Lucky me, I have read most of the books in this series! Shanti a talented sci-fi/fantasy author, which is always a pleasure for a hungry reader like me. Check out the covers! Mama mia, there are some good ones.

The links on these book covers connect to my Amazon associate ID, which helps support this site without adding any cost to you.

Book 1 (2014) showed Shanti’s elegant writing style and a unique writing voice, which are great accomplishments for a debut novel. The world she built for this series is accessible, while being totally foreign to the world we live in.

The hero, Ayn, has serious tasks laid on his fourteen-year-old shoulders, like saving his people from extinction. That’s not a spoiler, there’s plenty I won’t tell you. This book is rich in originality, plot, characters, and adventure. If you can predict what happens in this book you should play lottery numbers because you are gifted.

At the end of Shiva XIV I was anxious to read the book 2, Shiva XIV: The Veil of Truth (2015). I knew there was a lot more story to tell, and I was invested in the characters.

The second book continues immediately where the first book ended. There are interesting new characters in The Veil of Truth, like Srah, who has lovely wings. I love characters with wings. There are a few of them in the series.

Shanti’s creativity spiked to the top of the charts with this book, showing us more parts of the world she built and more characters with interesting motives and twisty plots. Some of them are twisted, too.

I was so engrossed in The Veil of Truth that I didn’t realize I was close to the end and then, bam, it was over. I love to be swept away by a series like that!

Shiva XIV: The Riddle of the Gods (2016) is book 3 in the series. This book brought satisfying answers to questions I had about books one and two. There is a villain in this series, Yol Notama, who conflicted me more than any villain I can remember reading. If you’ve read the series I want to know if you went down the same topsy-turvy emotional path I did with him.

There are relationships between these characters that most authors can’t pull off, including an open-minded, naturally occurring non-traditional relationship forming that I find exciting.

Surprising love between two other characters is about to spawn a new race of beings. I didn’t say who, or what, so that’s not a spoiler, right?

I recommend reading the books as a series. They can stand on their own but there is so much more reward if you read all of them.

There are more books in the series for me to read, Yippee! These are on my TBR:

 

Ooh, look, there’s a box set of books 1-4!

 

Thank you for reading my review of the SHIVA XIV series!

 

Gina