Lion of Senet

Second Sons #1

by Jennifer Fallon

On the world Ranadon there is no night as both suns shine brightly. The intervention of Belagren, High Priestess of the Shadowdancers, and the sacrifice of a child of royal blood, has banished the Age of Shadows from the skies. Belagren's position is unquestioned . . . until circumstances begin to tip political rivalries into a deadlier game altogether.

A volcanic eruption rocks the seas separating the Kingdom of Dhevyn and the mainland Kingdom of Senet, and a mysterious sailor is shipwrecked on the island of Elcast. Badly wounded, his arrival stirs up old hatreds and unravels old secrets. His presence is enough to even bring Antonov, the powerful Lion of Senet, to the island and fear to the Keep of the Duke of Elcast.

A strong friendship develops between Dirk, second son of the Duke, and Kirshov Latanya, second son of the Lion of Senet. But will they, and their friendship, survive the chain of events set in motion by the ambitions of the ruthless High Priestess of the Shadowdancers and the domineering Lion of Senet?

This first book of the Second Sons Trilogy establishes Jennifer Fallon as one of the most unique voices in fantasy fiction, as she creates full characters, and takes intelligent plotting to a whole new level in order to establish unparalleled complexity and tension.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult, Science Fiction

561 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Fallon is the author of 17 full-length bestselling novels and a number of published short stories in genres ranging from horror to science fiction.

In addition to 4 complete fantasy series - The Demon Child trilogy, The Hythrun Chronicles, the Second Sons Trilogy,The Tide Lords Quadrilogy and the Rift Runners series - Fallon has written both a tie-novel and short fiction for the TV series, Stargate SG1, an official Zorro story, a novella for the Legends of Australian Fantasy Anthology and has a superhero - The Violet Valet (CHICKS IN CAPES).

Fallon has a Masters Degree from the Creative Arts faculty of QUT. A computer trainer and application specialist, Fallon currently works in the IT industry and spends at least a month each year working at Scott Base in Antarctica.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was sooooo good! I can't believe I waited so long to read it! 😊🖤🐺🐾

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4.44 ***

A buddy read with my friends at BB&B! We love us some Fantasy!

The fact that I love this genre and read a lot of it does not make me a Fantasy critic. It only shows that I love reading books about things and happenings as far away from reality as possible. Real Life is something I like to escape from time to time and the vastness and diversity of the fantastical genres gives me a way out of RL without doing anything else but purchase a book.

Saying this, I was very confused by the ratings of this book before I chose to jump into it. They varied from one to five Stars and the reviews looked as if people had read different books under the same title. So I went into it with no expectations, even prepared to hate it. I am so glad I was wrong!

"..."“It’s a matter of faith, Dirk. If you have faith, you don’t need to question.”
“Don’t you? I mean, how do you know that the High Priestess doesn’t just make it up as she goes along? It’s illogical just to accept her word as fact.”
Kirsh was genuinely shocked by the suggestion. “You’re the one who’s being illogical. If she’s just making it up, then how did she know that the second sun would return as soon as the sacrifice was performed?”..."

The book is about a world which has two suns and by laws of their universe one of the suns is orbiting the other. Thus, there are periods of times when the First Sun eclipses the other, as well as times when other planets eclipse both Suns, thus plunging the world into periods of darkness. However, this explanation is far from what the inhabitants of the world understand. In their mythology, The Sun Goddess is the one who controls every aspect of their lives, the main one being a way to reward or punish her followers by controlling the weather and removing or returning the suns to them. Dirk, a young noble of Dhevyn, a country under the rule of the occupying might of the Kingdom of Senet , saves a stranger who washed out on the beach of the island and this act of humanity leads to destroying his world and that of all around him for all the times to come...

It is a story of growing up, choosing your friends wisely, looking beyond the obvious and most of all, religion vs. science. The book is written in the tradition of the classic Fantasy genre, however, there is no magic or dragons, or Fae, there is only the question of religious belief and what you are ready to do in the name of your g-ds, as well as the never ending battle of how we explain nature and what occurs in it to ourselves - by faith, or by research and science... And is the one separate form the other? There is also a tom of political intrigue and machinations and I personally love that, so that might be something that many might find boring, but I find fascinating:) Thus, before you embark on reading this series, have this in mind - there is a lot of character driven drama and politicking, while it is not heavy on action...

"..."“And try to stay out of trouble with the ladies. Remember, they all have fathers and brothers and some of them have armies. ”..."

