Wolfblade

Last year I read and enjoyed the Harshini trilogy--set in Medalon. Now Fallon moves to the country south of Medalon to Hythria and goes back in time to tell the back story of Damin Wolfblade -- a lively and appealing character in the Harshini set.

After a slow beginning (one single evening takes up 100 plus pages) WOLFBLADE steadily picks up steam. The introduction of part-Harshini sorcerer Wrayan Lightfinger and the dwarf Eleazaar brings life into the tale. The main character, Damin's mother, Marla, matures convincingly from an airhead of 16 to a savvy 24, with a couple of dead husbands and a murder under her belt --- you go girl.

I quite enjoyed this book. I read the Demon Child series before this, but the Damin and Hythria plot was my favourite aspect of that, so being able to read a whole book on Hythria was enjoyable for me. I personally enjoyed the political aspect to this fantasy. The world building was fun to read and I learnt a lot about this world.

The reason I gave it 3.5 stars is because of the last 200 pages or so. There was a lot of time jumping which felt weird considering the first 400 pages had been during one aspect of their life. I didn't particularly like that, though I do look forward to the next book being a much older Damin!

In many ways this shouldn't be this good a book. The characters are largely quite predictable, stereotypical almost to the point of charicature, the good are wonderful, heroic or saintly, the bad are dastardly and wicked. The plots aren't as hackneyed as you'd guess from the characters, but they're not exactly ground-breaking either.

However, two things change that. The first is the story of Marla, her change from a callow youth who falls in love with the first handsome young man she meets to an astute, powerful individual who understands her place in the world and how to use it to protect the interests of her children.

This is a prequel to the Demon Child trilogy, which I have read but long enough ago I'm hazy on the details. They're show more details to a moderately small part of the Demon Child trilogy from what I do remember so at least for me there wasn't any real sense of disappointment as I so often find in prequels.

I'm looking forward to the next book. show less

With Wolfblade, Jennifer Fallon goes into the past of the world she created for the Hythrun Chronicles. This is story of Marla Wolfblade, mother of).

Jennifer Fallon returns to the world she created in the Demon Child Trilogy, only around 20 years in the past. This time she explores the life of Marla Wolfblade, mother of the famed warlord Damin Wolfblade. It was a marvelous choice. Even though the glimpses of Marla in the Demon Trilogy were few, she was intriguing, irascible, politically expedient and very intelligent. I was delighted to be given the opportunity to learn more about Hythria, Marla and her son, Damin (the Hythrian Warlord in the original trilogy). We learn how Marla got to her position. We also see the young Damin – and show more the influences that turned him into the skilled Warlord we met in the earlier series.

We learn more of the Harshini gods, including Dace the God of Thieves (my personal favourite); Brak the HalfBreed is also back, along with his endearing demons. Elezaar, the dwarf courtesa, is a masterful addition to the lexicon of conflicted advisors.

If you love politics, great characterization, detailed, and varied social, economic, and religious world building plus a believable magic system, you will love this book. If you have already read the first three, you can be assured you will like the added details to the back-story that this book provides. Fortunately, I held off reading this one till I had all three books in the series so I don’t have to wait! show less

Jennifer Fallon excels in just about every area, great dialogue, tricky politics, awesome characterization, and intricate world building. I have to admit though; my favorite characters are the gods and the Harshini demons. I love the whole system actually. Dace, the God of Thieves is just hilarious and the young demons crack me up. Even better then interactive gods though is a god dependent magic system that just plain makes sense.

Full Review Here:

Dragons, Heroes and Wizards

Plot: Coming-of-age plus coming-into-power, with a lot of political maneuvering, the occasional murder and a dash of lost civilzation magic. Good pacing and development.

Characters: It's great to see character development happen. The central character does a lot of growing, as do a few others. The occasional stereotyped or exaggerated side character can be accepted in light of that. Convincing female lead character.

Style: The book builds up tension and manages to maintain it until the end. The writing isn't extraordinary but serviceable, description and background info is sufficient.

Plus: Lots of plotting. A female lead who manages to use her brain, occasional male side characters who ditched morals a few centuries ago. Romance show more doesn't win.

Minus: The gods can be annoying and aren't all that interesting, along with the Harshini.

Summary: An entertaining fantasy tale that goes beyond questing or simple plots and manages to be actually twisted.

Addendum: Chronologically this is the first book in the Hythrun Chronicles, but it numbers as fourth. show less

For a book picked out at random (no reccomendations) I was most pleased.
The book is setting is medeval, It centrers arround the workings of an upper class, infact the royalty of the area, There is also imput from the Slaves and how they are affected.
The role of women in this book is very important and it is well thought out. How it is possible for a society to be based on the dominance of men, yet to have some with power. The reaction of others to the dashing of a young girls dreams was very telling and rang so true.
The characters are very dimentional and you are able to see where the motivation for thier actions are commiing from.
To have two groups of people who are affected by the whims of others was very interesting, and the show more differences as to how they percieved themselves and the expectations telling.
My only complaint is the ammount of empasis on sex, but it is not out of keeping with the story, you simply have to realise that sex and intamacy is important to people show less