Two Masters (progression, beastspeaker, dinosaur, & epic fantasy)

Take Pokemon, and set it in a medieval world where the Catholic church has modern theology. Boom - Two Masters- where a monk and his wolf starter set out to catch em all! (or, more accurately, to protect the world from devastation...) 

Jokes aside, this isn't actually a Pokemon story - it's original fantasy in a fully detailed, fleshed-out world. Characters can and do die; this is defnitely a young adult / adult fantasy world. But, the protagonist is a beast tamer... so if you want to add some headcanon, hey run wild. :-)  

Prose is solid, the characters are interesting and believable, and the worldbuilding's great. It takes a few chapters to get the protgaonist off his starter island and into the larger world where the adventure really kicks off, but the setup pays off.

I'm enjoying it so far, and the author has been consistent in their uploads. Happy to see this come up on my watch list. Give it a go!

Yeah, you heard me! Epic. Fantasy. Dinosaurs. I'm sold.

Fortunately, the story's as good as the pitch. It's a slow start, first introducing the MC in action: solving a problem with his abilities and unique flair while dropping tidbits of lore and magic system and character motivation. There's hinting of "massive animals" on the otherside of the ocean, away from MC's safe island, and I can practically hear adventure calling. Then we're introduced to the MC's beastspeakers community, which is very vegan and... they don't really like him. And it's kinda understandable.

Thomas does a really good job with making you want to root for an arrogant, immature brat. XD Not to say that Revin doesn't have his good points. It's obvious he loves animals, and he wants to push himself, to really know what he's capable of, which I found admirable. Less admirable is the utterly teenaged snit he's eternly caught in. And this is the only place I'm docking points: Revin comes across as a bratty 17/18-year-old. Not the 21 years he's supposed to be. But that might also be a me thing. (I teach university. I know the differences in these ages very well XD) But I can also feel that the payoff willl be glorious when Revin finally gets his wakeup call.

What really blew me away was the worldbuilding. There's such attention to detail given to building up history and lore in a realistic sense. Revin knows all this stuff, so there's nothing just given away to the reader for free. It's hidden in dialogue and passing glances and effing architecture and I love it!

Grammar is flawless. Nothing else on that.

Thomas's style is unoffensive. I liked it. There's nothing wrong with it. It reads clearly and succinctly with fair pacing. ...but I couldn't really pick out a style. Everything was good, but nothing really stood out to me as "ah, this is what this author excells at / enjoys". Very neutral. Again, there's nothing wrong with this. But I'm kind hoping I'll see some unique style evolve as I read on. And I will be reading on. ;)

There are some times when you read a synopsis and go: "yep, I'm definitely going to be reading that." There's all the elements here of geek's dream. I hope everyone takes this in the spirit in which it is meant when I note this is, basically, a very well constructed, thoughtfully described and carefully plotted, Pokemon story. I jest, it is much better than that, and the author is to be commended on doing something so fresh and different to an awful lot of what is out there on Royal Road.

The action moments are described with real class: there's the death of a dinosaur that is particularly well written and shows real skill in handling.

Certainly, you need to fully commit, as a reader, to the concept and culture of the world, but the author makes it very easy to understand the rules of this complex game. My only moment of pause here is that I did find Revin to be quite an arrogant figure. I certainly would not mind if he was brought down a peg or two over the course of the other chapters.

The style is very well done - clean and clear grammar which is a real plus, as well as some well written dialgour sequences.

It's weird. It's interesting and it had Telepathic Monks battling cyborgs over the bodies of dinosaurs. Why aren't you reading it already!

Two Masters is the story of Revin, a beast-taming monk who--much like Ariel from the Little Mermaid--wants to leave behind everything he knows in search of excitement... Except, rather than wanting to be "where the people are", he wants to be where the giant deadly beasts are.

Style: The style of the story evokes the feel of a traditionally published work, by and large. Descriptions are lush and the worldbuilding is plentiful without being overwhelming.

A little more variety in terms of sentence structure might push the work to even greater heights. For example, at one point in ch. 1, four sentences in a row began with "he ________". Using a greater share of punctuation besides periods and commas may aid in making the prose less rigid, allowing the author to avoid such scenarios more easily.

Story: The early portion of this story, and the first chapter especially, do a great job of communicating Revin's dissatisfaction with small-town life and his thirst for adventure. By the time I'd read a few chapters in, I felt quite invested in experiencing the wider world of Two Masters. Well done, author!

Grammar: The grammar is on-point, though I did notice a few quirks here and there. Little things like "waiver" instead of "waver" and a snake's tongue "slaking". Ultimately, though, aside from these small missteps the story is close enough to tradpub quality that the hiccups are hardly felt.

Character: Revin is delightfully irreverent, and it's fun to see him clash with those in his stuffy monk community. His dad is a little bit of an exposition factory, but the rest of the monks are interesting and multidimensional, and the dialogue is EXTREMELY good and believable. Again, very well done author!

Overall, Two Masters is a well-written tale from an author who clearly knows his stuff. I'd like to see a little more ambition and flavor in the prose, myself, but what is already here is more than sufficient to provide a good read (particularly the dialogue and characterization, which I would call top-notch). 

Revin is the talented yet arrogant son of the leader of a sect of pacifist monks, desperately craving an escape from his sleepy home island that he might set out on an adventure across the world, putting his skills truly to the test and mastering animals and monsters he's never had the chance to encounter before now. But when adventure comes knocking at his island's door, he may find himself in a little over his head... 

Two Masters is very well-written thus far. Character-writing, as promised, is rather strong, leaving Revin with plenty of deliberate flaws to work on once the story begins in earnest. At the same time, I don't find these flaws to be very annoying or unlikeable, at times they can make him a bit endearing, even if he often tends to clash with those monks he grew up with, as well as his parents. That said, glimpses of relationship dynamics and backstory allow one to easily draw their own conclusions about why Revin acts the way he does. 

Similarly, the world is certainly a high point, even having seen so little of it. It apppears expansive, unique, creative, and colorful, featuring both magical and steampunk elements, and I'm just as eager as Revin is to really explore it in-depth. 

Grammar is decent. Errors are few and far between, though there are several where periods may do better as commas or semi-colons, and a smattering of misused apostrophes. Nothing egregious, it should be noted. 

As the summary notes this story's draft is already fully completed, presuming that the qualiity seen in the first few chapters remains consistent (which I expect it will), this story is certainly one to check out.