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Twilight Reign #1-5
The Complete Twilight Reign Collection
The complete saga of THE TWILIGHT REIGN - a compelling fantasy told over five books and a collection of short stories
In a land ruled by prophecy and the whims of Gods, a young man finds himself at the heart of a war he barely understands, wielding powers he may never be able to control.
Isak is a white-eye, born bigger, more charismatic and more powerful than normal men ... but with that power comes an unpredictable temper and an inner rage. Feared and despised by those around him, he dreams of a place in the army and a change to live his own life, but the Gods have other plans for the intemperate teenager. Isak has been Chosen as heir-elect to the brooding Lord Bahl, the white-eye Lord of the Farlan. This is a time for revenge, and for the forging of empires. With mounting envy and malice, the men who would themselves be kings watch Isak as he is shaped and moulded to fulfil the prophecies that circle him like scavenger birds. The Gods are once again beginning to meddle in the affairs of men.
Over five books we follow Isak's life and the fallout from the choices he has been forced to make - choices that may well lead to his death.
In a land ruled by prophecy and the whims of Gods, a young man finds himself at the heart of a war he barely understands, wielding powers he may never be able to control.
Isak is a white-eye, born bigger, more charismatic and more powerful than normal men ... but with that power comes an unpredictable temper and an inner rage. Feared and despised by those around him, he dreams of a place in the army and a change to live his own life, but the Gods have other plans for the intemperate teenager. Isak has been Chosen as heir-elect to the brooding Lord Bahl, the white-eye Lord of the Farlan. This is a time for revenge, and for the forging of empires. With mounting envy and malice, the men who would themselves be kings watch Isak as he is shaped and moulded to fulfil the prophecies that circle him like scavenger birds. The Gods are once again beginning to meddle in the affairs of men.
Over five books we follow Isak's life and the fallout from the choices he has been forced to make - choices that may well lead to his death.
- GenresEbooks
2000 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 23, 2014
15 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Tom Lloyd
47 books447 followersTom Lloyd was born in 1979 and showed almost no interest in writing until the age of eighteen. I blame the teachers myself.
Nevertheless he did eventually find himself with a long summer to spare before university, and decided to start a novel when it was suggested he get a job to pass the time. This tells you much of what there is to know about him. The rest can be derived from the fact that he first had the idea of writing a book to annoy a schoolfriend by getting published before him.
No, honestly; he's actually that shallow.
It was swiftly apparent that this was not the quick route to fame and fortune that he’d hoped for. The first sign of this was the realisation that being good at writing was required, but he managed to surprise everyone by not giving up on something he didn’t show immediate promise in.
Studying Politics and International Relations at Southampton University had very little appreciable effect on him, beyond giving him a couple of ideas for future novels, but that was largely due to spending most of those three years in London shacked up with the god-daughter of an Asian dictator. Upon leaving university he decided – along with what seemed like half of all other graduates, some of whom had had the temerity to study English – that doing “book stuff” sounded like a fun alternative to working out what sort of job he wanted to do. There was also the intriguing suggestion of literary talent being passed on by some osmosis-like process. As a result of a little work experience at Simon and Schuster - combined with some shameless flirting with the HR manager - he got a job as an editorial assistant on the Scribner list, which allowed him to mistype letters to a whole host of talented writers.
Certain luminary examples there made it clear that before he became a fantasy editor he was going to have to spend several years iron-cladding his liver. Towards this goal, he decamped to the A M Heath Literary Agency by way of Random House, which was silly because walking down Longacre would have been a lot quicker, to work in foreign rights while also freelancing for writersservices.com and constantly revising what was slowly becoming The Stormcaller.
A three year litany of madcap adventures in the crazy world of agenting ensued, but it would be far too time-consuming to detail any of that so suffice to say that his hangover cleared sufficiently one morning in 2004 for him to realise that he wasn’t quite so bad at writing now. Maybe there was something to this osmosis thing after all - although if that’s true Katie Fforde and Dave Hill might get a surprise at the effect they’d had.
