The Lyre Thief

Full review at The Speculative Herald: http://www.speculativeherald.com/2016/03/14/review-the-lyre-thief-by-jennifer-fa...

4.5/5 stars

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon is packed full of all my fantasy favorites. Assassins, thieves, undesirable arranged marriages, scandalous secrets, switched identities, bandits, magic. Oh, and dragons. It checks lots of boxes, and honestly, it does it all quite well.

I quickly became engrossed with the characters. The story is told through numerous POVs, but all are done well and all provide clearer insight to the overall picture. Quickly you can identify a pair of sisters as being central to the story.

Rakaia is a princess of Fardohnya, which on the surface sounds like a pretty good life. Until you learn show more the real details. She is one of scores of daughters of the King who has a harem, so lots of wives, lots of children. In addition to his wives, the harem also includes court’esa. These are men and women who are experts in the art of sexual pleasure. Somehow of out of all the children born to the King from his legitimate wives, only one of them is a son. The rest? Daughters that he can use for political or economic advantage as they are traded off as wives to secure some advantage for the king. Pretty much, they are just a commodity he has in excess.

Since she was very small, she has been inseparable with her half sister Cherisee. Cherries is the King’s daughter from one of the court’esa. As she is not a legitimate daughter, her role in life has been to be a slave and servant to Rakaia. The two girls are close in age as well as close in appearance. They become more than just servant and princess, they become close friends and playmates.

But Rakaia was not destined to keep the pampered life of a princess. Her mother has a secret, one that makes her fear for her daughter’s safety and future. For this reason, she works out a deal to have Rakaia sent off to marry a border lord who is probably close to 80, and if the rumors are true, also syphilitic. Nice. What young girl wouldn’t be thrilled with that prospect! Now enters the plan of switched identities! It will call for Rakaia to flee, leaving Cherisee to take her place as princess and bride. So, Cherisee is left trying to play the role of pampered princess, a role where she must learn to think more about herself and her own desires instead of always looking to make everyone else happy. And Rakaia is left completely on her own, needing to leave her royal life as just a memory and learn how to survive in a world she has been quite sheltered from.

I would be remiss to not mention the role of gods in this story as well. They can walk amongst us humans, and do. I have to say, this added an extra layer to both the world as well as my enjoyment. They could be quite entertaining! And then there is the conflict of the tiny stolen lyre. A token of the God of Music that is worth more than you would think. Without it, everything could change.

I can’t say the book is without imperfections, but the ones I found I realized I just did not care. This is a book that had me reading late into night, and I realized before finishing it was also one that would leave me craving the next book because the further I read, the less pages I saw remaining, the more I felt I was just not ready to put the book and story down. I eagerly wait for the next installment so I can find out what happens next! show less

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon is the first book in a new series, The War of the Gods, set in the same world as the Hythrun Chronicles and the Demon Child Trilogy. It is set about ten years after the events in the Demon Child Trilogy and features many characters from both older series, as well as several new characters.

I have always been a fan of Fallon's books, since I first read the Second Sons trilogy, and my enjoyment of her writing has not wavered with this new addition. If you are familiar with the Hythrun Chronicles, that's the Fallon series this book most reminded me of. Furthermore, while this first book in a new series provides a reasonable jumping-on point, I don't particularly recommend starting here. It's not completely show more necessary, but I do recommend reading the Demon Child series and the Hythrun Chronicles to understand more about the recurring characters' back stories. About half the main point of view characters are recurring and half are new (this is out of I think five point of view characters, one of whom I don't think was very prominent in the earlier books.

Having said all that, it's been rather a while since I read the earlier two series. I think I last reread the Hythrun chronicles six or seven years ago, so my memory of the minutiae was hazy at best. While I had no trouble following the story in The Lyre Thief, giving this, I would have enjoyed it even more, I think, if the memory of "wait, who's that again? The name seems familiar" had been fresher in my mind.

As I said, there were five point of view characters in this book. There's Rakaia and Charisee, royal and baseborn sisters, respectively, whose shenanigans after Rakaia is promised to an old Hythrun lord attract the attention of the God of Liars. There's High Princess Adrina, sister of the aforementioned two and wife of Damin Wolfblade. There's an assassin, the Demon Child (which, actually, wasn't capitalised in the book, which kind of bothered me), a Fardohnyan seneschel... All of whom get entangled in interweaving plots and schemes.

One of the things I love about Fallon's work is how she writes intrigue with several characters having independent goals and schemes which just happen to overlap in entertaining ways. Most of the time, characters are just doing their thing without particularly considering how it might be affecting other people (especially when it's other people they don't even know well).

This is a long book with many characters, but one that I found difficult to put down. Aside from forgetting details from the earlier books about recurring minor characters, I had absolutely no trouble filling the story in The Lyre Thief. Even though there were long gaps between scenes for some of the characters (one in particular, but I don't want to spoil things), Fallon made everything memorable enough that I had no trouble remembering what they were up to.

I enjoyed The Lyre Thief a lot and the only disappointing thing is that I now have to wait a while for the next book! It didn't end on a huge cliffhanger or anything (well, maybe a small one? It was more of a hook for the next book. What constitutes a cliffhanger these days?) but most of the plot lines are unresolved and I want to know what happens next to all the characters! Very much looking forward to book two (which I think is still a year away :-/ ).

I highly recommend The Lyre Thief, especially to fans of The Hythrun Chronicles and The Demon Child Trilogy. You don't have to have read those two earlier series before you read this one, but I think that it would help. For those unfamiliar with Fallon's work, she writes excellent action and political intrigue focussed fantasy. Mostly the intrigue with many intertwining threads.

4.5 / 5 stars show less

3.5/5 stars

I enjoyed this continuation of the Hythrun Chronicles, but I didn't like the new main characters as much. The plot was interesting, but it felt like not a lot of explanation or world building was given. There was too much mystery. Also, Mica needs to get over himself, and R'Shiel needs to stop being so selfish. It was a fun story, but I wish I connected with the characters more. It also felt really incomplete. Nothing was resolved, just more problems made. Hopefully the next book tightens things up.

Pretty good, moving on to yet another set of characters and some big problems that start small.

DNF

Ik ben helemaal verslaafd aan deze serie. Heerlijk. Alleen moet ik nu wachten tot deel 2 (of 8) uitkomt. En dat kan blijkbaar nog wel even duren. Humor, spanning, goden en schurken. Absoluut heerlijke fantasy.