A solid book with a unique viewpoint on phantoms and ghosts, not your usual storyline but goes in a good direction I think.

4.5/5 Stars

Phew!

Now THAT was one heck of a ride.

The Bearer's Burden, a debut novel by Chad Queen, is an explosive Sci-Fi adventure about one guy's road to avenging his love ones while struggling to rein in his own demons.

Cade Elegy is a reckless, but compassionate, guy hell-bent on making the Wraiths pay for taking away his beloved wife and children. Burdened with grief, the multiple phantoms vying for space in his head and feeling like a fraud, Cade is spiralling out of control.

Enter the princess, headstrong and soft-hearted but lacking experience in the harsh world outside of the castle walls. She gives Cade no choice but to help her in her own quest to get to the bottom of her Uncle's death.

I liked that the characters were flawed and the author took his time in allowing them to grow. The story ebbed and flowed throughout with action and short spates of passive activity. Towards the end of the book the fights increased with great feverishness that you get sucked in turning page after page you almost forget to come up for air. This is a risky thing for an author, in my opinion, as readers may feel fatigue from all the action.
One thing I did not like was the author's proclivity for using 'Hells' and 'rubbed his/her chin' for a bunch of characters. It's quite likely that the author's own mannerisms bled into his characters.

Aside from these minor issues, The Bearer's Burden keeps you on the edge of your seat because, despite its overall formulaic storyline and bits of cheesiness, it keeps you wavering with uncertainty as to whether any of the characters you love will make it out alive. And even though you expect something bad to happen after the short respite of peace, it still manages to surprise you. Packed with intense action scenes straight out of a blockbuster movie and poignant scenes involving the phantoms, I find it hard to believe this is Chad Queen's first novel.

(Extra stuff on http://phantompaper.wordpress.com , including a song that I think fits this perfectly!)