I thoroughly enjoyed this read, but as I tried to say earlier, I am a big Fantasy fan, which does not make me a connoisseur at all - I just love the genre and like what I like:) I have no claim on any higher right to judge or critique the labor of love these authors give us - I rate on my personal reaction to the work, and I found this one very entertaining! So, I would recommend not to take my word on it, but see the other, more negative and positive reviews, before deciding if this is going to float your boat:)

I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always find what you are looking for in the pages of a good book!!!

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

😈 Devious Shenanigans FTW Buddy Read (DSFTWBR™) with my Long-Lost Twin and stuff 😈

➽ And the moral of this reread is: so many cunning, sadistic bastards and malignantly malevolent, scheming bitches in this book! So many characters to add to my Must Die NOW List (MDNL™)! It really is a dream come true.



👋 To be continued and stuff.



[October 2017]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

Contrary to popular belief, I rarely DNF books. Okay, so I do DNF crappy stuff regularly sometimes, but it's "stuff" and it's "crappy" so it doesn't count as "book." QED and, you know, stuff. Anyway, Lion of Senet no relation to His Furriness, just in case you were wondering nearly almost practically (and most tragically, because it's always fun to be tragic) ended up in the DNF Graveyard. Which, considering it's a book, and not crappy stuff, would have been a real, um, you know, tragedy and stuff. Because it's, um, you know, always fun to be tragic and stuff. Okay, it seems that Mr Lagavulin is having quite the stimulating effect on my Innately Wondrous Rambling Abilities (IWRA™), so let me switch to camomile tea otherwise we'll be here until 2048 or something *prepares a delicious cup of beautifully innocuous dirty water herbal infusion* Ah, my little head feels much murkier clearer already, let's get this crappy non-review rolling and stuff!



I have no idea how this got here. Must be the Fluffy Siberian Bunnies (FSB™) again.

Sooooo, I nearly almost practically (and most tragically, remember?) DNFed this book because:

✘ The vast majority of the cast is so abominably young and horribly youthful, I practically fell into a coma. As allergic to pubescent nonsense as I am, it's nothing short of a miracle that I made it past the first couple of chapters in the book. I did develop quite the severe case of Juvenile-Induced Pustules (JIP™) but, my exoskeleton being what it is, the repugnant warts were hardly noticeable to the naked eye shrimp. Lucky me and stuff.

✘ The writing has a revolting YA feel. It's kinda simplistic, sorta generic, and nothing to write home about, to be shrimpingly honest.

✘ The story seems to be your basic, typical coming of age tale at first. Which is pretty scary, I have to admit. I mean, coming of age stories are terrifying enough, but the standard kind is particularly ghastly. And a little abhorrent, too.

Okay, my 10th shrimpy sense is telling me you're slowly backing away from this book as I write. Granted, this doesn't sound too good so far. BUT. Have another look at my rating, will you? If I, of all people, managed to survive this ↑↑ and ended up giving this book a bloody shrimping 4.5 5-star rating, then there's a good chance 99.99% of you People of Dubious Book Taste (PoDBT™) might, too. And if you don't then you're even more hopeless than I thought. Anyway, very bravely did I soldier on despite all the above-mentioned disgusting stuff and very wisely did I not DNF this book *pats her little self on the exoskeleton*



This in case you didn't know.

So. Why the fish did I end up slightly liking this book, you ask? Because:

✔ Yes, most of the characters are revoltingly young, but not in a devastatingly exasperating way. Okay, so you do want to kill each and everyone of them at some point in the story (Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler—not his/her/their real name—in particular. I hope she dies and excruciatingly painful death and stuff) but it has little to do with their age and a lot to do with their acting like total (choose all that apply) asses/self-centered idiots/narrow-minded fools/greedy, conceited nitwits. They all have delightfully realistic flaws and it's bloody delicious. Yeah, okay, their behavior might have something to do with their being distastefully young and naïve and stuff, but it wasn't so bad as to induce me to commit suicide, so there.

✔ Bitches & Bastards & Butchers, oh my! Such a delectable collection of vile, nefarious, deceitful, Machiavellian, wicked, malevolent, immoral, malicious, unpleasant, shameless, cold-blooded, rapacious, manipulative, power-hungry, selfish, ruthless, unscrupulous, vindictive, cunning, merciless characters here. It's bloody shrimping marvellous. And a teensy little bit scrumpalicious, too. Let's dance.



How do you like the Shrimplettes? Pretty hot, huh?

