Rishab Borah

In sum: Fun magic system. Probably a great read for kids!

Khi never knew his birth parents or really where he came from. He's happy in his normal world with his loving adoptive parents and his good friends. Until one day he sees faces in the moon and other seeming-hallucinations... then falls through a portal into a different world. The world he was born in, as a prince. The world that is facing a never-before-seen darkness that threatens to take over that universe and probably more.

I am not the target audience with this book. It was cute and I enjoyed the explanation of the magic (quite a lot) but it is definitely for kids. Even with the kiss (gasp) I would recommend it for like ages 8–12.

There were some timing inconsistencies that bothered me. The two-minute lessons in magic that Khi instantly grasps. The points in the fight where the enemy is about to attack then Khi 'remembers the door' and uses the key to unlock it and they run through and thus evade... that attack... which was underway....

Then there was quite a bit of info-dumping as various characters try to teach Khi about the world—them totally insensitive to the fact he grew up in a world without all of this, and him not seeming to mind all the terms and names and concepts thrown at him.

But in all, the world was fun and the characters were pretty good. The relationships between the characters were cute.
Hopefully the author keeps on writing. His style reminds me of my own when I was that age :D

Knowing that I'm not the target audience, I give it 4 stars rather than 3 which is how I really feel about it.

(I received an ARC of the book for review.)… (mere)

The Door to Inferna is Rishab Borah's first book, although it is written to be the first in a series so there might be more to come. It incorporates a lot - different worlds/universes, magic, science, linguistics, fantasy, mythology...so many interesting things, but for a short book that is an introduction to a series it ends up being too much. Every sentence is a new name/place/spell/thing to be explained. Every step is a major plot point. Every scene has it's own deus ex machina. And certain plot points, instead of feeling important, feel like someone is checking off a list of things that 'should' be included. The thought put into everything, and the layers of the worlds, and the possibilities for this series are definitely there. But it is very obvious, without even reading the author bio, that this is a first attempt at a book. Hopefully as the author gets more experience the series will grow into itself.… (mere)

The Door to Infernia is about a boy named Khi who, along with his two best friends, gets pulled through a portal in the woods into a magical land, Elkloria. There, Khi learns he is a prince and that an evil entity wants to restore demons to the magical realm. This was marketed as YA but I think this would have made more sense as a middle grade novel. Khi learns the seemingly infinite magic system with ease, meets his birth parents, the king and queen, and then barely interacts with them again as he and his friends and newly found sister end up in a series of getting into trouble and defeating it. I would have DNF’d but I don’t do that for books I’m reviewing. Unfortunately, this one was not for me.… (mere)