Valor of the Healer

Rebels of Adalonia #1

by Angela Highland

The Rook

An assassin hired by vengeful elven rebels to kill the calculating Duke of Shalridan, Julian walks into a trap and barely escapes with his life. Healed by a beautiful captive in the dungeons, he's enthralled and vows to free her from the duke's clutches.

The Hawk

A Knight of the Hawk duty-bound to cleanse elven magic from Adalonia, Kestar has a secret�and heretical�ability to sense the use of magic from afar. He knows something suspicious is happening in the duke's keep, but he has no idea how deep the conspiracy goes.

The Dove

A half-elven healer with no control over her magic, Faanshi is the goddess's to command. She's always been a pawn of the powerful, but after healing two mysterious and very different men, she faces a choice that may decide the fate of the whole kingdom…

Book one of the Rebels of Adalonia

113,000 words

Genres: Fantasy, Romance

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2013

About the author

The very first thing Angela Highland ever wrote, at age 8, was a short story about a girl spirited away to rule over the leprechauns for a day. She progressed rapidly to pretending to take notes in class when she was actually writing novels, and writing fanfic before she had any idea what fanfic was! Music has been a part of her life almost as long, thanks to six years playing flute and piccolo in school band and an adulthood dabbling in flute, guitar, bouzouki, and mandolin. In anything she writes, music is likely to make an appearance.

Angela (Anna the Piper to her friends) lives in Kenmore, Washington, along with her partner and housemate, two cats, and a whole heck of a lot of computers and musical instruments. Despite the fact that she is a mild-mannered former employee of a major metropolitan newspaper, rumors that she is a superhero are exaggerated. (Even if she did pull the door off a refrigerator.)

Under the name of Angela Korra'ti, she writes the Free Court of Seattle series (including Faerie Blood). As Angela Highland, she writes the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy, forthcoming starting in April 2013 from Carina Press! Come say hi to her at angelahighland.com!

Reviews

[Tiger Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welp. I loved it.

Ratings are so subjective. I say that because this book did have flaws, chiefly among them that it's not exactly reinventing the wheel in any way. Of course I don't think that's required for a book to be good, but the characters are certainly stock archetypes. Faanshi in particular suffers a little as a result, since as a sheltered slave girl she doesn't have much personality for the first 2/3s. Nor is the basic plot structure anything I haven't read a thousand times. It very much reminded me of Dragon Age: Origins. Mages are enslaved, there are seekers of the church who track down errant magic users, politics are bloody and treachery abounds, etc etc.

However despite those complaints, I set the book down wholly satisfied. I am not a big believer in the whole omg everything needs to be bleeding edge unique in order to be interesting school of thought. Even though currently I write urban fantasy and read primarily non fiction, when I was a child I read secondary world fantasy much like Valor of the Healer. The old familiar trappings of those worlds didn't turn me off here, for the most part, but rather gave me some nice memories of what it felt like to pick up Mercedes Lackey's Magic's Pawn for the first time.

The real strengths of this novel are in the tone, and in the sensory details. Never once does the high fantasy narration falter. Early on in the novel Angela mentions the scent of oranges, enlivening a scene we've all watched a hundred times, the hired killer moving towards escape while using his target as a meat shield.

Also even though the characters are the usual fantasy archetypes, I did very much care about them. There's a scene about 3/4 of the way in where Faanshi stands up to Julian that I found very satisfying. Ulima stabbing and killing the Duke was likewise awesome I even said you tell em or fuck yeah out loud once or twice. If a book does that, it succeeds. It doesn't matter what it's about or what flaws it has.

One thing I found interesting is that the antagonists, father Everly and the Duke, really read to me like red herrings. They're menacing, but in a way they never really take center stage. I think that's intentional, as the real antagonists of this tale are internal, personified as battles with the self.

