Universal Warrior: Uprising by Avery K. Tingle

There are fourteen chapters of Universal Warrior posted so far, and I've read all of them. That alone is saying something. The politics and action of the story make it an excellent and fun read.

Chronicling a war between heaven and hell, the story is jam-packed with action sequences. This I consider a brilliant move on the author's part: he has a distinct talent for writing gripping, detailed action scenes that are incredibly creative. I found myself looking forward to the next battle and on more than occasion wondering how the characters were going to get through these messes.

The mythology of the world is a mishmash of various western and eastern philosophies, and I was intrigued and impressed at how defined and seamless the integration of different aspects were. The whole thing could have been a trainwreck of contradictions and it isn't. I look forward to delving deeper into the politics as the story continues.

The main weakness is characterization. While the author works to keep the four main characters, Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Azrael, distinctive, their differences in character rely heavily on backstory that is still currently shrouded in mystery. For the most part all four are butt-kicking, moral soldiers with similar speaking patterns. I found myself occasionally mixing them up, but this happened less frequently as the story progressed.

Overall, a story I highly enjoyed and will continue reading.

The following is a review that I wrote for another site earlier today but sums up the various elements of the series so far:

Universal Warrior is a action-packed, character-driven story. With each new chapter information about each of the main players is dispensed in healthy doses making the information timely and subtle enough as not to overwhelm the reader. The writer has done such a great job of keeping the action sequences logical and chaotic enough that it makes sense to the readers as well, to the point where the scenes can be easily visualized. Tingle is a talented up and comer, with a strong grasp of the English language and descriptive, and if the first book of this series is anything to go by, then the best is yet to come!