can redeem anyone else, Theel must first redeem himself.

Throughout the book, the reader is engaged in Theel's troubled emotional landscape, which he seeks to elude by immersing himself in drink and drugs. An interesting cast of unusual and multi-dimensional characters is vividly drawn, ranging from Theel's loyal and ever-optimistic brother Yatham to the perilously dysfunctional young wizard Rasm and his itinerant father Hoster. A parallel story line focuses on the exotically alien assassin Aeoxoea and her odd partnership with the dis-incarnate warrior Jass, which is also tied up in the search for the Blessed Soul of Man. Central to the story, however, is Theel's catharsis from sullen youth to a hero who finds the steel within himself to face the taunting presence of a blood-chilling adversary and regain his lost family pride. If you like your fantasy with hearty chunks of gritty realism thrown in, you will probably enjoy The Death You Deserve by Jonathan Techlin.

The Death You Deserve (Wither The Waking World Book 1) by Jonathan Techlin is a fantasy action story. The world is broken, destroyed unmercifully by a cataclysm and it has been that way for many millennia. There is a prophecy though – it says that the world would be mended once again by the Blessed Soul in the form of a small boy. The time is now right for the Blessed Soul to appear but he hasn’t. Theel is a young squire sent to search out the Blessed Soul and, should he be successful in his quest, he will be knighted. Theel doesn’t want to be knighted; he doesn’t want to be in the army. He wants to be free, free enough to follow a path of his choosing, not that of someone else. He does his king’s bidding though and sets off to find the Blessed Soul, fighting his way through armies and assassins, all sent to try to control the future. Is Theel successful in his quest? Can he find the Blessed Soul before anyone else does and will the world be mended?

The Death You Deserve (Wither The Waking World Book 1) by Jonathan Techlin is the first in a series of fantasy novels and was somewhat different to everything I have ever read. It is a fresh take on the genre and very welcome, full of twists and turns, and unfailingly unpredictable. The characters are so clearly written I felt as though I knew them personally and lived their stories with them. It is both tense and funny, full of action and highly descriptive, but not too much that you drown in it. Very impressive first book; I’d be interested to see what the next one holds.

Jonathan Techlin’s The Death You Deserve: Wither the Waking World Book 1 unravels ages after the world was destroyed by a major catastrophe. Theel, a young squire, and his brother Yatham are mourning the loss of their father, a famous Knight of the Southern Cross. As heir to a father whose name is known in the Seven Kingdoms as a hero, Theel - the oldest son - has a legacy to preserve. The situation is still dangerous and the only hope is in a prophecy that, years after the devastation of the world, the appearance of a little boy called the Blessed Soul will save it from complete ruin. To make matters worse, Theel is a reluctant squire whose relationship with his father is tumultuous. He has no wish to become a knight, but as his homeland faces enemy soldiers, spies and assassins fighting for control of the Blessed Soul, he is forced to set out on his quest.

The Death You Deserve: Wither the Waking World is Book 1 of a fantasy fiction series by Jonathan Techlin. The main characters are two young boys who just lost an imposing figure of a father, and are now facing a seemingly impossible mission that could mean the ruin of their world. With this exposition, the narrative immediately grips the attention of its readers. What happens next? There is no dearth of imagination here with an array of multi-dimensional characters that appear in the numerous twists and turns of the story’s plot. Throughout the amazing adventures of Theel and Yatham, there is something poignant about the underlying tension between Theel and his dead father. The Death You Deserve is not only an action packed fantasy, but it is also a coming of age story. It is a novel about a relationship between father and son, filled with painful issues that need to be resolved - but how to do this when one is already dead? This is a book fantasy readers will not want to miss.