Minstrel

Tir Athair #1

by Marissa Ames

Arriving in the royal city of Cynegil just after the good king’s death, Liam and his traveling troupe face arrest for entertaining during a time of mourning. The new king, Riordan, offers them a choice: play for the court as he demands or be punished for the crime. With little recourse, they acquiesce. While the troupe entertains within the hall, Liam witnesses the dissension between the king and his twin brother, Shamus. When Shamus enlists Liam to record the kingdom’s history from his own viewpoint, the king becomes suspicious. And when Liam becomes involved with Molly, the mysterious redheaded washerwoman, and Tristan, the royal soldier with a deadly secret and a skill for causing unfortunate accidents, his life becomes even more complicated. As the kingdom staggers beneath drought, famine, and conflict, Liam and Shamus must flee Cynegil with prices on their heads. Will they survive their journey or will they become just another ballad to be sung?

Genres: Fantasy

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2013

About the author

Using details from a lifetime of research, Marissa Ames entertains both adults and teens with tales of action, adventure, and a little romance. Her novels Minstrel and Vassal immerse readers into the medieval-based fantasy world of Tir Athair. She is currently working on Huntsman, the third novel in the Tir Athair series, and collaborates with many worthy writers on diverse anthologies. In her real life, she manages a day job, a husband and two teenage children, and an entire urban farm just a mile south of downtown Reno, Nevada, in the United States. You can follow her blog at http://www.marissaames.com

Reviews

[Lara Hays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minstrel felt more like a historical novel than a fantasy novel, and as an avid fan of historical fiction, I was totally okay with that. While it took me a few chapters to get into the story, the main characters - Liam, Molly, and Shamus - developed organically and wholly and the plot was naturally developed as well. Minstrel is a smart read with sophisticated themes and plots, well-developed characters in a setting that reaches through the pages and grabs the reader. I could feel the sun and smell the dust. As the set up for a series, the ending was far more satisfying than I expected (I am so glad the book didn't end with a massive cliff-hanger) and Ames has perfectly arranged the pieces of her story like a set of dominoes - ready for action and so much more.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally read fantasy books but am so glad I read this one and may have to give the genre another go. It has everything you could possible want in a tale : Love, mystery, betrayal, heart stopping action sequences. The world created by Marissa Ames contains characters that are multi-dimensional and it was easy for me to loose all track of time when reading about the trails and tribulations of Molly and Liam.

If you like fantasy then please add this to your collection you won't be disappointed, it was very well written and has left me desperately waiting for the next in the series.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wonderfully engaging story of a peaceful kingdom’s fall into chaos is shown through the experiences of Liam, a traveling troubadour who finds himself trapped in between two princes fighting for control of the kingdom. Liam’s sense of justice and loyalty slowly pull him into a series of difficult choices, and his desire to simply move on to safer lands proves to be an impossible dream. His trials are masterfully told by Ames, and I only have one word of caution: this is one of those tales where over and over again characters that Ames has made you love suddenly die a brutal death.

[Rebecca Fyfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful story! Marissa Ames has created a multi-faceted world full of interesting and multi-dimensional characters. I couldn't put the book down until I finished the story and then I was sad that it ended because I wanted to remain lost in that world a while longer. I loved the book!

[Lisa Shambrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and captivating story set in medieval Tir Athair. Strong, fully-fleshed characters drive this tale, drawing you into a world where everything is about to change.
A minstrel and his band of players arrive in Cynegil, grumbling and penniless, and hoping to perform to gain enough to eat. It’s not going to be that simple…
Ames pulls no punches and plunges you deep into a kingdom suffering upheaval and change. Her narrative leads you, through the eyes of the minstrel, amid turmoil as Liam is plucked from nowhere and placed within the king’s court. Liam has little choice, but must decide where his loyalties lie and make some life-changing decisions that will affect the whole of Cynegil, and many lands that lie further abroad.
Subterfuge and mistaken identities abound and you will be enthralled as you begin to follow frustrated Liam, feisty Molly, and formidable royal twins amid an intense power struggle.
The strength of Ames’ writing lies within beautifully realised characters, well-developed world building, tightly drawn politics and authenticity. This is a delightful and intriguing story that will keep you reading, and leave you wanting more from Tir Athair.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minstrel by Marissa Ames is a detailed and insightful medieval historical-romantic fiction which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. As a student of medieval literature, I appreciated the in-depth description of the setting and characters. The author used her extensive knowledge of medieval times to truly capture the life of medieval people and the danger of court intrigue. All the characters, from the minstrel and his acting troupe, to the knights, ladies, princes, and peasants are richly drawn. The plot is satisfyingly complex and has romance, but in a very real way, true to the medieval world. The author drew me into the characters’ world and problems and there were some very gritty moments that enhanced this experience. If you love the Middle Ages, you will enjoy the world that Marissa Ames has created in Minstrel, as I did.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Review: This a fascinating book focusing on a minstrel and his band of performers. It is based mainly from the common peoples point of view of the corruption of power. After the death of the king two brothers vie for power of the kingdom. As usual the common people get caught and squeezed in the middle. I loved the ups and downs the main characters Liam and Molly faced as they danced in and out of the royal intrigue.