I am also a huge sucker for hurt/comfort stuff, so I ate up all the scenes with Julian, Kestar, and Faanshi. I suspect romance is in the offing, though there are a lot of possibilities. Not the least of which is, I suspect Julian's partner in crime leaves him behind out of jealousy (Rab, you have a crush on your buddy don't you?). I also wonder if the three main characters are all headed for some kind of trio romance. What? I like romance! And I will always like broken people coming together to strengthen each other.

There are a lot of lovely moments, like Faanshi cleaning Julian's empty eye socket and Kestar claiming the psychic meadow for his own.

The author also did a good job showing Cel and Kestar's friendship. The end of chapter 19 is awesome. There are plenty of unresolved threads to entice me in to buying the next one, which I will definitely snap up as soon as possible.

OH and I am going to call it now: big evil goddess is an imprisoned elvish mage

[Lynsey is Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valor of the Healer

I was very impressed by this. I was unsure what to expect because the synopsis sounded like standard fantasy fare with maybe a bit of courtly politics and some magic. Yet the cover seemed to be saying something entirely different... I'm not totally sure what. Having read the book, there is still a disconnect between the cover's tone and, if that's meant to be Faanshi, physical description accuracy. But, hey, it's just a cover. In the grand scheme of things, it's not even a bad cover. I've seen worse. I just don't think it does the quality of the book justice. Also, if by looking at it you're expecting this book to have some kind of badass magical staff-wielding heroine main character, then you'd be misled there also. Faanshi is many things, a badass not one of them. Not yet, anyway.

So, what's it about? Well it's a story - more accurately, the strong beginnings of a story - about a slave girl, reviled and revered in unequal measure for her uncanny ability to heal through magic. If you're familiar with Maria V. Snyder's Healer series, this will feel like familiar territory for you in that, just like Avry in that series, to heal, Faanshi has to first assume the person's injuries. With the notable exception that in this world, Faanshi doesn't actually have to manifest the wounds, just feel the pain, and that pain then ignites her power. A power she is unable to resist using. It will literally build within her until she's mindless with it, willing to crawl on hands and knees across hot coals if need be to touch the injured person and release it. Unfortunately, for Faanshi, this lack of control has forced her keeper/master/captor/asshat the Duke, to lock her in the dungeon for the last four years, because magic is forbidden and he should have reported her to the Hawks oh, say, 18 years ago when she was born, instead of squirelling her abilities away for himself.

So that's the general set-up and the comparison to Snyder is a good one in that, if you like her work, you will likely enjoy this, too. But actually, when I was reading VALOR OF THE HEALER, I kept thinking how it would be great for fans of Lisa Shearin, Michelle Sagara and the like. I think it might have been the weird and wonderful character names and the elf thing. Large casts and funky made up names can sometimes be a problem for me because my memory is pants and I get aggravated when I can't remember who's who, but this one wasn't so bad. The names were at least readable. Take note, Shearin.

The plot, although slow-moving at times, had lots of varied and well-crafted characters to keep readers occupied. Even those who only made the briefest of appearances were worthy of page time. Essentially though, as the synopsis suggests, we follow three main "voices" and alternate POVs between them. There's Kestar (The Hawk), a man whose job is to track down magic users to have them 'Cleansed' (removed of magic); Julian (The Rook), an assassin hired to kill the Duke of Shalridan. And Faanshi (The Dove), a half-elven slave girl. Out of the three options, I would probably have preferred more time with Faanshi and Julian because their relationship was more interesting as they got to know each other, but I absolutely understood the need to follow Kestar's journey and witness his perspective-changing discoveries.

Faanshi, our heroine, was an extremely passive character. A brain-washed slave, completely ignorant to life beyond the walls of her "home". She, like many people who are told they have no worth, believes it to be true of herself and has learnt to accept (although not happily) the dictates and cruel treatment of her master, the Duke of Shalridan. She's meek, timid and cringingly submissive. Got that whole kicked puppy vibe going on nicely. She was quite a religious character, too (although, this being an alternate world, it's not any religion you'd be familiar with). This also, in a way, dictated much of her behaviour. Her faith tells her she shouldn't be proud, or angry, or unappreciative, or any other kind of selfish or vain emotion. All this, combined with her confinement because of her alleged madness, and you've got merely the bare bones of a personality left. But the spark is there. And I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe that before this trilogy is done, we won't even recognise Faanshi as the cowering girl we met in this novel. And I, for one, can't wait to see it.

