BOOK BLURB:Lescar is a country mired in ancient grudges, with shifting ducal alliances persistently undermining any progress towards peace.
Those Lescari living in exile think they're helping by sending goods and money to their suffering kith and kin but that only sustains this on-going strife. Some exiles understand this, like the young scholars Tathrin and Aremil, in the distant city of Vanam.
Can they do anything to prompt change? Perhaps, if they can grasp the role of trade and finance in Lescar’s wars, as explained by Gruit, the venerable wine merchant who fled Lescar in his youth. If they can make common cause with the likes of Reniack the rabble-rouser, who escaped just before his own dukes’ militiamen hanged him.
Only if they can enlist the support of those Lescari nobles who turn to scholarship rather than risk politics, such as Lady Derenna. If they can contact those brave men and women still living in Lescar, who conspire to save the next generation from the worst of their own suffering.
Can magic be of any assistance, when the Archmage's edict forbids the use of wizardry in Lescar's wars, on pain of his extreme displeasure? But the elemental magics of air, earth, fire and water aren't the only enchantments in this world. There's Artifice, the ancient and subtle mental magic that intrigues some scholars. The Archmage has never claimed authority over that.
Scholarly debate is all very well but to turn such plans into action, they'll need soldiers and tactical information. Where will they find those?
REVIEW:
Authors either thrust the reader into the heart of the matter with their worlds or inevitably take their time to carefully build the world around the characters and its with this second option that Juliet has gone with the first offering in a new series by her for Solaris.
Whilst it is skilfully and beautifully created it is incredibly slow, plodding pace that is there to set the sequence of events within along with bickering politics that will unfortunately turn many a reader off from her writing style.
However, if you happen to love a carefully built plot that will lead up to events demonstrating that she plays for keeps then its going to be a series that will snare your imagination as you await the next novel in the series. With luck (and with most of the background established within this offering) the plot will pick up pace and the careful character creation will go on to prove a resounding success. But for me personally, I’m going to hold off either giving this a big thumbs up or a thumb across the throat (as the Roman’s did) until I get to see where the next novel leads.
BOOK BLURB:Those exiles and rebels determined to bring peace to Lescar discover the true cost of war. Courage and friendships are tested to breaking point.
Who will pay such heartbreaking penalties for their boldness? Who will pay the ultimate price?
The dukes of Lescar aren't about to give up their wealth and power without a fight.They won't pass up any chance to advance their own interests either, if one of their rivals suffers in all this upheaval.
The duchesses have their own part to play, more subtle but no less deadly.
REVIEW:
After the first offering from Juliet I was a little apprehensive as to how this title would develop yet its clear within the first few pages that with much of the world building done, this title is there to bring it all to light as this intense offering brings the best of fantasy to the fore. Beautifully written, ideally descriptive this title really does take off at a pace that few will find hard to believe after the first novel. Not that the world building and careful construction isn’t required it really did set the tone and give the reader a deeper understanding of the world to which they were to enter but its all been carefully done.
I really am looking forward to the next offering and don’t be surprised if what you expect to happen doesn’t as Juliet really does know how to misdirect the reader and if some of the lead’s pan out as expected the whole world will be in upheaval as the politics lead them down a darker path.
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