Securing the services of John Richard Parker at MBA Literary Agents proved a surprisingly painless experience – despite being previously rejected by one of John’s colleagues, which just goes to show how persistent one has to be – and soon he was sat in the office of Jo Fletcher at Gollancz trying to persuade her how much of a geek he was. After four years as contracts manager at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency he decided he didn't like other authors that much so he swapped his dark corner of Camden for one at Atlantic Books where it quickly became apparent that he prefers winning arguments to scruples.
Writing part-time, also known as watching loads more TV, he also manages to play a little sport in between trips to the pub and battering his next book - into a semblance of shape.
http://tomlloyd.livejournal.com/ http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?...
Nevertheless he did eventually find himself with a long summer to spare before university, and decided to start a novel when it was suggested he get a job to pass the time. This tells you much of what there is to know about him. The rest can be derived from the fact that he first had the idea of writing a book to annoy a schoolfriend by getting published before him.
No, honestly; he's actually that shallow.
It was swiftly apparent that this was not the quick route to fame and fortune that he’d hoped for. The first sign of this was the realisation that being good at writing was required, but he managed to surprise everyone by not giving up on something he didn’t show immediate promise in.
Studying Politics and International Relations at Southampton University had very little appreciable effect on him, beyond giving him a couple of ideas for future novels, but that was largely due to spending most of those three years in London shacked up with the god-daughter of an Asian dictator. Upon leaving university he decided – along with what seemed like half of all other graduates, some of whom had had the temerity to study English – that doing “book stuff” sounded like a fun alternative to working out what sort of job he wanted to do. There was also the intriguing suggestion of literary talent being passed on by some osmosis-like process. As a result of a little work experience at Simon and Schuster - combined with some shameless flirting with the HR manager - he got a job as an editorial assistant on the Scribner list, which allowed him to mistype letters to a whole host of talented writers.
Certain luminary examples there made it clear that before he became a fantasy editor he was going to have to spend several years iron-cladding his liver. Towards this goal, he decamped to the A M Heath Literary Agency by way of Random House, which was silly because walking down Longacre would have been a lot quicker, to work in foreign rights while also freelancing for writersservices.com and constantly revising what was slowly becoming The Stormcaller.
A three year litany of madcap adventures in the crazy world of agenting ensued, but it would be far too time-consuming to detail any of that so suffice to say that his hangover cleared sufficiently one morning in 2004 for him to realise that he wasn’t quite so bad at writing now. Maybe there was something to this osmosis thing after all - although if that’s true Katie Fforde and Dave Hill might get a surprise at the effect they’d had.
Securing the services of John Richard Parker at MBA Literary Agents proved a surprisingly painless experience – despite being previously rejected by one of John’s colleagues, which just goes to show how persistent one has to be – and soon he was sat in the office of Jo Fletcher at Gollancz trying to persuade her how much of a geek he was. After four years as contracts manager at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency he decided he didn't like other authors that much so he swapped his dark corner of Camden for one at Atlantic Books where it quickly became apparent that he prefers winning arguments to scruples.
Writing part-time, also known as watching loads more TV, he also manages to play a little sport in between trips to the pub and battering his next book - into a semblance of shape.
http://tomlloyd.livejournal.com/ http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 1, 2015
This series of novels is the best one I read in a long time, with so many interesting characters, making me want to always go on reading to know how they fare. The series is something out of the ordinary fantasy stories, coming up with new mechanics of mortals, magic and gods. The (main) antagonist isn't one I expected either. The reader learns about the antagonist step by step throughout the novels, which matches the nature of this antagonist perfectly. There are so many interesting characters, that I guess every reader, who likes fantasy novels, can find some characters they want to know about, which makes them want to go on reading.
February 27, 2022
Azaer is laughable
The protagonists are great, but Azaer totally cracks me up. So does everything he touches.
Illumine is hard to tind, the crack intelligence network of King Emin can never track him down until it's too late, but everytime he's portrayed he's larger than life and never subtle. WTF.
If I tried to get away with that 'handwaving' in my weekly D&D game the players would crucify me.
The Ancient Gods are just so human, a recurring fault in most fantasy genres - they have a lifespan of thousands of years, but still as petty and childish as any IRL mythos (Greece/Rome), which is laughable because they didn't really exist (sorry, same as Christianity/Islam, or anything else IRL).
However, these Gods are meant to truly exist and manifest their powers in the real world, influence their followers and provide meaningful instruction to their flock.
Forget real world comparisons, because they are meaningless.
The gods/pantheon are just so human! So easily led by the supposedly under-powered Azaer, a mere shadow.
The Harlequins are also a great concept, but they were far too easily corrupted and coerced by Azaer and its underlings, it beggared belief.
An ancient organisation dedicated to 'truth' and history, basically co-opted overnight, at the whim of narrative needs (as far as I can see(.
I mean, the GODS already had their scare when the Elven Renegade made war against them millenia before, killing several gods, but apparently the entire Pantheon slept through it and didn't learn a thing.
Like a totally rail-roaded TTRPG game - never enjoyable.
Liked the first book, second book was decent, but thereafter a frustrating read for me.
Read the entire series several years ago, but that was staggered as books released over several years span.
Rereading it in its entirety has been an ordeal - cannot believe I enjoyed it the first time round (must have become more critical in my old age). Still better than anything I could ever do, but that's not saying much, and certainly not my purchasing criteria.
Cheers!
The protagonists are great, but Azaer totally cracks me up. So does everything he touches.
Illumine is hard to tind, the crack intelligence network of King Emin can never track him down until it's too late, but everytime he's portrayed he's larger than life and never subtle. WTF.
If I tried to get away with that 'handwaving' in my weekly D&D game the players would crucify me.
The Ancient Gods are just so human, a recurring fault in most fantasy genres - they have a lifespan of thousands of years, but still as petty and childish as any IRL mythos (Greece/Rome), which is laughable because they didn't really exist (sorry, same as Christianity/Islam, or anything else IRL).
However, these Gods are meant to truly exist and manifest their powers in the real world, influence their followers and provide meaningful instruction to their flock.
Forget real world comparisons, because they are meaningless.
The gods/pantheon are just so human! So easily led by the supposedly under-powered Azaer, a mere shadow.
The Harlequins are also a great concept, but they were far too easily corrupted and coerced by Azaer and its underlings, it beggared belief.
An ancient organisation dedicated to 'truth' and history, basically co-opted overnight, at the whim of narrative needs (as far as I can see(.
I mean, the GODS already had their scare when the Elven Renegade made war against them millenia before, killing several gods, but apparently the entire Pantheon slept through it and didn't learn a thing.
Like a totally rail-roaded TTRPG game - never enjoyable.
Liked the first book, second book was decent, but thereafter a frustrating read for me.
Read the entire series several years ago, but that was staggered as books released over several years span.
Rereading it in its entirety has been an ordeal - cannot believe I enjoyed it the first time round (must have become more critical in my old age). Still better than anything I could ever do, but that's not saying much, and certainly not my purchasing criteria.
Cheers!
July 2, 2019
I got through the first book of this omnibus and just stalled. Writing a review just to remind myself why.
A very long involved D&D campaign with a ton of races, gods and their superhuman Chosen, creatures, magic and battles. The number of odd names, lead players and kingdoms did get confusing.
This writing style reminded me of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The plot is often too convoluted for it own good, leaving the story muddled rather than a question to encourage reading for answers. I was glad to be using an ebook because I often had to search out details mentioned earlier that suddenly were relevant.
Entertaining but not memorable although if you like magic there's a heavy hand here. The characters were a little too He-man for my taste thus my reference to Burroughs.
A very long involved D&D campaign with a ton of races, gods and their superhuman Chosen, creatures, magic and battles. The number of odd names, lead players and kingdoms did get confusing.
This writing style reminded me of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The plot is often too convoluted for it own good, leaving the story muddled rather than a question to encourage reading for answers. I was glad to be using an ebook because I often had to search out details mentioned earlier that suddenly were relevant.
Entertaining but not memorable although if you like magic there's a heavy hand here. The characters were a little too He-man for my taste thus my reference to Burroughs.
January 4, 2022
An amazing original story!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews