The Sands of Ethryn (Volume 6)

The Gates of Heaven #6

by C.S. Lakin

The ancient and acclaimed land of Ethryn is dying from pervasive drought, and while the king searches to find water, a mighty tower is uncovered in the desert. King Kael hopes the scroll found near the altar will tell of water sources, but when he touches the gemstone set in the altar, he falls into a coma that transports him back five thousand years where he is a slave building the tower.

Sha’kath, the wizard who oversaw the building of the tower all those centuries ago, had cast a spell that brings sand bubbling up from the ground so the workers can make bricks and complete the tower’s construction.

In the past, the king, whose is a young villager named Lael, is pursued relentlessly by God, given visions and declarations that he has been chosen to be a deliverer and a prophet , but Lael keeps fleeing. Then, when the tower is completed, heaven appoints him as deliverer, and he and his companions escape and head to their villages. God directs Lael to the sacred site and makes him the Keeper, then reveals his great power as he brings down judgment upon the world, confusing languages and scattering all in rebellion and defiance. Lael is shown the beginnings of Ethryn―a fertile and prosperous land that will become a great kingdom―and then he returns home to his family, where he fully embraces his destiny and delivers those who will listen. God then destroys his village with fire, but Lael leads his contingent to the sacred site and a new beginning.

At the end of his life, Lael―who has watched Ethryn grow and prosper and who has been a gifted healer―returns to the tower to place his poem in the chest and put the gemstone on the altar. Before he takes his last breath, he turns and sees a girl―who is Ra’daf of the future―and when he dies, King Kael in the future wakes from his long sleep. Upon awakening he finds Ra’daf nearly dead by his bed―for the vizier had tried to stop her from waking the king with the amaranth in the vase. Lael heals her, and the vizier flees, unable to locate his secret chamber, but intent on discovering the locations of all seven sites and destroying them all. Kael, upon reviving, now knows where the site is buried under sand and takes his people there, where he again is set up as Keeper, and now, with heaven’s blessing, water erupts from the ground and ends the drought.

Genres: Fantasy, Christian Fiction

356 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2013

Reviews

[Kat Heckenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Maybe it's because the stories are starting too feel too similar for me, but this one didn't hold up *quite* as well as previous books from this series. The characters feel familiar in the sense that they are too close to the characters from Lakin's other Gates of Heaven books. The villains in the last three novels are pretty much interchangeable.

That said, the story world is as rich as ever, and Lakin's writing is still very strong. I love that this is a series that does not have to be read in any particular order! And I really liked that this story took place in two different time periods. Lakin has a knack for writing tales that connect future and past--which is one reason my favorite in the series is The Map Across Time.

Anyway, if you are a fan of the series, then you will enjoy this book because it does fit nicely with the others. If you haven't read any of the series yet, this is as good a place as any to start--maybe even the best place to start because if you do like it you'll know it'll get even better in the other novels :).


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[Allynn Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you have an interest in fairytales or Christian fiction Ms. Lakin's The Sands of Ethryn, the next book of her The Gates of Heaven series, is sure to please. It is fascinating how she ties her fairytale together with a unique combination of biblical stories (Noah and the flood, Tower of Babel, etc.) cultural legends or other fairy tales (Stone Henge, gryphons, Atlantis, immortals, dinosaurs, etc.) as well as elements of time travel and past lives. Ms. Lakin gives us a complex story that keeps us guessing. You should make this series a part of your must read list. Enjoy!

[Rebekah Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best in the series but still good. By the end you can see all of the books finally starting to come to a head.

[Kerr Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great family read! This is the second book in the series that my family and I have read. We love the way Lakin writes. We highly recommend this book.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book six in 'The Gates of Heaven' series. I had not read any of the previous fantasy volumes.
I found the first chapter about a man looking at the decay of his world, too long and full of stuff I knew nothing about, with wording complex enough to deter some young adult readers.
Once I got past that and into the story proper, matters improved and the characters became more sympathetic, the story busy and lively.

Excavations uncover a ruined tower complex in a drought-stricken land with an exciting discovery of an altar and scroll, and a talisman jewel which sends the elderly king into a trance when he touches it.
Ra’daf is a young scribe who has a gift for translation of ancient languages, so she is asked to decipher the venerable scroll, in the hope that it can save the king.

While it's not explicitly clear, in the past, a young village man called Lael is grabbed by a slaver who needs men to work on a giant tower, planned to reach heaven itself. Raban the builder has discovered how to make lime mortar to bind sand into bricks, and the tower is already huge. A wizard named Sha’kath shows Raban that plenty of sand is to be had in Ethryn, far off but the wizard can arrange transport. The wizard knows that the sand dropping through the sinkhole he creates is coming from thousands of years in their future. In that future, Ra'daf sees the sinkhole develop at the ruins and wonders where the sand is going.... Clearing the sand from the tower area suits the wizard's scheming purposes, uncovering vicious animated stone gryphons, but he endangers the entire world.

Once you see how the pieces fit together it does become easier to follow and the first part then becomes relevant, so at midpoint in the story, or at the end, anyone who skipped through that first chapter might like to read it properly. I would recommend condensing it.

The series follows several sacred sites in this world with each one featured in a separate book. In this one the landscape depictions in both times were good and the reactions of the populace in general to events as well as the reactions of the individual characters, had been well thought out and described. The temporal cause and effect was clever.

There are some book-club type questions at the end which most fantasy readers won't read, but several of them press home correlations to Biblical myth, which I thought unnecessary. The author is of course free to base stories on anything she likes, but lecturing risks disengaging some of her readership, and frankly I was far more struck by the similarity to the poem 'Ozymandias'.

