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Avaryan Rising #4-6
Avaryan Resplendent
Avaryan Resplendent
Arrows of the Sun
The Spear of Heaven
The Tides of Darkness
Here in a single volume is the second trilogy of Judith Tarr’s novels about the world of Avaryan, and the Sun God’s children who rule it.
The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the newest Emperor of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. The Golden Palace is full of plot and intrigue, and conspirators who plan to kill Estarion, as they killed his father, and take the throne for their own.
The Emperor Estarion’s willful granddaughter, and heir to the throne, has wheedled permission to travel with the Master of the Mage Guild to a high mountain kingdom at the end of the chain of World Gates. But once inside the Kingdom of Heaven, mere magery will meet its match. The power of the Sun Lords will be needed counter the Breaker of Gates.
A chill wave of dark sorcery sweeps across a thousand worlds, turning souls without number into mute, blind slaves. In a desperate attempt to halt the shadow's relentless spread, the Sunborn’s heir must join her formidable powers with those of a wild and untrained young mage who has stolen her heart.
Arrows of the Sun
The Spear of Heaven
The Tides of Darkness
Here in a single volume is the second trilogy of Judith Tarr’s novels about the world of Avaryan, and the Sun God’s children who rule it.
The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the newest Emperor of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. The Golden Palace is full of plot and intrigue, and conspirators who plan to kill Estarion, as they killed his father, and take the throne for their own.
The Emperor Estarion’s willful granddaughter, and heir to the throne, has wheedled permission to travel with the Master of the Mage Guild to a high mountain kingdom at the end of the chain of World Gates. But once inside the Kingdom of Heaven, mere magery will meet its match. The power of the Sun Lords will be needed counter the Breaker of Gates.
A chill wave of dark sorcery sweeps across a thousand worlds, turning souls without number into mute, blind slaves. In a desperate attempt to halt the shadow's relentless spread, the Sunborn’s heir must join her formidable powers with those of a wild and untrained young mage who has stolen her heart.
832 pages, Paperback
First published December 2, 2003
About the author
Judith Tarr
113 books425 followersAKA Caitlin Brennan, Kathleen Bryan.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
Judith Tarr (born 1955) is an American author, best known for her fantasy books. She received her B.A. in Latin and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1976, and has an M.A. in Classics from Cambridge University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University. She taught Latin and writing at Wesleyan University from 1988-1992, and taught at the Clarion science-fiction-writing workshops in 1996 and 1999.
She raises and trains Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona. The romantic fantasies that she writes under the name Caitlin Brennan feature dancing horses modeled on those that she raises.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 29, 2009
This omnibus has somewhat better fleshed out female characters than the previous one Avaryan Rising, which was a nice improvement, although they're still not ideal. However, I found myself annoyed that the main characters in the royal family keep getting progressively lighter in skin color as the generations go on. The series started out prominently featuring people of color... so why the whitewashing in the later books? Yes, different races and cultures have been intermarrying for several generations now, but these last two royals are being described as pretty pale. They're also considered the most powerful in the line. (Well, except for the original son of the sun Mirain.) Why are the most powerful pale? And, umm... is anybody ever going to wake Mirain up? Ever?
4) Arrows of the Sun
I find it amusing that throughout most, if not all, of the book the title is a phrase to refer to the emperor's sperm, and Tarr just decided that that particular thing had to be the title. Ahem. Anyway, it's been awhile since the events of A Fall of Princes, almost a century. Although the previously squabbling kingdoms likewise featured in the previous books are now united, there's still tension among various factors and squabbling is starting up again. The young emperor must head into hostile territory to avert civil war and take on the roles and culture of the side of his joint-empire that is pretty much foreign to him. The book's got something of the stranger in a strange land to it and several painful self sacrifices on the parts of various characters. There are culture clashes and relationship dissolutions and passion found in unexpected places. I spent a large part of the book angry at the way the various characters were behaving though. If they'd only talked to each other a little more, they could've avoided a lot of trouble. Also, the magic system in the world starts getting some heavy duty expansion that wasn't really hinted at in the previous books. A bit more consistency or build up in that regard would have been nice as well.
5) Spear of Heaven
The lead female here is intriguing but not necessarily appealing to me. She's a mother, but not the most devoted one that anyone could hope for. She also basically strategically bred herself to a particular man (who I believe was married) in order to get specific qualities that she wanted for her offspring. She is distant and analytical and rebellious and a bit bored with her position as emperor's granddaughter. So, of course, this book is about how she finally finds love! And saves the world! Sorta. The Worldgates that provide instant transport between various areas of the realm are starting to collapse and no one knows why. In the midst of this, the lead female sneaks out to go exploring. (Her young daughter similarly sneaks into the expedition without her mother's knowledge. Troublesome royals. The kid and her new friends and her blond ninja bodyguards are cute though. I wish more of the book had been about their interactions.) They end up in a distant land whose people I believe may have had their physical appearance and culture modeled at least in part on Tibet. (I really need to better acquaint myself with non-European cultures.) Developing rapport with the locals is a tedious but necessary process, made difficult by that culture's banning of magic and the imperial family essentially reeking of it. Imperial way wins out in the end (as such things tended to do), and it's a good thing they were there too when the magical showdowns for the gates begins.