✔ Yes, the style might be a bit basic but if there is something Fallon is brilliant at, it's storytelling. She weaves a compelling tale, and although the beginning of the book is slightly boring a bit, um, you know, slow and stuff, it's almost impossible to put the book down once you get into the story. Add to that dynamic multiple POVs and Joe Jameson's excellent, lively narration and you get, well, me not DNFing and stuff. Which is quite the miraculous achievement, if you ask me.

✔ Political maneuvering and machinations and scheming galore! Treacherous religious freaks aplenty! Theology vs. science, yay! I thought it was all gloriously stupendous stuff, but it might explain why some People of the Erroneous Opinion (PofEO™) thought the book was tedious as fish. Plus, there is nada zilch zip and absolutely no magic whatsoever in this world, which might have put some PofEO™ off, too. Which might in turn explain why they read the book wrong and stuff. But hey, their judgment is obviously inaccurate so it doesn't count and stuff.



➽ And the moral of this Oh My Bloody Fish I've Gotten so Ancient and Wise I'm Loving Reading Books I Would Have DNFed Only a Year Ago Back when I was Young and Naïve This is the End and We are All Going to Die Dead and Stuff Crappy Non Review (OMBFIGsAaWILRBIWHDOaYABIwYaNTitEaWaAGtDDaSCNR™) is: oh, I don't know, what do you think it might be? That maybe you should read this book? Perhaps. I mean, it's not that it's any good or anything, but there's a slight chance you might possibly not find it entirely lousy and/or a total waste of your precious barnacled time. It is conceivably plausible, you know. Weather permitting, obviously.

· Book 2: Eye of the Labyrinth ★★★★★
· Book 3: Lord of the Shadows ★★★★★



[Pre-review nonsense]

Cunning bastards and evil bitches and villainous villains, oh my! A disgusting YA feel this book had at first. Valiantly persevere I did anyway. Self-complacently patting my exosketelon on the back I am. Because not entirely crappy this book was.



My thoughts exactly, furry-eared man.

➽ Full There are So Many Characters Worth Killing Dead in this One the Murderous Crustaceans Are Going to Be Busy Until 2054 or Something Crappy Non Review (TaSMCWKDitOtMCAGtBBU2054oSCNR™) to come.

[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sale Alert week of 7/21/18 on Amazon $1.99

Read with all my fantasy fanatics addicts at Buddies Books & Baubles

4.5 All Hail The Butcher of Elcast Stars

The thing this book did the best for me was create anticipation. Since it is told from multiple points of view we the reader know many things. We the reader figure out some of the hidden things that aren’t specifically known along the way and in so doing we wait anxiously to see when one of the characters will figure it out too. I was left needing to know when were certain characters paths going to cross, how would some truths come to light, what would characters be willing to do to protect their power and lies etc.

“I am the Deathbringer,” he announced solemnly. “I am the Bringer of Death.”
“Whose death?” Dirk asked curiously.
“I am the Death of Reason. The Death of Enlightenment. Who are you?”
“My name is Dirk Provin.”
“Dirk? Dirk? A dirk is an insignificant blade: too small to be a weapon, too large to be a decent table knife. Just an annoying little poker with grandiose ambitions.”

Meet the main hero Dirk. He is the standard fantasy hero a boy who lived in basic simplicity and seclusion on an island until destiny comes calling. Sheltered by his parents for most of his life he is a bit naive to the world and the dangers in it until he saves a man from a shipwreck only to find out he is a wanted pirate and criminal to the crown. When the Prince and his entourage show up to claim the most wanted man in the kingdom Dirk is thrown into everyone’s plots and schemes.

I really like Fantasy told from various PoVs because it can give really great insight into the motivations of different characters. It is always a little difficult in the beginning because you are introduced to everyone up front but it is an easy way to get a lot of world building and plotting information out there in a short amount of time. After the first 20-30 pages I was actually pretty hooked into the story and trying to figure out what it was about Dirk that made everyone seem to want him so much. In the first pages we learn of a Labyrinth to a treasure of knowledge that has been booby-trapped and a religious figurehead has been working years to get through it. There are currently 2 suns in the sky but the last time one of them disappeared for a while the people starved and a war broke out. One day one of those suns is going to disappear again and the person that has that knowledge will hold all the power in the world.

I like that the author didn’t pull punches. Not one character is Mary or Gary Stu. Dirk while brilliant in some ways is completely stupidnaïve in others. The Prince Antonov who is basically the main bad guy is really very brilliant but he also so incredibly cruel and possibly guilty over his past so unwilling to accept that he might have made a mistake.

