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The Latter Annals of Lystra #5
Dead Man's Token
Someone has broken open the long-sealed secret passage in the palace of Westford. While Surchatain Ares is investigating the breach, an intruder uses this same passage to kidnap his young wife Nicole from her bed. And Ares discovers the kidnapper to be someone they had long assumed to be dead. Recovering Nicole is only half the battle, for Ares must find out who paid a dead man to kidnap the Surchataine of Lystra, and what he intended to do with her. The palace becomes a battleground of wits as the Lystrans uncover more secrets in its ancient chambers-and a close friend turns treacherous. Dead Man's Token is the fifth book of the Latter Annals of Lystra. Previous books in the series are Nicole of Prie Mer, Ares of Westford, Prisoners of Hope, and Road of Vanishing. Robin Hardy is the author of the Streiker Saga, the Sammy Series, and Padre and its sequel, His Strange Ways. She is also the editor of W.W. Melton's classic devotional, Sifted But Saved. For photos, articles, guest features, and updates on new releases, see www.robinhardy.com.
260 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Robin Hardy
56 books47 followersI've written a new series! It's a distant sequel to The Annals of Lystra (begun in Chataine's Guardian) and The Latter Annals (begun in Nicole of Prie Mer). This is where it begins:
Thirty-five years after the assassination of Henry, Surchatain of Lystra, the province is no more and its capital Westford a shadow of its medieval greatness. With the fever now ravaging the palace, the army, and the town, a new Surchatain has ascended the throne of Westford, requiring a loyalty oath for all his subjects and soldiers.
Efran, Captain of the Red Regiment of the Army of Westford, is Polonti—a member of the brown-skinned, black-haired race generally regarded with contempt by Southerners on the Continent, including many in Westford. Knowing of the loyalty oath required on pain of death, Efran lays plans to leave once he has recovered from the fever himself.
But Efran is hindered by entanglements with the Surchatain’s two daughters—one who despises him and one who adores him.
He is appointed guardian of one Chataine. When the palace begins crumbling on its foundations, Efran takes his charge and a street urchin to an abandoned fortress south of Westford in the midst of wolf territory. While he gathers more homeless children at the fortress, the other Chataine prepares to lead an army against him for the legendary treasure hidden in the desolate Abbey of St. Benedict on the Sea.
The Stories of the Abbey of St. Benedict on the Sea comprise 36 novellas, each around 50,000 words, that make for one continuous story from the beginning to a definite end. To introduce this series, I'm offering free pdf and epub downloads of all the stories. Each pdf includes links, pronunciations, maps, and an illustration with notes. (The epubs contain all of the above except maps.)
Thirty-five years after the assassination of Henry, Surchatain of Lystra, the province is no more and its capital Westford a shadow of its medieval greatness. With the fever now ravaging the palace, the army, and the town, a new Surchatain has ascended the throne of Westford, requiring a loyalty oath for all his subjects and soldiers.
Efran, Captain of the Red Regiment of the Army of Westford, is Polonti—a member of the brown-skinned, black-haired race generally regarded with contempt by Southerners on the Continent, including many in Westford. Knowing of the loyalty oath required on pain of death, Efran lays plans to leave once he has recovered from the fever himself.
But Efran is hindered by entanglements with the Surchatain’s two daughters—one who despises him and one who adores him.
He is appointed guardian of one Chataine. When the palace begins crumbling on its foundations, Efran takes his charge and a street urchin to an abandoned fortress south of Westford in the midst of wolf territory. While he gathers more homeless children at the fortress, the other Chataine prepares to lead an army against him for the legendary treasure hidden in the desolate Abbey of St. Benedict on the Sea.
The Stories of the Abbey of St. Benedict on the Sea comprise 36 novellas, each around 50,000 words, that make for one continuous story from the beginning to a definite end. To introduce this series, I'm offering free pdf and epub downloads of all the stories. Each pdf includes links, pronunciations, maps, and an illustration with notes. (The epubs contain all of the above except maps.)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 28, 2015
Two years after the end of the last book 'Road of Vanishing' and as usual there is a lot going on.
The Lystrans are preparing for the annual fair, and little Sophie has discovered a secret tunnel in which she believes to be haunted by a ghost. The 'ghost' then proceeds to use the tunnel to perform a kidnapping.
Things go on much the same way until the climax when the protagonists run into some characters from the older books, both of whom cause them a great deal of trouble.
This book I believe marked something of a transition in the series from the more original plotlines of the early books to the more repetitive and formulaic pattern of the later ones. Repetitive indeed , as the characters spend most of their time going to and fro through tunnels, and chasing after baddies and similar events keep happening over and over again.
The author seems to rely mostly on events from older stories to prop up this one with the dependence on a 'complex' series of interwoven plots and subplots none of which are really 'fleshed out' makes the whole novel rather weak. Even the element of mystery which ties up with the 'ghost' idea and the plot of a former book remains unsolved.
The characters display yet more absurdity and hypocrisy in their attitude towards a character called Renee, the promiscuous militant feminist who is the daughter of a former ruler.
In this novel she is 'courting' the latest in a long list if potential suitors, named Fanscali. Well 'courting' might not be the right word, as Ares suggests that the mere suggestion a husband might make her stay at home and have children will be enough to scare her off.
