Child of Light

A dangerous new world!

A young woman escapes from a prison with fourteen others. A prison in the middle of a desert area where humans are enslaved by beings termed goblins. A place where humans can be killed and eaten by the guards, or sent to baby farms for forced reproduction, ensuring a continuing population for the goblins use. All totally grotesque. And that’s only the beginning. I’m not a big fan of storylines with humans being eaten so that part grossed me out big time.
Nineteen years old Auris Acton Grieg manages to survive the escape and is rescued by a being Harrow, a Fae Watcher. Transported across the water to the magical fae stronghold, Viridian Deep, in the middle of a lush mountainous jungle. These surroundings bring show more to mind the lushness of areas met in the Voyage of Jerle Shannara. The first fae city is a place of wonderment but not all fae are as welcoming as Harrow. His mother Ancrow is of that ilk.
Auris begins a quest to reclaim her memory, to find out who she is. She cannot remember anything except for a vagueness around her parents, prior to when she was taken at fifteen. Harrow is convinced she’s half fae. Auris however decides she “ must live as best [she]can with the knowledge that everything is ephemeral and subject to change.” To my way of thinking this will become her mantra.
There are real questions. Dark in nature. What are the connections between the goblins and humans? What is the significance of this for all races?
Then there’s Auris’ interest in Harrow. Way too sudden! A by product of being rescued or something more? As Auris reflects, “ Yes, he rescued me, but that hardly seems reason enough for the sort of attachment I find myself yearning for.” Auris seems to berate herself for being self-delusional.
There’s much to ponder on various levels. I’m fascinated to see where all this might lead.

A Random House - Ballantine ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) show less

Edit out 90% of the yearning and 90% of the agonizing and this would be a decent action YA. Or dip the tone into mocking and it would be a decent spoof of a YA. But as is it's a tedious drawn out waste of any imagination went into it.

After Auris bravely escapes from being imprisoned by goblins in the middle of a wasteland, she is rescued by Harrow, a Fae. Auris remembers nothing of her life before her imprisonment, but she knows she feels at home in the Fae community and is increasingly attracted to Harrow. Together they set out to uncover Auris's origins, and to overcome the enmity of Harrrow's mother. Brooks has created a vivid new world for this first book of a new series, but I found it repetitive and in need of editing for length.

This book was my first Terry Brooks book ever read and unfortunately, the likelihood of me reading anything else by him is ruined.

The intro was so captivating where she is trying to escape a prison run by Goblins and loses all of her friends in the process. Action packed and intense.. for all of 20 pages.

She finds herself meeting Harrow, a fae male. He becomes 90% of what she thinks about. For some reason. There isn't any depth to their bond or relationship, it simply exists somehow.

We end up in a Fae city known as Viridian Deep. It's beautiful? But honestly not greatly described. Auris is so extremely bland. She washes herself, eats, and sits on benches for another 30% of the book.

She is trained on weapons by Harrow. Oh, nevermind for show more some reason she just knows how to use them all, but she has no memories of her past.

They bring her to Seers to see if she's part Fae and they determine she is and that she's likely a Changeling.

All Auris can think about is how she loves Harrow, but again.. why? He trains her and talks in old fashions and she just obsessively wants to spend her life with him despite not knowing anything of her past and being tortured in a prison for several years. Priorities.

Everything is peaceful until random battles have to happen. All of which are fought easily, because Auris is just naturally good at everything.

The same thoughts and sentences are repeated a million times throughout the book. Because if you haven't heard, she really loves Harrow.

The ending is predictable, her changeling self is discovered and she's marrying Harrow. Gasp. I didn't see that coming at all.

This book is the writing of an old man trying to be the voice of a young woman and it fails. show less

I quite enjoyed this book. The beginning was rather dark, then it slowly built into a tense adventure, with strong themes of family, identity, and self-discovery. I didn't particularly care for the YA-ish portions, but the action scenes and the real sense of peril more than made up for that. I've read most of the Shannara books, and this has nothing to do with those, and that is probably for the best. As much as I loved many of the Shannara entries, they had definitely become rather formulaic and repetitive. This book has a bit of that feel as well, but there's enough new here to keep things fresh. A good start to a new series!

This story is a big change from normal Terry Brooks books. It has a fairy-tale feel to it with a bit of danger, drama, mystery and light romance. I enjoyed it quite a bit. If you're looking for epic adventure this isn't it, but if you're looking for a fun read with a satisfying ending, give it a read.

A light, enjoyable story about a young human girl, Auris, escaping from tyranny. She finds an entire world of the Fae that she didn't know existed and secrets about her past she's been unable to ever remember. Good, some action, light. A bit on the YA side. Not related to any other Brooks novels.