The Rook, or Julian (or Richard or whatever other fake name he's given to people this week), was even more interesting in his way. He's maimed (missing one hand and one eye) and has been for a dozen years or so. We don't know what happened exactly, other than that someone he knew well did it to him. Whether or not he deserved what happened to him I am yet to discover. He is an assassin, after all, so it's highly possible he wasn't a complete innocent in the whole affair. But assassin or not, I loved him and felt bad that he was in pain. He's not your swoop-in-and-rescue-the-damsel type of hero; he's much more subtly nuanced than that. But I still see the makings of a hero nonetheless. He's not much of a talker, and when he does it's gruff and usually impolite. But still, he won my affections, sympathy and admiration. I absolutely cannot wait to see him again in the next book (there better be a next book, I don't see one listed anywhere yet!), because he, too, is a character that's about to change dramatically methinks!

I definitely didn't want the book to end where it did. It wasn't a cliffhanger, but at the same time, I still wanted to swear like a sailor at where she left us. So very mean!

I'll definitely keep my eye on this series and this author. I hope people give it a go (particularly if you like the above-named authors), and that you enjoy it as much as I did.

4 Stars ★★★★

[Kelly]

Valor of the Healer by Angela Highland is epic fantasy set in a robust world. I’d been looking for a book like this for a while and once I started reading, I found it difficult to stop. The three main characters had distinct voices and each called to me to finish their story. Of course, with the novel being fantasy, the story isn’t done at the end of this book, but this particular chapter is brought to a satisfying conclusion with just enough unanswered questions to invite the reader to continue on.

Elves are reviled in Adalonia. Their blood carries the curse of magic. Faanshi has enough elven features to mark her out – pointed ears, though now they are scarred from mutilation, and eyes with an unmistakable glow. But it is her ability to heal that makes her life a misery. She can’t control it any more than she can control her own fate. She is a slave, the property of the Duke of Shalridan, who is very aware of her heritage and power.

The Hawks are an order of the Church charged with seeking out and cleansing those unfortunate enough to be tainted by elven blood. Kestar Vaarsen is one such Hawk. His partner, Celoran, is used to Kestar’s odd premonitions. They’re mystifying, but obviously not evidence of magic. Kestar has never caused his amulet to glow as one with elven blood might. Following Kestar’s latest feeling toward the Duke of Shalridan’s Keep is going change their perception of what magic is, however.

Julian is an assassin. While the fact he is missing a hand and an eye might reflect badly on his proficiency, the botched mission at the beginning of the book isn’t his fault. He and his companion, an irascible fellow named Rab, have been sold out. The duke’s men were waiting for them. Julian is injured during his escape and then healed by Faanshi, whose magic compels her to fix whatever is broken.

For all his faults, Julian has a deep sense of honour or maybe he simply likes his tally sheet to balance. When he decides to gift Faanshi with her freedom as payment for her healing, he doesn’t expect to walk into a complicated plot. Nor does he expect that plot to be related to the foiling of his assassination attempt on the duke. Likewise, neither does Kestar expect to become embroiled in a web of secrecy and lies or for that veil of innocence requisite to any holy soldier to be cast aside.

Faanshi never expected to be free.

Julian, Faanshi and Kestar are supported by a cast of secondary characters that thicken the weave of this tale to a rich and weighted tapestry. There are more than three agendas here, but none are so disparate as to detract from the pattern. Author Angela Highland has put together a convincing world that feels thoroughly lived in and her familiarity with it translates to the sort of confident story telling that doesn’t slow for vast tracts of history and back story. I had questions about her world, but I suspect they’ll be answered on a need to know basis, which is fine. I’d rather read about what people are doing than where they are staying, after all.

