Champion: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Three

Well written with in-depth characters who have well thought out back stories weave this masterful world of mayhem, magic and mystery. A good balance between of report between character s and adventures

Just finished #3 and going onto #4. Cyrus is an honorable warrior, so much so that fate keeps biting him in the arse. He is persevering though, this is a tale that any fantasy geek will enjoy.

I read the first book after someone in a reading group recommended it, and I saw why they liked it, but the entire time I read it I felt like I was reading a MMO raiding groups biography instead of a story. It was well enough put together for me to give the second one a chance however, and I am glad I did, because it took the roots planted in the first book and grew out from there into a wonderful world. Book three in the series takes it another step further and almost made me forget that I had thought this was an MMO group all together. The character development and world building is done very well, though sometimes I do feel like Cyrus acts more like a paladin than a warrior a lot of the time(especially where it concerns his "love" of Vara). At times I find myself rooting for Aisling more and more as the book goes along(I mean how long can a guy deal with cold then warm for a few seconds then cold again for years before he finds comfort elsewhere, probably the biggest fantasy aspect of the story sofar;), but we'll see what happens in the next book.*spoilers*The first book introduced the concept that it was in fact possible to die given the right circumstances, and this book takes that idea and sticks a knife in it's back(literally). All the sudden you have to be careful not to let these assassins stab you or you will die for good, and that's not an idea that would be easy to wrap your mind around if you were someone who knew you could fight as hard as you wanted because you could be brought back afterwards as long as they got to your body in time. It seems odd to me that the fighting academy would not have taken this information into account when they were training their fighters, but still not enough of an issue to drop this story to four stars.I hope the next book is as good as this one was, and I also hope that Cyrus at least gets with Aisling before she dies heroically(just a guess on my part).

I'm now through book 5 of the main series as well as the companion (dark elf) books, and so I want to provide some thoughts to someone who might be contemplating trying this series. The 1st book in the series won't give you much hope about the future of the series, but let me tell you that overall it's worth diving into and my review above really speaks to my feelings about the published series as a whole, not just this book. Part of the joy of this series is watching the author slowly become a significantly better and more confident writer.During the course of that growth the world, the characters, and my love for the series has also grown. It starts out like a typical early 00's MMORPG and grows in depth and subtly with each passing book. I urge you give this series a chance and I hope by book 3 you'll have grown to love it as much I as do.Book 1: Boring, predictable, mediocre fantasy novel. The first half is particularly bad. 2 of 5 starsBook 2: Slightly better. The world begins to expand a little in this novel and the characters become a little more 3 dimensional. 3 of 5 starsBook 3: The world opens up, the main characters begin to have a real voice, and you feel the actual stakes at play within this universe. Most importantly the author finds how to incorporate his trademark snark and sarcasm into these relationships. 4 of 5 starsBook 4: The series asks questions that involve real more complexity including dealing with death, responsibility for our actions, and the importance of trust in relationships. 4 of 5Book 4.5 Provides more color and complexity for one of the best characters in the series. 5 of 5Book 5: I'm hooked. Can't wait to see the path that this story finally takes us down. 5 of 5Book 5.5 More backstory, more complexity, just wonderful. This is basically Ender's Shadow to book 5's Enders Game. 5 of 5.

Well this has definitely been an adventure so far. I really do appreciate the humor that the author depicted in some scenes & I also the story that he tells. I really just like the story & how it's playing out. If you take nothing else from this review take from it that I think it's worth your time.

I absolutely love these books. This is the second series that I have been reading from this author. Since I got my Kindle and have close to 90 books on it Robert Crane is the author I keep following the series with. I love the Girl in the box and also the Sanctuary series. I find myself thinking about the books at miscellaneous times during the day and looking forward to my relaxing time to sit and read them. I also find it hard to put the books down and have found myself up way too late at night because I just can't put it down, the way its written keeps you always wanting to read to the next chapter. I started this series when I had caught up with the Girl in the box series and I'm waiting for the next book to become available in Dec. I'm sure that I will be doing the same with this series. Again I love this series and author I recommend it to everyone!!!

I can't say enough about the quality of the writing of Robert Crane. Each book I read of his improves and draws you in as a reader and "Champion" was no different. Some of the same characters from "Avenger", Book 2 in the series, are back and built upon and just get into your heart more and more. I especially loved to see the relationship grow between Cyrus and many of the main characters in the book. Each time I pick up a book or I should say my Kendall Fire now lol, I have a harder time putting it down when I am reading Mr. Crane's books. He is extremely talented in going into the characters, descriptions of the environment they are in, the time period, and there is always humor and something unexpected that keeps the readers wanting to come back for the next one and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am looking forward to Book 4.