6) Tides of Darkness
The child in the previous book is an adult in this one and the current Lady of the Gates. However, much of the focus of the book is on a young nobleman. He starts out as a well known, dissolute hedonist who is, of course, supremely talented but hides his magical abilities rather than put forth the effort of receiving training in them. All in all, not my favorite character archetype. Another primary focus is the male lead from book four (amazingly still alive and well; these are some long-lived magical people), who is the great grandfather to the female lead in this book. Young nobleman gets in trouble for using his powers improperly and breaking the Gate Laws and is sent to the care of the former emperor in his retirement as a shepherd. Yeah. So, an evil force is still going around destroying the Gates and also destroys what is essentially the main hub of the Gates' power. During this, the retired emperor gets flung into an alternative universe (Egypt) and finds his soul mate in a pharaoh's widow. Meanwhile, our young nobleman finds some discipline, taps into his natural skills, gets the girl (another underdeveloped romance ::sigh::), and saves the day. Was there ever any doubt that's how it would go for him? The book does feature a fairly awesome use of cats as security though.
All in all, I wouldn't say these books are my favorite things, yet they do appeal to me on some level that I haven't quite figured out yet. There are some flashes of brilliance interspersed across them, and the idea of following the same family for generations is intriguing to me, if only some of the super powered, god modding would stop. There are also enough lose threads (and one particular massive plot hole) dangling that I don't think we've seen the end of this series yet.
4) Arrows of the Sun
I find it amusing that throughout most, if not all, of the book the title is a phrase to refer to the emperor's sperm, and Tarr just decided that that particular thing had to be the title. Ahem. Anyway, it's been awhile since the events of A Fall of Princes, almost a century. Although the previously squabbling kingdoms likewise featured in the previous books are now united, there's still tension among various factors and squabbling is starting up again. The young emperor must head into hostile territory to avert civil war and take on the roles and culture of the side of his joint-empire that is pretty much foreign to him. The book's got something of the stranger in a strange land to it and several painful self sacrifices on the parts of various characters. There are culture clashes and relationship dissolutions and passion found in unexpected places. I spent a large part of the book angry at the way the various characters were behaving though. If they'd only talked to each other a little more, they could've avoided a lot of trouble. Also, the magic system in the world starts getting some heavy duty expansion that wasn't really hinted at in the previous books. A bit more consistency or build up in that regard would have been nice as well.
5) Spear of Heaven
The lead female here is intriguing but not necessarily appealing to me. She's a mother, but not the most devoted one that anyone could hope for. She also basically strategically bred herself to a particular man (who I believe was married) in order to get specific qualities that she wanted for her offspring. She is distant and analytical and rebellious and a bit bored with her position as emperor's granddaughter. So, of course, this book is about how she finally finds love! And saves the world! Sorta. The Worldgates that provide instant transport between various areas of the realm are starting to collapse and no one knows why. In the midst of this, the lead female sneaks out to go exploring. (Her young daughter similarly sneaks into the expedition without her mother's knowledge. Troublesome royals. The kid and her new friends and her blond ninja bodyguards are cute though. I wish more of the book had been about their interactions.) They end up in a distant land whose people I believe may have had their physical appearance and culture modeled at least in part on Tibet. (I really need to better acquaint myself with non-European cultures.) Developing rapport with the locals is a tedious but necessary process, made difficult by that culture's banning of magic and the imperial family essentially reeking of it. Imperial way wins out in the end (as such things tended to do), and it's a good thing they were there too when the magical showdowns for the gates begins.
6) Tides of Darkness
The child in the previous book is an adult in this one and the current Lady of the Gates. However, much of the focus of the book is on a young nobleman. He starts out as a well known, dissolute hedonist who is, of course, supremely talented but hides his magical abilities rather than put forth the effort of receiving training in them. All in all, not my favorite character archetype. Another primary focus is the male lead from book four (amazingly still alive and well; these are some long-lived magical people), who is the great grandfather to the female lead in this book. Young nobleman gets in trouble for using his powers improperly and breaking the Gate Laws and is sent to the care of the former emperor in his retirement as a shepherd. Yeah. So, an evil force is still going around destroying the Gates and also destroys what is essentially the main hub of the Gates' power. During this, the retired emperor gets flung into an alternative universe (Egypt) and finds his soul mate in a pharaoh's widow. Meanwhile, our young nobleman finds some discipline, taps into his natural skills, gets the girl (another underdeveloped romance ::sigh::), and saves the day. Was there ever any doubt that's how it would go for him? The book does feature a fairly awesome use of cats as security though.
All in all, I wouldn't say these books are my favorite things, yet they do appeal to me on some level that I haven't quite figured out yet. There are some flashes of brilliance interspersed across them, and the idea of following the same family for generations is intriguing to me, if only some of the super powered, god modding would stop. There are also enough lose threads (and one particular massive plot hole) dangling that I don't think we've seen the end of this series yet.
July 28, 2023
Got hooked on this. Wonderfully rich and sexy.
June 8, 2010
A nice mix of love story and epic battle. Not all are heterosexual love affairs so if that bothers you skip these. Sex is not excessive or explicit more romantic. Magic use is believable as are the gods. I like Tarr's style of writing but some find the sentence structures too convoluted.
June 15, 2019
Estarion is a captivating character. The books that follow his arc are quite satisfying. The magic gains a place of prominence little by little and is quite a brilliant discovery.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews