Review: UNWRITTEN: The Awakening: A Soul Forged Saga Novel

UNWRITTEN: The Awakening: A Soul Forged Saga Novel by Adger R. Matthews II
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book took me somewhere I did not expect, into a world where secrets are not only hidden away, but buried so far beneath the surface that when they do come back, everything shakes. I found myself trailing after characters who live in a place caught in a kind of never-ending grey dusk, and as these ancient, cosmic forces begin to stir, the ground beneath their feet shifts in ways neither they nor I could quite predict.

There was a tension to it, quiet but always there, like feeling the air thicken before rain. The place itself feels stripped of comfort, cold in its bones, yet it pulls you forward, always asking what has been forgotten, what is waiting to be found. It is a book that lingers, building itself up one careful layer at a time, letting the pressure mount. It is never rushed; nothing is hurried, but every moment feels earned.

As fantasy goes, the scale here is vast, but it is not just for spectacle. The cosmic and the human are tangled together, every revelation affecting more than just one person. The story touches all the familiar notes, the old bloodlines, the quests, but manages to sidestep the expected, often surprising me just when I thought I had its measure. There are threads of romance too, turning up where I least expected them, drawing the story down from the sky to the people living through it, and that shift made everything feel more grounded, more true. It is clear that in this world, a single choice can affect the whole.

The characters are what stayed with me most. Each begins alone in some way, but the journey changes them, shapes them by what they survive. Selene is sharp-witted, always thinking ahead, while Nysera is steadier, her faith unshakeable, and together they become something greater than they could manage alone. Their friendship and partnership felt real to me, hard-won, built on trust and challenge both. Their story is about loyalty, about finding resilience, and about learning to keep faith with both yourself and someone else. Talia, too, brought a fresh energy, her curiosity lighting up the darker corners of the world. I watched her grow as she learned, adapting as everything shifted around her.

What I appreciated most was how the story dealt with dragons and forgotten histories, not simply retelling old legends, but asking who gets to shape the stories, and what happens when truths are lost. The writing holds all these threads together, quietly raising questions about love as defiance, about faith that is forged through hardship, and about how those in power keep it by deciding which stories survive. It made me think about the cost when whole histories are swept away, and how sometimes, the act of remembering can be a kind of rebellion.

The world itself is carefully built, with small details, such as gaps in family histories, hinting at much deeper troubles. It is easy to see that everything fits together, and that care makes the place feel lived-in. The emotional ties between the characters keep the story moving. There is never a stretch that feels wasted, and as the book went on, I found the world becoming more and more convincing, as if I could reach out and touch it.

Reading this, I was left thinking about justice, about what we owe each other when everything feels broken. The book does not set out to lecture, but it does quietly ask us to notice the ways in which history, when rewritten, changes everything about the present. There is something in the tone that reminded me of old stories told by the fire, intimate and warm even as the world outside is vast and dangerous.

For anyone who loves fantasy that is intricate and thoughtful, with a broad cast and high stakes, this story offers much to linger over. 

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