The Many Adventures of Peter and Fi
The first thing I want to discuss with this book is the cover. I absolutely love the front cover! It is very beautiful artwork that vividly portrays the characters and the world they live in. I must be honest and say I was not drawn to this book because the author simply asked me to review it. I was not attracted to this piece of literature because of the description given to me by Mr. Fernandes. I was solely inspired to read this book because of the cover.
The only thing I will say I didn’t like about the cover is that it gave me the impression that the story centered on very young characters when that is not the case. Peter and Fi look like they’re 12 years old on the cover when in fact Peter is twenty! I approached the book with the mindset that I was reading middle-grade fiction so I initially disliked Peter because I thought he came off as an arrogant little kid when in fact he was a well-trained 20-year-old mage! Fi is only 14 which makes the book difficult to classify; 20 is slightly older for YA fiction but 14 isn’t exactly adult fiction nor middle-grade fiction. Its also awkward that a 20-year-old runs around with a child throughout the book, but it isn’t as odd as I’m making it sound right now. Peter is not a pervert (haha) and Fi is in no way sexualized. Given the anime-ish look of the cover and considering their age gap, it would be easy to assume this was some twisted comic, but I promise you it’s a wonderful fantasy adventure for all ages.
Since I’m on the topic of Peter and characterization, I’ll take this moment to say that I quite enjoyed both Peter and Fi. While their personalities clash at times, it is apparent they have a deep connection that’s built on trust and love. I did not sense any sort of romance between the two of them—and that’s a good thing because Peter is six years older than Fi and she’s not even human! But the love and affection they have as dear friends and fellow adventurers adds a bit of comical entertainment to this fantasy adventure.
What I liked about the story most was the way it was structured; it is told in snippets—short stories of various adventures which all come together to build one big story. Since the book is made up of smaller adventures, it leaves the chapters longer than you might like but once you get used it, it doesn’t bother you anymore. My only complaint in terms of the writing is that there’s a lot of extra description where it doesn’t need to be—particularly in the dialogue. Nearly every piece of spoken dialogue ends with “said Peter” and “said Fi”, after EVERY SINGLE piece of dialogue. There’s nothing wrong with this, but when there’s only two people in a conversation, readers are typically able to keep up with who is speaking. There’s no need to label every single sentence because it feels redundant after time.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. It is the epitome of a fantasy adventure; there are goblins, wizards, and magical battles—its like taking a trip back to old school fantasy. The world-building is done with more than enough detail; I personally prefer less description to leave certain points to the reader’s imagination. BUT the book is written well, and you are able to fully picture every part of this new world Fernandes has created. If you enjoy fantasy and adventures, or magical battles, I would recommend this book to you. Younger readers might find some of the detail in battle scenes to be a little scary, but I’d say this is a solid read for anyone ages 12 and up.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*