The prince turned away, his attention already on another guest. Dirk watched him smiling and joking, wondering how such evil could exist in such a splendidly benign figure as Antonov Latanya

Belagren the head of the religious sect has some very dark secrets in her past indeed. It was amazing the choices she made and the reasons she made them. I thought Cersei Lanister was bad but Belagren might give her a run for her money. Kirshov a second son of the prince comes off as a fun loving playboy most of the time but in his ignorance he hurts others often.

Kirsh wasn’t a bad person, he knew, just thoughtless. He didn’t stop to think about the repercussions of anything that he did, which was a dangerous trait in a prince.

This story showed how sometimes the people you thought you were the closest too can become your enemies while the people you thought were your enemies might be your best allies. It also shows that when people have chosen to put you into the game even by trying to not play you are playing.

To Antonov and Belagren, everything is a game. Before you get too enamored of your new friends, you might want to ask yourself what your role is, because, Dirk Provin, you’re a piece being moved about the board at their whim, just as surely as I am, you can rely on it.”

I really liked the journey that Dirk took in this. He changed a lot from the boy he was in the beginning of the book and I look forward to seeing where his character goes from here. There were so many tense moments and I read through the last half of this book at lightning speed to see what happened next.

This is a fast paced easy to read fantasy that was difficult to put down and even more difficult to tell you about without giving any spoilers away.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved The Lion of Senet when I read it in my younger days and have always considered it as one of my favourite in the fantasy genre. Time and experience have ravished my fond memories of a few of my old favourites over the years and The Lion of Senet did not emerge from this reread unscathed. It did not quite live up to my memories of it. A few more of the flaws caught my eye this time around. That said, just because I've booted The Lion of Senet off my all time favourites list does not mean my reread or this story was a bust. The Lion of Senet is still an excellent and enjoyable read. Fallon's writing has a distinctly simplistic and YA feel to it, but that does not stop it from being very engaging or stop the story from being interesting.

The Lion of Senet is the type of fantasy story in the Wheel of Time mould. It is a traditional coming of age fantasy story following a group of mostly likeable, if a little flawed, young protagonists. The one big difference from your regular traditional fantasy series is that this fantasy world was completely devoid of magic. This could have been an alternate history story. Albeit one set on an alien planet.

The setting was pretty cool and even formed the backbone for the story. The planet of Ranadon is located in a solar system which contains two suns. The result being that the planet is almost always bathed in the light from one of its suns. The exception is when one of the suns orbit is eclipsed. Such eclipses can last for years and cause all sorts of trouble.

Religion plays an important part in the world. More so than ever after the Shadow dancer priestess, Belagren, unearthed ancient knowledge of the solar systems orbital patterns and used the knowledge, during the last Age of Shadows, to elevate herself and her religion to prominence. With the knowledge of when the second sun would return she convinced Antonov, the Lion of Senet, to sacrifice his own son to the Goddess with the promise that it would return the second son, which it did! The sun dancer acolyte who deciphered the orbital patterns from the ancient charts fled from Senet to the island nations of Dhevyn and attempted to expose Belagren's lies. The resulting war between the Kingdoms left the true king of Dhevyn, Johan Thorn, on the run and branded an outlaw, and a heretic, as even some of his own Duke's sided with Antonov and Belagren. Johan's sister was placed on the throne but Antonov took her daughter to "foster" in his own home on Senet. His aim was to marry her to his own second son when they came of age and secure legitimate rule of both kingdoms.

We join the story years later as Johan Thorn, now an outlaw pirate, washed up shipwrecked on the island of Elcast. Elcast is the home of a his ex-lover Morna Provin and her two sons. Johan is arrested by the Senetian governor of the region and his presence soon draws both Antonov and Belagren to the island. This turns out to be bad news for the Provin's as Morna has secrets of her own to hide and her second son, Dirk and his genius intellect, soon catch the eye of Belagren who sees him as a replacement for the missing sun dancer. She needs a replacement badly as she has no idea how to decipher the charts that will predict the next Age of Shadows!

The story was quite entertaining and engaging. It was told mostly from the POV of the younger generation of characters. Dirk (Morna's son), Tia (the daughter of the sun dancer who originally deciphered the charts), Prince Kirsh (the Lion of Senet's second son, Alenor (the queen of Dhevyn's daughter), and a young shadow dancer acolyte, Marqel. All of the characters had interesting stories and a realistic depth to them. The story also held an decent level of depth and moved along at a sharp pace and was packed with action and interesting surprises.

