Battling the Unknown: The Last Rawl Trilogy BY: Meg Christian PUBLISHED BY: Infivity Publishing.com PUBLISHED IN: 2008 ISBN: 0-7414-4793-2 Pages: 146 Ages: Teen & Up Reviewed by Billy Burgess In book one of the trilogy, the young author Meg Christian has created the fantasy world of Umber... more

Battling the Unknown: The Last Rawl Trilogy BY: Meg Christian PUBLISHED BY: Infivity Publishing.com PUBLISHED IN: 2008 ISBN: 0-7414-4793-2 Pages: 146 Ages: Teen & Up Reviewed by Billy Burgess In book one of the trilogy, the young author Meg Christian has created the fantasy world of Umberodia. In this land is a sixteen year old Katrina Rawl. Her mother passed away when she was very young. Since then, she has lived with her aunt. Katrina spends her days selling vegetables on the side of the road. She likes to read books which is something that is forbidden by the Emperor. Katrina stumbles upon a letter written by her mother. In the letter is a message that she is suppose to give to Amile the Warrior. Soon after, the Emperor sends out his army to do a routine house by house search. The army reports back to the Emperor telling him of a young girl named Katrina Rawl. The Emperor knows this must be the only daughter of Marianne Rawl. He orders his army to retrieve the girl. When the army arrives the next night, Katrina slips out of the house and escapes. She heads to Ioni where she hopes to find the Amile the Warrior. On the way she finds may other dangers. She also meets a skittish bird named Twitter and a young man named Arlon who help her on the journey. This is an adorable tale set in an original world of Umberodia. Meg Christian’s love of adventure and storytelling is shown in Battling the Unknown: The Last Rawl Trilogy. The young author is donating all of the profits to the Southern New Hampshire Rescue Mission. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good quest and wonderful characters.

After doing the same thing everyday for several years with plans of doing the same thing for the rest of her life, Katrina Rawl was surprised to find a note written by her mother requesting her to find a Amile the Warrior. Under the Emperor of Umberodia’s current laws that no one was suppose to b... more

After doing the same thing everyday for several years with plans of doing the same thing for the rest of her life, Katrina Rawl was surprised to find a note written by her mother requesting her to find a Amile the Warrior. Under the Emperor of Umberodia’s current laws that no one was suppose to be able to read, she knew not to let on that her mother had taught her, but now that she was set in her new path, of finding Amile, she found herself being pursued by the Emperor’s men. Not truly understanding the Emperor’s reasons, Katrina fled Umberodia and soon found an unlikely travel companion in the form of a little bird. Later she would meet several other helpful people on her continued search for Amile and the answer to the mystery surrounding her mother. Marked as book 1 of the Last Rawl trilogy, this book leaves with a great set up for at least the second book. Written by teen, it is about a teen on an adventure. Well done, all though it is short, this book shows great creativity and is well organized in the delivery. The characters have enough personality to draw the reader in, explores their weaknesses, get you to care what happens to them and then lets their strengths shine through. This story has well timed humor, some basic drama and enough action to keep the story progressing at a quick pace. There are a few things that are not stated out right, they are implied, but that may be part of the suspense of the story. The intrigue of the character not knowing much about herself or her mother, while the reader is given more information, it is still leaving holes to either allow the reader to speculate or build the suspense even more until a later date when in another book, it might be spelled out even more so for everyone to say ‘I knew it was something like that’. Those are always fun too, and this book was fun for a young fiction novel that has been a good start to The Last Rawl Trilogy.