Seeker

One of my favorite fantasies, this book goes outside the norm in both character and plot.

Ages ago, a single warrior named Noman founded an order of warrior monks called the Nomana. Their duty was simple; to spread peace, safeguard the people, and protect their god, the All and Only. Ensconced in their sacred citadel Anacrea, the Nomana are idolized and feared by many.

Seeker After Truth, a young boy who lives on Anacrea, yearns to join the warrior order like his older brother, scorning his father's hopes that he become a schoolteacher.

In a faraway country, the shephard's daughter Morning Star, who has the gift of seeing emotions, also wishes to join the Nomana, following in the footsteps of her vanished mother.

And on the waterways of show more the land, a handsome and wild teenage river pirate named the Wildman meets with the Nomana, and is awed in spite of himself by their peaceful power. And he wants it for his own.

Now, three teenagers come together for a common purpose; to join the ancient order. But when a threat arises from a city where people are sacrificed daily, Seeker, Morning Star, and Wildman will undertake a quest to save all the Nomana.

With three amazing main characters, a winding plot, and nothing held back in terms of danger and death, this is the first of a strange yet compelling trilogy that I have always loved. show less

I made it half way, then the suspension of disbelief just died a horrible, painful death and I can't continue. It's just too absurd and outlandish, even for a fantasy. I started with the hope of finding a gem in the rough text, only to realize I'd dug up pyrite instead.

Just from an editing point of view, it moved way too slow. Chapter seven should have been chapter one. Of the first 8 chapters, it should have been condensed to 3 because there is too much backstory slowing the pace. It skips among too many characters to make the story consistent until chapter fifteen when many of the main characters are in the same scene, the same spot. Then they all separate again. Plus you get secondary characters with POV chapters that really don't show more need to exist through the point I stopped. Maybe they become more important later, but the storylines are so jumbled it's hard to tell.

Then we have some of his descriptions. What does this guy listen to for some of these? Since when is FLOP a good description of a paper hitting a desk? I can vaguely see bump for a monastery bell, but it still suggests something muted to me. Just doesn't feel right for the world he's building.

Reading this reminds me a lot of reading a script, though with attempts to fill in details between the dialog and scene/set descriptions. The paragraphs of description read like someone trying to describe a play set up. Just not wonderful prose. Doesn't really fulfill the full details of what the reader sees either.

Really not something I'd recommend. show less

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

Seeker (full name Seeker after Truth) has dreamed, his whole life, of becoming a Nomana, a Noble Warrior. A protector of the All and Only, the god who made all things. The desire to be one has only grown stronger since his brother, Blaze of Justice, became a Noble Warrior. Seeker knows that this is his destiny, never mind that his father expects him to become Teacher. Now he is sixteen, old enough to go before the Nom and offer himself, and hope that they accept him.

Morning Star is the daughter of a sheep herder. Years ago her mother left them to become a Noble Warrior. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, Morning Star intends to leave the hills she's always known, and join her mother in show more service to the All and Only. Her only worry is leaving her father; she is his world. She's not too worried about being denied by the Nomana; after all her mother is a Noble Warrior. If that's not enough, there are the colors. The colors surround all people, and change a little based on someone's mood and intentions, but everyone has colors around them. Morning Star can see them, and has learned to read them. She will journey to Anacrea to find her destiny.

Wildman has never known his family. He's never even really known friendship, or loyalty, or honor. He certainly doesn't know about the All and Only. All he's ever known is survival at any cost. In the midst of an attempted robbery, Wildman encounters a Nomana, though he doesn't know what that is. What he knows is that he's glimpsed a power far stronger than his own, and a peace he never imagined. Wildman wants these things, and what Wildman wants, Wildman always gets. He too will offer his services to the Nom, though he doesn't really think of it in those exact terms.

A stranger, more disjointed group could hardly be imagined. But through drastically unexpected circumstances, a group they become. As it turns out, they can all learn an awful lot from each other. Maybe they can even help each other. Maybe they can even save Anacrea and the Nomana from the threat of their enemies. If they can survive their journey, they may even find their destinies.