[Janette Hawke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sands of Ethryn
I'm new to The Gates of Heaven series but, as all the books stand alone, found this sixth story easy to engage with, even though a few echoes from its predecessors chimed in towards the end. As befits a fairytale fantasy, the nation of Ethryn stands on the brink of catastrophe with the desert encroaching ever faster as its people begin to leave for more bounteous lands. When King Kael-al-Falad is struck down into a seemingly evil enchanted slumber after handling a white gemstone taken from an altar atop a mysterious tower that has been discovered in the shifting dunes, it seems as though Ethryn's woes are only about to increase. With Ezbon, Kael's Vizier poised to assume power he has long coveted and, by his meddling in the dark arts, possessed by a demon whose fate is inextricably linked to the great tower, things look bleak indeed. Help is at hand from an unexpected quarter as Chief Archivist, Hashubah and his granddaughter, Ra'daf, who has a talent for translating archaic scripts, are charged with deciphering a scroll, also found at the base of the obsidian altar. As Hashubah and Ra'daf begin to hear the rhythmic beat of running feet from some unseen pursuer that seems to have been triggered by their reading of the ancient scroll, the King remains comatose, leaving the doctors and priests clueless as to how to restore him.
Ra'daf's unravelling of the mysterious scroll twines around the imperceivable visions of King Kael as he lives another life back in the mists of time before Ethryn existed, raises what could have been a fairly simple parable of reluctant heroes battling evil incarnate, into a multi-layered fantasy that takes in time travel, magic, faith and fortitude, where even the happy outcome becomes tainted by impending doom as the devilish Sha'kash seeks revenge on Heaven itself and lays the ground for the culminating episode of the series. There are also unexpected glimmers of reality and redemption within the human body of Ezbon as his imprisoned consciousness realises his folly and battles to wrest control from the demon Sha'kath, and thwart his plan to usurp Kael and use his former powers to turn Ethryn into a base from which to wage war on the rest of creation.
An enjoyable read with believable protagonists whose flaws become a source of strength and revelation, even if you haven't read all the other books.

[Orbs n Rings · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great cast of characters, yet lacked in structure. Not Lakin's best.

I am a huge fan of C. S. Lakin and have really enjoyed all books in "The Gates of Heaven Series." All the books in this series are connected to biblical stories. If you are familiar with the bible, you can and will easily distinguish and connect these moments in her stories.

The Sands of Ethryn goes back and forth between the present and past and some of the characters are also reincarnated. Because of this, I found myself having a very hard time trying to connect things throughout the book. For example, the connection between King Kael and Lael, didn't come until presented by the author. Yet the connection between the evil Sha'kath and the vizier is clearly evident.

I really enjoyed the great cast of characters presented by Lakin in this story. Ra'daf, one of the main characters is very prominent in this story. She felt very real to me, as well as many of the other characters. Nothing was lacking in the character department.

Personally, I found myself confused at times with the sequence of events and other tidbits. Like with Sha'kath and his quest to reach the inside of the tower. When he finally did arrive inside the tower, he didn't know what he was searching for. He then left and his object of desire was never clarified. I also felt Lakin dragged on and on about the footsteps situation. Overall, I felt Lakin didn't give this story as much thought or detail as her previous books. I am still a fan who is looking forward to Lakin's next book in the series and hoping it will be an improvement.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am delighted to have received an advance copy of the next installment in this series. I look forward to each of these books as they come!

It took a while for this one to click for me. The opening scene was fascinating and disorienting, which I have grown not to mind from Ms. Lakin, because it's fun to put together the pieces. However, the sense of darkness and despair in the first half of the book seemed virtually unrelenting. It made it hard for me to want to pick it up to read more. The evil characters seemed much more the focus, though this seemed to shift as the story continued.

In the end, I liked the "prequel" quality of this book, telling origins of Ethryn and the sacred sites. Lael was an interesting character whose journey I enjoyed. The references to the biblical Tower of Babel were enlightening, offering a more fleshed-out telling of not only the events themselves but possible motivations and means to building the tower as well. One of my favorite characteristics of this story was the "hourglass" through time - sand sifting from one point in history to another.

I haven't read "The Hound of Heaven" before, though I've heard of it, so I appreciated its inclusion at the end. I felt that the themes of the poem were very well integrated into the story.

I would recommend this book as part of the entire series , though I can't say it was my favorite on its own. I plan to re-read the entire series after the last book is released, so we'll see how having read it all affects my perspective. I look forward to finding out!

[Beth Arvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Described as an adult fairy tale, The Sands of Ethryn is a fast paced story with a time travel twist so well crafted that I was never confused as to which era I was currently in. A classical tale of good versus evil, it follows a young man from one era and a king in another, who have been running from their destiny to lead their people from an evil set on destroying humanity. In their attempts to run away from the path God has set, they learn that fulfilling His direction not only protects the people they love, but is the only path to personal fulfillment.

Supporting characters added mystery and suspense to the story as they worked to solve puzzles and clues to allow them to help move the main characters toward the triumphant conclusion.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to read The Sands of Ethryn by author, C. S. Lakin. Although this is the sixth book in The Gates of Heaven series, I have not yet read the preceding books and wanted to read it as a stand alone book. It worked out nicely, as any necessary back story was mentioned.. I was not asked to give a positive review.

This is a biblically based book that manages to avoid being preaching. I plan to buy the other books in the series. I recommend it for teens and adults.

[Leola · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like any of the Indiana Jones movies, or books/movies along the line of The Mummy, you’ll love The Sands of Ethryn. It’s not my usual reading genre, and I struggled at first to get into it. I had difficulty with the back-and-forth time periods and keeping everyone’s names straight, but once I got into, I couldn’t put it down. Excellent writing that gave me great visuals throughout the book. I felt like I was there and could picture the terrain, people, etc. I'm giving it to my teen grandson who will love it.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series!!!