The only thing I am confused about is the prequel. I waited the whole book for the magic to be referred to that was told about in the prequel. Maybe it will come in future books. I think it should at least been referred to somehow. I wouldn't advise reading it first it just confuses. Standing alone this book is great. It gets a 4 star.

[Danna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a book with some good adventure without being gruesome and gory. This fit the bill, historical accuracy, believable characters and descriptive writing filled it out and made it more than just a fluff read. It started off ok (not too griping) but then once you get attached to the characters and your emotionally involved as the real action starts it becomes very gripping (so the first part took me way longer to read than the latter). I like to read multiple books at a time and at one point I snuck away and grabbed my book and started reading only to be disappointed that it was the other story and not this one that had been spinning around in my head as I made dinner. The only bummer is the wait for the next in the series...

[Sophie Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely debut novel. The hero, Liam, is a likable character caught in a difficult situation. The writing is crisp. The descriptions are beautiful. The author obviously spent a lot of time researching the time period, because the historical details come across as completely authentic. I have never read a book about a minstrel, and enjoyed learning about what his daily life might have been like. It's always fun to learn about new people, places, and time periods through a piece of fiction. I especially enjoyed the romance between Liam and "Molly." I look forward to the author's next book.

[Desinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasted to read a fantasy so at first I was quite disappointed to end up reading a historical book set in an alternate Ireland. It was a slow starter and I was on the verge of giving up but then the story picked up and I got interested in the characters. While the characters were well drawn out and likeable, I couldn't connect to any of them emotionally. The story was interesting enough but it lacked a major conflict and the events occurred rather conveniently. I felt no excitement about what was to happen next. I wished there was a more satisfying romance, too.

The writing style was engaging and made for a mostly positive reading experience. A solid 3 stars.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ames creates convincing characters that are easy to care about. She puts them in everyday situations couched within a larger than life dramatic setting. She then weaves their small interactions that affect the vibrant world of Tir Athair. I particularly enjoyed that the hero in his journey not only had a love interest but a "bromance" of sorts as well, which is integral the the story and the world of Tir Athair.

[BobA707 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: Well written story following a minstrel during a power struggle. The plot is not particularly inspiring and a straight forward premise

Plotline: Straightforward, long a few bits that don't quite work

Premise: Straight forward

Writing: Good descriptions, engaging

Ending: Freedom

Pace: Never a dull moment!

[Stephanie Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read a fantasy and I've had this on my TBR for the longest time (since 2013 to be exact). I really enjoyed this story, and I was really invested in the characters. There wasn't really any cliffhanger, and the book ends on a comfortable note which unfortunately doesn't tempt me to read further ones.

[Matthew Sadler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marissa Ames delivers a solid piece of fiction with believable characters, intense situations, and a story like you've never read before. This was a fantastic read!

[Tyler Richter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good read.

[Aaron Engler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minstrel is a tale of a man caught up in a web of politics, ambition, and romance that reads more like gripping historical fiction than typical fantasy fare.

The titular character comes into town during the time of mourning for the recently passed king. There was no clear line of succession, so one of the two sons, Riordan, seizes power while the other is galavanting around in the North. When the other brother, Seamus, returns, he recruits the Minstrel, Liam to write a history, claiming he wants an honest balance to what his brother will no doubt write about himself as king.

Liam is caught between the king and the prince, both of whom are seemingly oblivious of the disastrous decisions they make. Riordan spends profligately in order to impress his vassals, and Seamus raises taxes on an already impoverished kingdom, resulting in predictable violence. He claims it's necessary to make up for the spending the king is doing, but we never know why the king is bankrupting the kingdom, other than the impression Riordan is an incompetent fool.

Riordan sends Molly, a poor young girl indebted to the crown, to seduce Seamus and find out what he knows, but the choice is another foolish one, because the virginal Molly is untrained as a spy, so her measure of success is entirely predictable.