During the 'courtship itself, despite Renee's reputation for promiscuity and debauchery, Ares insists that Renee has a chaperone to protect her 'honour' (a figment of the collective imagination of the royal family) in case Fanscali tries to 'take advantage' of her, yet she is the one who demands that Ares puts him up in a room near to hers and tries to go to him room to have sex with him. Make sense?
Yet whilst her shameless and indecent public (mis)conduct that would never have been socially acceptable at this time is ignored and overlooked by the other characters, but at the same time they are vociferous in their condemnation of Fanscali for what they regard as 'dishonourable' behaviour on his part towards Renee for having deceiving her.
It apparently did not occur to the Lysrans that the medieval concept of 'honour' was meant to be a two-way thing in which both men and women were supposed to conduct themselves in a way that would have been deemed proper and acceptable in their society.
Such is typical of this series to present a one-sided view of morality and virtue in which one party is condemned for being 'nasty' to Renee, yet she is never censured, even when her behaviour was worse than that of the other person.
Renee's inevitable revenge provides one of the most dubious incidents of the whole novel (she always has to get revenge for any slight, real or perceived, and utterly disproportionate to what was done to her). Needless to say, it as usual involves harming innocent people who have never harmed or even met her in process- but its all perfectly okay because she 'prayed about it' first. Yup, apparently we're meant Renee whose only object of worship is herself and perhaps an assortment Greco-Roman deities related to her foremost object of reverence- being sex-prayed to the Christian one.
Subsequently he 'inspired' her to take revenge. Apparently, he's not only subject to her vindictive whims, but tacitly condones them- his favour depicted in the most cheesy manner of a light shining of her face. Could hardly be more corny if she sprouted a halo....
It's certainly a yarn which Nicole, the female Christian protagonist is caught on hook, line and sinker. As pretty much usual for her who is supposed to be intelligent.
So once again this novel, for all the superficial 'period' details does not reflect beliefs, attitudes, values and ideas common to the medieval period. It is basically historically inaccurate, poorly written garbage.
The Lystrans are preparing for the annual fair, and little Sophie has discovered a secret tunnel in which she believes to be haunted by a ghost. The 'ghost' then proceeds to use the tunnel to perform a kidnapping.
Things go on much the same way until the climax when the protagonists run into some characters from the older books, both of whom cause them a great deal of trouble.
This book I believe marked something of a transition in the series from the more original plotlines of the early books to the more repetitive and formulaic pattern of the later ones. Repetitive indeed , as the characters spend most of their time going to and fro through tunnels, and chasing after baddies and similar events keep happening over and over again.
The author seems to rely mostly on events from older stories to prop up this one with the dependence on a 'complex' series of interwoven plots and subplots none of which are really 'fleshed out' makes the whole novel rather weak. Even the element of mystery which ties up with the 'ghost' idea and the plot of a former book remains unsolved.
The characters display yet more absurdity and hypocrisy in their attitude towards a character called Renee, the promiscuous militant feminist who is the daughter of a former ruler.
In this novel she is 'courting' the latest in a long list if potential suitors, named Fanscali. Well 'courting' might not be the right word, as Ares suggests that the mere suggestion a husband might make her stay at home and have children will be enough to scare her off.
During the 'courtship itself, despite Renee's reputation for promiscuity and debauchery, Ares insists that Renee has a chaperone to protect her 'honour' (a figment of the collective imagination of the royal family) in case Fanscali tries to 'take advantage' of her, yet she is the one who demands that Ares puts him up in a room near to hers and tries to go to him room to have sex with him. Make sense?
Yet whilst her shameless and indecent public (mis)conduct that would never have been socially acceptable at this time is ignored and overlooked by the other characters, but at the same time they are vociferous in their condemnation of Fanscali for what they regard as 'dishonourable' behaviour on his part towards Renee for having deceiving her.
It apparently did not occur to the Lysrans that the medieval concept of 'honour' was meant to be a two-way thing in which both men and women were supposed to conduct themselves in a way that would have been deemed proper and acceptable in their society.
Such is typical of this series to present a one-sided view of morality and virtue in which one party is condemned for being 'nasty' to Renee, yet she is never censured, even when her behaviour was worse than that of the other person.
Renee's inevitable revenge provides one of the most dubious incidents of the whole novel (she always has to get revenge for any slight, real or perceived, and utterly disproportionate to what was done to her). Needless to say, it as usual involves harming innocent people who have never harmed or even met her in process- but its all perfectly okay because she 'prayed about it' first. Yup, apparently we're meant Renee whose only object of worship is herself and perhaps an assortment Greco-Roman deities related to her foremost object of reverence- being sex-prayed to the Christian one.
Subsequently he 'inspired' her to take revenge. Apparently, he's not only subject to her vindictive whims, but tacitly condones them- his favour depicted in the most cheesy manner of a light shining of her face. Could hardly be more corny if she sprouted a halo....
It's certainly a yarn which Nicole, the female Christian protagonist is caught on hook, line and sinker. As pretty much usual for her who is supposed to be intelligent.
So once again this novel, for all the superficial 'period' details does not reflect beliefs, attitudes, values and ideas common to the medieval period. It is basically historically inaccurate, poorly written garbage.
October 5, 2016
I'm a bit of a fan of this series, but Nicole... No. Just no.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews