- I read a fantasy book years ago, and after wracking my brain (and my friend’s), we thought this might be it.
I also recommend:
- The Last of the Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichart
Summary from GoodReads:
In the peaceful land of Osten Ard, the good king is dying-and a long-dreaded evil is about to be unleashed. Only Simon, a lowly castle scullion apprenticed to a secret order dedicated to halting the coming darkness, can solve the dangerous riddle that offers salvation to the land.
My Review:
I am not gonna lie to you – this is some hardcore fantasy. I mean, I consider myself to be fairly well-read at this point in the whole fantasy genre thing… but this was nearly out of my league. It was like stepping into this room filled with all sorts of fantastic, historical facts and then made to watch a movie that assumed you had a passing knowledge of at least 50% of those facts. History lessons filled the pages in this first novel, and add into that a fair amount of world-building, in addition to some pretty heavy politics happening and it makes for a book that packs a helluva punch.
What kept me going though was Simon. I loved that moonfaced boy, and I wanted to know what will happen to him. I loved the myth of the three swords, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn – for whom the series is named after. And I ABSOLUTELY adored the Sithi – seriously, I haven’t felt that much love for a race of fantasy creatures since I was introduced to Tolkien’s elves. Loved, loved, loved them.
If you are a fantasy reader, and want a definite challenge – but one that is worth the challenge just for the Sithi and Simon alone, I recommend this series. I do plan to finish it – but first.. I need to recover a bit. I’m telling you, this was a helluva read.
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Wow! I love the cover, and am curious as to what you mean by hard core fantasy… as in extremely awesome? Or as in “hang on – this one is so far fetched you are going to need to take reality breaks?:
Hardcore meaning.. there’s a lot of back history, awesome stuff, but it’s like reading (in parts) a history textbook written about a completely different world.
I remember reading this- i was blown away, and fell in love with the characters just like you did. I want to go back and read it again someday. I never made it far into the second book, though- are you going to continue in the series?
I’ve read some of his other books and he does an excellent job at world building and creating whole cultures and history. I will have to look into this one as well.