Meanwhile, Molly clumsily flirts with Liam who is himself too distracted by his loyalty to Seamus and his troupe's situation to make a deeper connection with her. It almost seems she's better at manipulating Liam than Seamus, but she has no plan or endgame in mind, which is in-character for her lack of experience.

Seamus's disaster comes when he and Liam escape Riordan's plans for them and wind up taking refugees to the north. Their lack of preparation and understanding of their situation leads to catastrophe.

I had some trouble really grasping Seamus's motivations. Was he creating his own kingdom in order to compete with his brother? Did he feel comfortable abandoning Cynegil to a psychotic king, the citizens be damned? He has enough charisma to entice Liam to leave Molly behind in the hands of the sadistic king, but lacks the competence to keep his refugees safe from the challenges he should have known were coming.

If purely measured by the amount of the misery inflicted, Seamus comes out ahead of the king, and yet he's the good one.

It was only because of my confusion that the story got 4 instead of 5 stars. I would like to have known more about why Riordan was doing what he was doing. I wanted to know if Seamus had any guilt over not taking the crown and doing right by the people, and what he planned to do. Why did people live in slums in a mostly agrarian feudal city, especially when the harvests had been good in the previous years? What did they all do to earn a living in a pre-industrial society? Perhaps that is my own ignorance of city life in the middle ages, but this is a realm of the author's making, and I would have liked more details about that.

The story itself is told in a vivid, visceral style that grabs the reader's attention and quickly invests them in the world and the plight of the minstrel's troupe. It was detailed and rich and I was surprised that this was the first novel from this author. She is a clearly talented writer, and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

[Margaret Fisk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on Tales to Tide You Over

This novel is subtitled A Ballad of Lies, Deceit, and Redemption, a pretty accurate accounting of what you'll find within the pages. The story focuses on Liam, a minstrel who has been raised from poverty through a king's proclamation and trained as a musician. He makes his living traveling around with a band of performers, but never are the pickings better than in the king's city. Only the first thing they learn is that the benevolent king has died and the kingdom has fallen to one of twin brothers while the other is at the distant reaches of the kingdom.

An observant nature, combined with the new king's wish to fete his nobility gives Liam a unique perspective on this new court, one he would have much rather left to some other soul.

This is a story of big events shown through little eyes, meaning Liam does not have the political, economic, or agricultural background to understand the implications of what he observes, but that knowledge comes to him through what he hears and after Shamus, the other twin, takes Liam into his employ as a historian, things get more complicated.

The Minstrel is a non-traditional narrative in that while there are big, epic events occurring all around them, it's a people story with the "farm boy becomes king" theme. The focus is not on the kingdom, or even on just what Liam becomes entangled in. The events are less important than the reactions, interactions, and intentions of the people involved, whether royalty or a gutter-born minstrel.

Marissa Ames offers an unusual perspective on the epic fantasy, but one that won me over. I read this book in paper, the first in quite some time, and so had to adjust my reading methodologies to free two hands. This didn't stop me from reading quickly because I wanted to know what would happen next, and even had an "Oh no, you didn't" moment when events in the story turned in a direction that made sense to the story but denied everything I, as a reader, wanted. This is not a simple read with a straightforward narrative. It is, as I said before, a people story, and people are complicated. Things happen, choices are made, and sometimes those aren't the "dream come true" type decisions, but they're also the right ones, no matter how harsh.

I will admit I stumbled over the first page, but kept going, and by the second page, personalities started to manifest, the description in the beginning started to make sense as more than just scenery, and I was hooked.

This book came from Grassroots Books, my local bookstore, because Marissa Ames is a Reno author. I met her online, through NaNo, I believe, but it was the book copy that piqued my interest. I'm happy to say my support paid off in a wonderful read.

[Travis Bow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty engaging story with sword-fighting, a love triangle, and plenty of medieval-era trivia set in an imaginary (yet non-magical) world.

Pros:
-A pretty fast pace, for the most part. The middle third of the story got a little slow--it seemed like the first climax had been reached and there was a lot of waiting to see where the story would go next--but things picked up again when Liam traveled to the north.
-Unusually low on angst, with spare, straight-forward writing. Not much whining or dwelling on deep emotional struggles.
-A few twists and turns that kept things from being too predictable.