A wonderfully, beautifully, frighteningly well-imagined world, full of strong and interesting characters. No one is one sided; Morning Star is strong but capable of vulnerability, Seeker is determined but still scared sometimes, and Wildman is primal but lovable. Actually, I think Wildman is my favorite character.

This is so many different stories all in one great book. It's a story of strength and power. It's a story about friendship and loyalty and family. It's a story about faith and destiny. It's a story about life, and a story about people. It may not take place anywhere you could recognize, but all of the characters contain bits and pieces you see in other people and in yourself. The bad and the good. The best part is, it doesn't end here. This is only book one. I don't know how many there will be, but I'm very much looking forward to all of them. show less

When Seeker first began with the story of Seeker After Truth on the island of Anacrea, my opinions of this book were not high. Up until around chapter seven, the quality of the writing is not as good as the rest of the novel; emotions are over-used and unrealistic, and annoying little anachronisms puncture the story. After chapter six, however, the quality dramatically improves. The characters are engaging, realistic, lively, and well thought out. It is easy to tell that Nicholson is a screenwriter – he paints vivid, colourful pictures that are easy to visualise in 16:9 widescreen, and creates dialogue that would fit perfectly into the mouths of film characters.

The story is very well-organised, involving several different plot lines show more that connect and interact with each other cleverly to form a rich and interesting tale. To its credit, it is also unpredictable, leading readers down paths they won’t spoil by guessing ahead of time. As an example: the entire first half of the book builds up towards a specific event, and then the event does not actually take place. Even better than this is the fact that Nicholson does not throw away all the background from the first half, but uses it to take the story in a different direction. People who hate predictable stories will have nothing to complain about after reading this book.

In terms of messages, Seeker seems to have a lot of interesting comments to make about religion, most of which are very well placed and thought provoking. Nicholson was once a Catholic, and this book will hold a special place in the hearts of Christians, because of its clear links with the Christian faith and elements like the trinity and the kingdom of heaven. Nicholson’s portrayal of the Nomana, however, as Gandhi-style saints who are a wicked world’s only defence against other, false, power-crazed religions, is a poor, shallow and terribly biased portrayal of Christianity, and sometimes threatens to ruin the gems of wisdom that this book holds.

Overall, though, Seeker is an engaging and interesting read, and one that is very good for group discussion. Recommended for those aged 11 and older. show less

Seeker is the first novel from William Nicholson that I've read, and after reading it, I don't particularly feel the need to read any of his other novels. Nicholson is very heavy into world building and spent a good bit of time on the backstory about the Nomana, or the noble warriors, who dedicate their lives to the Nom, the All and the Only. This backstory, unfortunately, is poorly developed, not particularly interesting and really drags. The characters are just abysmal. All three of the main characters, are poorly drawn out, not compelling and add little to the story. The Wild Man character may be the single worst character that I have ever encountered in any book I've ever read, and I have read a helluva lot of books in my day.

The show more three characters go on a journey that seems to go nowhere. Seeker of Justice, the main character, is trying to find his brother, Blaze of Justice, who is purportedly a traitor. Another annoying aspect of this novel is that the character names are ridiculous. I can't really think of anything particularly redeemable about this novel. My only piece of advice would be to stay away. Life is too short to read bad novels.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street show less

Seeker is a very interesting book. Different in tone then most young adult books as none of the young adults in the book are whinny which is a plus to the book in my opinion. The writing is very stripped down and straight forward like most of the characters. This style makes the story very compelling to read, as least it did for me. Morning Star is a fantastic character with fantastic lines. Its good to see a strong girl who still acts like a girl. All the characters are quite different and interesting. Overall, a fun new series.

I absolutely adore Nicholson's work, so I may well be biased I admit. It gets 4.5 as I did not find it as captivating as some of his other works.

But yet again he has created a unique world and great characters. The plot starts slowly, introducing you to the protagonists first, then builds to an exciting finish.

He's done it again! Will look forward to the rest of this series.