In the olden days, there was an epic struggle in the Kingdom of Lys. The Young God battled with the Serpent and imprisoned him with the help of the Knights of the Rose and the Ladies of the Isle. Now almost a thousand years later, a king who is a traitor to the religion threatens to destroy all that the Young God accomplished and bring the Serpent back to the world. It appears that the only people who are able to stop him are an heir to a duchy and a fatherless son of a peasant farmer. With the help of wild magic that seems inherent in them both, they stand together to use their power to stand against him and the minions of the Serpent.

This is a classic fantasy at it's basic. This is however a new version of an old formula, made more exciting than the original. While it is old school style to have evil that has been locked away in the world come back and have only a chosen few defend the world against it; this story allows for something different to come to the forefront. The characters of Gereint and Averil are both quite confused and very intuitive of each other.

More than likely this would not be someone's first choice of a novel to read. Too much other high fantasy is like it. I would however, recommend this book to those first starting out in the genre, who are tired of the same Arthurian legends replayed over and over again. This story's real focus is the coming into power at a dangerous time. The sensitivity that is given to both sides of this magic, as well as the urgency is also felt though out the novel. All can enjoy this as a classic.

This was a good fast read. Pretty short. A little contrived at times, and somewhat overt in its lifting from the Judeo-Christian theology. But overall well written. I liked the main characters, enough that sometimes I felt like throttling them for their actions. There's magic aplenty, if not quite explained. The concept of using glass to store magic is interesting. There is contact with gods, almost-understandable evil, suitable creepiness, and unrequited love. Something will happen to these characters to completely wrench them apart or draw them so close that none can sunder it.

I'd recommend this. I was a little put out to see it's actually copyrighted to Judith Tarr...who is not a bad author by any stretch, I like her quite a bit, really...but I thought it might be a new author. Eh. It's very obviously the first in a series. It moves along at quite a clip...there's not so much action, per se, but a good amount of tension and some mystery.

(from my site: http://etoiline.vox.com/library/post/...) ( )

This fantasy wasn't as good as The Name of the Wind or The Silver Ship and the Sea. Since I read those recently, I couldn't help comparing the three books. This one is medieval (kind of) and the princess has been with the nuns learning magic. A farmer boy has great magic but his mother wants him to stay on the farm. The two eventually meet and discover that together they have great power. They are attracted to each other, too, but won't do anything about it because society has no. She is a princess. He is godborn and lowly. This is the first of a series, so it doesn't really end. I'm not necessarily drawn to read book 2. So I won't. ( )

Pretty good fantasy, overall. Touching base with the War of the Rose is an interesting approach. I love what she's done with France and England of that time! Please, please hurry with the next volume... ( )