Death Magic

Haven #6

by B.V. Larson

The Black Jewel awakens in DEATH MAGIC, book six of the series. Known as the Primal Jewels, the Black, the Quicksilver and the Sunstone have long been lost. This is the story of their return to the lands of Cymru. Many old evils stir. Four score marriages between the Fae and the River Folk result in interesting offspring that have not been seen for centuries. King Arawn of the Dead schemes to raise an army to invade the River Haven. The Kindred face a mysterious plague, Myrrdin is nowhere to be found and Oberon is up to something….Brand struggles to deal with the tricks of the Fae, the retreat of the Kindred and the rise of the Dead in DEATH MAGIC, the sixth book in this epic series of fantasy novels by bestselling author B. V. Larson.

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 4, 2011

About the author

Brian Larson is an American science fiction and fantasy author

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have been reading this series, then you will want to read this next book in the set. I didn't like it as much as some of the others, but I did enjoy the different viewpoints it presented. You get to see what happened after the men of the Haven marry Oberon's daughters. Also, you get to see the continuation of the story between Puck and the girl he marries and had a child with.

[Andrew Hale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death, Folly and Jealousy

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Death Magic Review

Six books down and I'm still interested in the lore and new threats that Larson gives us. Brand's berserker-style reactions to Ambros' paranoid chaos reminds me of Robert E. Howard's Conan with his steely resolve and menacing eyes. I wasn't fond of the jealousy between Telyn and Kaavi but I always enjoy a no-nonsense woman fighting for her own.

Larson's creative tales, written with smatterings of Welsh geography and mythology, as well as other folklore legends, have made for an enthralling series. Each book tends to get a bit darker, bloodier, but this 6th installment really brings out the horror of dead things that go bump in the night. Unfortunately, the worst death to witness comes in this sixth installment.

Brand feels a sense of peace now due to his budding family and endeavors to rebuild Castle Rabing. He also feels a nagging temptation to unleash Ambros on a violent wave of war. But the only true temptation at hand is the most beautiful shining fae he's ever seen: Oberon's daughter. Fortunately, Brand won't have to face this enthralling home-wrecker long because zombies are taking over. No, for real. Ambros is tired of docile family life and lusty folks. It's time to behead the dead.

Gudrin and her Kindred face a deadly infection left over from the recent Snowdon war. She'll have to burn it all or lockdown the fortress to the outside world to save her kind.

Myrrdin is very mad but it's not what you think. He's lonely too but he's OK with that now. Everybody was right to seek power and war over it, he has come to believe. So what is a powerful wizardly elf to do with such a perspective? He'll go back t0 his roots and engage his kinsman with vigor.


- Arawn - King of the Dead; silver staff with black jewel (given to him centuries ago by the Shining Lady, his wife); one of 9 kings who all held a jewel, swore to never raise an army except to defend himself
- Bret Silure - boastful nephew of Tad; careless and drunkenness causes him to lose the path between worlds and suffer a gruesome fate
- Cadmon - oldest son of Brand and Telyn
- Daz - Riverton cemetery caretaker; handsy with the newly dead
- Dera Drake - matron that runs Drake Manor
- Grasty - one-eyed Kindred foreman of the Workers Clan at Castle Rabing; betrays Brand to get Black Jewel from the Shining Lady
- Gwril Drake - bookish man who married elf Tegan; does not satisfy her and cannot have children
- Ivor - ogre son of Morcant & Tegan
- Jenny Fob - 10-y-o; short blonde hair; dad went to Twilight Lands for an elf wife
- Kaavi - Oberon's daughter; silver hair; orange eyes; curvey and most beautiful; twin sister, Llewella, axed by Brand earlier in series; has eyes for Brand
- Kalix - Pompolo's son; inherited the Spotted Hog inn
- Morcant Drake - ne'er do well; jobless only for handouts; drunken black sheep; becomes gravedigger and then an Arawn shepherd of the dead
- Roland - Drake Manor guardsman; watchman of High Street
- Rorvik - Gudrin guard who valiantly lost his arm and became the new captain of the guard
- Sofia - Wee Folk wise-woman midwife sent to Telyn by Tomkin
- Taffy & Dee - Brand & Telyn's twin daughters
- Tegan Drake - flame-haired elf that married Gwril Drake; affair with Morcant that leads to pregnancy (Ivor the ogre)
- Timmy Hoot - 1 of 5 kids kidnapped by zombie Morcant
- Trev Bowen - silver hair; half-elf son of Puck and Mari
- Yana Thunderfoot - 1 of 5 kids kidnapped by zombie Morcant

- Dead Kingdoms - 9 castle ruins; each held a Jewel of Power
- The Great Erm - the elves are as leery of these Twilight woods as the humans are of the Deepwood; everything is basically incredibly larger, from animals to plants; Oberon can now tame it with the red jewel

- Primal Three - most powerful Jewels out of the 9 (Sunstone white, Black, and Quicksilver)
- Core Jewels - Red, Blue, and Amber
- "mongrels" - Green, Orange, and Lavender

- Black Jewel - Arawn used this against his wizard friends who held the Primal Jewels as a group
- Quicksilver - resists other magicks and reflects the magic back on the weilder
- Sunstone - only part of the original, core of all jewels; power of all 9 jewels but less intense

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The penultimate book in the Haven series, and this time we find Brand and his friends having to cope with an army of the dead come back to life. The Shinning Lady is once again trying to get Brand to be her consort and take on the Black Jewel currently in the possession of her husband (King Arawn of the dead), but he refuses. Meanwhile the dead are rising all across the land and in Haven the killing has started.
Trapped underground beneath Castle Rabin Brand must find a way out, past the traps being laid by the Shinning Lady in order to return to Haven whilst there are still friends and neighbours to save.
As with the other books of the series Larson keeps the book relatively short (approx 200 pages) which forces him to not waste words and to drag the story out with overly wordy descriptions of things, he gets straight to the action. Whilst the reader is always experiencing the story from Brand's point of view Larson does a good job of bringing a cross section of feelings and experiences into the Brand's perspective. We experience the tension that is always there in cross race dealings, (human to elf and wider Fae, Fae to Kindred etc.) and this all adds to the enjoyment of the story.
Looking forward to seeing how Larson does with the final story, not only to see how me manages to tie up the story's loose ends but also whether he will be able to maintain the pace of the story with Dream Magic being double the size (400 pages) of all the other books in the series.

[pdarnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew! Thus far, the last of this series. This seemed darker than prior books, or it could be I came back to the series after too long of a gap between the books. Dealings with the black jewel, the undead, a precocious wee half elf half human boy, fairy maidens taking human husbands, Brand rebuilding his historical castle, treachery, jealousy, friendship, abandonment, death and redemption. There is a lot going on and not to forget the wizard Myrrdin who has quite an interesting side tale happening. I'm left wondering if there is possibly another book to this tale some time in the future. This seemed to have ended too abruptly and left many questions unanswered.

[Mr. Weller · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, entertaining on the level that it will give you something to read between favoured authors. I find the plot predictable, with an almost formula like plan... young farm boy turns into hero, etc."

[Sarah Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very exciting.