This is the third instalment of the Sanctuary series, and it is the strongest book so far. Great! The plot itself is more noble, and we are starting to scratch beneath the surface of this world that has been created. This is a meatier book than the previous two, and perhaps a little fatty too, but it develops nicely and leads us tantalisingly into the rest of the series.This is the third book in the Sanctuary series by Robert J Crane, following on from Defender and Avenger. In this instalment, Cyrus embarks on a mission to return Vara to her hometown and save her from an order of assassins. However, once in Termina, the war raging throughout Arkaria gets too close for comfort, and the league of assassins are still at large. And what is the best thing about all this chaos? It brings Vara and Cyrus closer together. Finally.So, what are the highlights for me? Well, here’s what I liked best.In this book, we start to see something of a noble challenge associated with our guild, which is nice. In books one and two, it is almost entirely acquisition-related, but here we have some substance to the action which draws us in. We have a cause to really get behind, which pulls us on.And the other thing that pulls us on is the development of the wider plot points. There are some interesting questions that are answered in this book, but there are still many left hanging, which invariable encourages us on. Great! And we also have steady convergence between the ‘now’ and ‘then’ parts of the book, which are pretty compelling. We have a glimpse of the future, and we want to find out how it happened.The other great thing about this book is the range of characters, and in particular, some of the personalities. There is some good banter between Sanctuary members, and my particular favourites are Fortin; Vaste; Aisling; and Vara’s mother! Very entertaining.Unfortunately, Vara, as a lead character, is still a bit morose even though she’s being prised from her shell, and Cyrus is still a bit goody two-shoes for my liking. But the wide and entertaining cast make up for this.And finally, overall this just feels a step up from books one and two as a piece of writing. There was nothing obviously jarring here and it all hung together pretty well. It’s great to see the writing develop throughout the series.That being said, there does appear to be a large focus on direct internal dialogue (the stuff in italics) compared to the previous two books (I confess I haven’t gone back and checked!) This is good for emphasis in places, but it feels a bit much in this book, and the placement is sometimes a bit off. It feels at times a bit like you’re being shaken between first and third person, and this is distracting. It should melt seamlessly.The other thing about this book is that it’s pretty long, and I think much longer than the previous two. I would say there is more to it, but it feels like it’s gone a bit overweight rather than catching just the right balance. There are passages of internal and descriptive sections which just feel heavy and in some cases unnecessary, and these slow the pace of a fast story. Overall though, this is a relatively minor point.Finally we have the fighting. It still feels distinctly video-game-like, with, at one point, three versus a lot more than three and yet the three come out on top. It’s well placed by the author, supplemented by magical armour, sorcerers, reincarnation spells (the lot) but it does rather make me sigh. Then again, this is the third book and I’ve read this far, so it can’t annoy me that much. This video game style fighting is what the book is going for, so it’s okay in that regard, but I think it removes some of the tension from the story.Interestingly, the next edition is taking place in a human ‘exclusive-of-magic’ part of the world which will be a deviation, but our crew are taking magic with them so I fully envisage the same quantity of RPG-esque carnage!Overall I think this series is developing nicely, and this instalment is definitely the strongest so far. I don’t think this will ever be a perfect fit for me, but there are some interesting plot points developing and I intend to read on.

Champion -Book 3 is The Sanctuary series was a really good read, the books get better and betterIn book three we see a slight different change in Sanctuary's purpose.Pillaging for treasures and riches are a lower priority in book three and the guild finds themselves moving to protect guild members.Vara is in trouble and with wars are all around Cy finds himself leading from the front with honor (don't want to give you any spoilers).And as for the relationship dance between Cy and Vara well I'm not going to spoil that either.....

Just read number 4 and would give that 5 stars; my only hesitation with it is the bits at the beginning and the end that suggest everyone is dead and what is the point in any of it. A great range of characters that develop nicely and a nice range of abilities, life-forces etc.The author said he would struggle to keep it going but it is well worth it and a much more worthwhile project than Girl in a box which seems to be more formulaic and do things for the sake of twists as you would expect in the best TV B-movie mini-series.

It's so easy in this day an age to find yourself reading trash, because it was cheap and because now you've got it you might as well read it. Crane is such a refreshing change from this habit I've fallen into recently. Not only did I notice very few typos (always a welcome change) but I genuinely care for these characters in such a way that when I'm not reading I feel bad because they're stuck somewhere they might get hurt! A really engaging, well written series, I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Magnificent such engaging books