Cons:
-A bit obvious on working in details about medieval customs, clothing, etc. NOT as bad as, "What's that you have there, Liam?" "Why, it's a trencher, a flat piece of bread used as a plate to hold my meal!", but sometimes the details did seem a little more like trivia than part of the story.
-Some characters were a bit annoying and predictable (particularly Tristan, and, to some extent, Molly). On the other hand, some characters, like Shamus, and (surprisingly) Hamish, seem like real, interesting, even admirable people.
-A few things that didn't make sense to me. 1) Quite a few pages are devoted to Liam leading Molly into a shady part of town and almost getting robbed for no apparent purpose. 2) Towards the end, Liam rescues Molly and takes her straight back to the inn with the busted door to keep her safe. Why is this inn, where she was presumably just captured, a safe hiding place? 3) "Wanted" posters... maybe the king had artists he paid to make copies of pictures on some kind of weather-resistant parchment, but seems more like an old-west thing than a medieval thing. 4) Why did the soldiers on the warship hang back without attacking for the whole journey, only to immediately land and go into pitched battle with a force that outnumbered them? If they were hanging back to discover the location and bring word to the king, why land and attack? If they were supposed to take out Liam / Shamus themselves, why not board Liam's ship and then force him to take them to Shamus? I guess maybe they expected the northerners to be easy to take out, but it seemed a little convenient to me. .

All in all, a little raw at times, but definitely worth a read. I will be interested to see the sequel.

Disclaimer: I listened to the audio version of Minstrel during my commute. It's possible that the parts that didn't make sense to me were actually explained somehow, but that I missed something key when I hit stop light or something. If so, I hope someone will point out my mistake.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minstrel starts out with a cast of familiar archetypes - the mysterious woman, a rebellious prince, and a band of musicians that have struck out together to earn their bread and hopefully some coins playing in towns around the land. But just when the reader settles back for another comfortable medieval Robin Hood story, Marissa Ames gives us an unlikely hero in Liam -- the minstrel -- who thought he was doing well enough when he managed to escape the starving streets of his childhood by learning to play his lute. Liam finds himself somehow thrown into court politics when the king's brother, Shamus, enlists his help to write the kingdom's history. Along the way, he meets the mysterious Molly, first appearing as a washerwoman in the town, then a richly dressed woman at court. Liam will soon have to decide who he can trust as Shamus drifts closer to open rebellion, and the new king wins favor with the other nobles while feeding the poor in the city. Meanwhile, Molly turns out to be engaged to another man. Why should Liam get involved with any of this?

Liam doesn't know it, but the next few months will be the most difficult of his life, and the journey that we get to take with him is a rich lesson in friendship, redemption, the importance of the choices that we make, and the joys that are found along the road that is taken.

Minstrel is a vastly entertaining book with a whirlwind of adventure, romance, laughter, and tears. Ms. Ames displays a wealth of medieval knowledge through casual reference to everyday life and plenty of plot twists to keep the reader glued to the page. Her characters are well developed with believable motives and difficult choices. I highly recommend this book.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I'd read this book without knowing the author, and then asked me to guess, I'd have gone with later-day Stephen R. Lawhead (and I consider that a compliment). Mixing cultures, and taking the adventure off in unexpected directions - the protagonist is not The Chosen One, or anything like that, just a guy who can do more than he has been, and he knows it, but doesn't really look for more than that out of life.

The middle bogged a bit, with a little more "telling," especially about building the new settlement, than I would have thought ideal, or I would have been likely to go five stars. I did pre-order the second book when I was done with this one, and I'm looking forward to it quite a bit.

[Spencer Stoner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came into this story with a healthy dose of skepticism. I like fantasy and science fiction and thought that this looked right up my alley. The only problem was that there were no wizards throwing fireballs or mystic beasts or anything of the like but after the first couple of chapters I found myself hooked on the characters.

I was so attached to them, in fact, that towards the end things got so dramatic that I was ready to throw the book across the room a couple of times because I couldn't see a way for things to turn out well for them. I'm glad I didn't, though, the author did something that even some of the most popular ones have trouble with these days... giving the story a satisfying ending

[Vakil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different type of fantasy novel. Rather than facing the dangers of magic and dragons, the real enemy here is politics and starvation. I liked it, but I wasn't drawn into it like I would have been with a more fantastic story.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible detail, fabulous writing, thrilling adventure.

[LaDonna Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A time set apart, this fantasy suspended my disbelief so well that I didn't even feel like it was a fantasy. I felt I was in another time and place.

[Michael Wombat · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exciting read that draws you in quickly and will keep you up till 3am if you let it.