It’s the characters that drew me back to this world over and over, though. Valor Of The Healer is the kind of book you think about when you’re not reading, that you look forward to picking up again when you have the time. Julian is my favourite. He’s a rogue who grows a heart, though I suspect he’s always had one. His character arc doesn’t cling to a prescribed formula, though, and his friendship with Rab takes on some surprising turns. Likewise, Kestar and Celoran’s partnership is thoroughly tested with the outcome uncertain. Kestar is the character I would like to get to know better. Faanshi is at the centre of this novel. She’s the woman who comes into her power but as she learns to control it, others seek to use it and her to their own ends – evil, evil ends.

The climax of the tale is thrilling, but as mentioned at the beginning of this review, there is still so much more story to tell. I already have the next book, Vengeance of the Hunter, on my kindle and I can’t wait to read on.

Written for SFCrowsnest.

[Dee Eisel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. To be honest, I wanted to enjoy it more.

Highland does a good job of showing, not telling, about her characters and their personalities. The problem is that I didn't really care for any of them all that much. Faanshi is Brave and Out Of Her Depth. The Rook is A Better Guy Than He Wants To Think He Is. Kestar is Noble and Conflicted. The villains need mustaches to twirl. There's nuance beyond that, but I found myself wanting them to just get on with it already.

I did like the telepathic bond between Faanshi and Kestar. I'm a sucker for telepathy in stories and I thought it was handled very well. I also liked the budding relationships between Faanshi and her kin. Most of all, I was relieved there wasn't *more* of a love story going on. I would have found that stretching the bounds of plausibility. It's hard enough to take that Faanshi isn't more damaged by her background. I am glad for that - any more damage would have made the book hard to read - but it's only just in the realm of the plausible.

I'm very much hoping that the second book keeps the plot moving and doesn't get bogged down in relationships.

Full disclosure: Though we are not close friends, I have known Highland as an acquaintance since 1993.

[Lee French · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has great characters and a solid plot. It's the first of a trilogy and focuses on the Healer. She begins meek and grows into full personhood with a deft, natural progression of character development. The assassin and soldier have less growth, which isn't surprising given that each man has his own book in the trilogy.

I found Faanshi's portrayal to be subtle and striking, and entirely believable. Julian struck me also a very real person. Kestar seemed to be the weak link among the trio, though he's in the background for most of this part of the story and I suspect he'll shine in the final book, Victory of the Hawk.

None of the secondary characters were scene-stealers or left a significant impression. I did sometimes find myself wishing Celoren could have had more POV time. The various elven and horse names got to be a little much to juggle towards the end.

While I did like this book, it didn't grab me by the neck and demand I read it. It's still good, solid traditional fantasy, and I recommend it for folks who enjoy that genre.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with a bang as Julian tries to assasinate the evil Duke and ends up escaping only thanks to the wild magic healing power of Faanshi, a half-elven slave. It's impossible NOT to root for Faanshi as she strives for freedom and to overcome a lifetime of being told she's worthless.

This was one of those books where one plotline, Julian and Faanshi's, appealed to me more strongly than the secondary one involving Kestar--though I did like the magic link.

Quibble: Did we really need to know the names of ALL of the horses? I had enough trouble keeping the elves straight.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written fantasy. strong, fully fleshed out characters. good pacing. action, adventure, elves, magic!

[Siv Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, just a slow pace sometimes that for me
made it loose a star. Still great book with a truly well
developed world build.

[Volpot · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars... but not sure I want to read any book 2

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewing my shelves, I liked this one more than the original 2 stars indicated. Bumping up to a three, because some of the scenes are still in my brain all these months later. Imagery was very descriptive, and vibrant.

[Katie]

I try to be patient with fantasy because they usually do take a while to get going, but I got past the halfway point and just wasn't interested enough to keep going.

[Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Not bad. I might have rated it higher but the use of the term "she-elf" really bothered me. Yes, she is a she, and also yes she is an elf. Still. Plus I can never say no to a wacky cover.