All in All I found this to be a very enjoyable fantasy read.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Audio Note: I took a bit of time to warm to Joe Jameson but once I did I felt he did a decent job.

[Allison Hurd]

Time of death: 30%

I was really excited for the start of this. It sounds like it gets super epic. However, the following 25% is a string of pedophilia, cruelty to people with disabilities or mental illness, extreme misogyny and internalized misogyny. I could perhaps have skated by it if it had been sandwiched in the epic parts but no. The minutiae in this book is used to explore the cruelties and pettiness of all of the characters and really grind in their suffering.

I picked it up again after a few days' break thinking maybe I just hadn't been in the right mood for it. But no. No, it's painful to me.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that's fun to read, but has little else going for it. If you're a hardcore fantasy fan looking to kill some time, you could do worse, but in general I would not recommend.

Lion of Senet is an unusual epic fantasy in that not only is it decidedly not a Tolkien knock-off--no orcs or elves in sight--but there's no magic, no drawn-out journeys and no epic battles. Instead, the plot is driven by political manuevering (perhaps better termed "interpersonal manipulation"), and the primary conflict is between science and religion. Although it feels like fantasy, the book has been termed science fiction due to the setting, a world with two suns. Consequently, it's never truly dark, except when one sun eclipses the other: a phenomenon that provides the basis for the villainous sham religion. (Oddly, given that the book prizes science and math, this orbit makes no sense; one could argue that that's the real fantasy element.)

In other ways, it's a fairly traditional tale of a unusually talented teenage boy, raised in obscurity, who's secretly the heir to a kingdom and spends the story making friends and learning about his mysterious parentage and about how to play politics. You've all read that before, but the plot is actually the best thing about the book. It's well-paced, moving briskly from one character to the next, and kept me turning pages--in fact, I read more than half of the book in one day. The problem is that it depends heavily on melodrama: people overhearing things they shouldn't, often when someone is bluntly explaining something that either shouldn't need be said or realistically wouldn't be, people being easily manipulated, people having simplistic emotional responses to events, and so on.

As for the characters, there's just not much there. The book fails at the crucial task of making them seem like real, believable human beings, rather than simply words on a page. The women are particularly bad, being almost uniformly one-dimensional (the possible exception is Alenor, who joins the men in two-dimensionality--still not good). While the author avoids the most common reasons for flat female characters--they aren't defined as sex objects or by relationships with men--the book isn't free of unfortunate tropes, either. There are three types of women here: the virgins, who are good (if often annoying, prone to yelling at people who are saving their lives and so on); the mothers, who are embarrassingly useless and unable to control their emotions, even when they're queens; and the whores, who are all diagnosable psychopaths running the scam religion.

Even aside from the problematic implications, though, the characters simply lack substance. It's the sort of book where you can pinpoint the main villain the moment she appears because all she ever thinks about is how she wants power over everyone and doesn't care who she kills in the process. Subtle, that.

The writing isn't much good either, although I've certainly seen worse. It has a tendency to be repetitive, overuse adverbs, and state the obvious (repeatedly). And there are the jarringly modern idioms in the dialogue: "be like that," "just a tad," "what's your problem?" and the like. Some of the exposition is clumsy as well, with the main character impossibly ignorant of basic facts about his own world. As for the world itself, it's passable, but we never learn much about the place except that it's a garden-variety quasi-medieval type and has an abundance of natural disasters.

In the end, this was a somewhat amusing book, but a fairly poorly-written one that I would not recommend. I was entertained enough to finish, but although there's little resolution, I'm unlikely to pick up the sequel.

[Fantasy boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lion Of Senet is a fantasy book wthiout magic elements and you hardly see a battle scene in the book. conversations between main characters are almost about politics. Usually I would be familiar with fantasy books include magic, battle scenes, wizards etc.This is a little bit extraordinary for me to see a fantasy books set in a non-magic exist world.(I have seen some of fantasy books have similar setting for example: The Fording Knife by K.J Paker, The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney) In my experience, they are great as the same as The lion of Senet. The world has two suns and to those live in Ranadon that they're used to The fact.
The story focus on two suns has vanished for a while ,which spread fear across the entire Ranadon before they showed up again. The meaning of the incident was interpreted into goddess's will by a High priestess. The whole story was about next Shadow of Age will come? Those who discover the secret about the next Shadow of Age will control the entire Ranadon.
I didn't immerse in the story first 200 pages not because it is boring; with a lot of politics in 1 out of 3 story progression. I want to know more about the world building and background. I think if the writer explained more about the world building on Ranadon not only the politics or religion issues it would be better for me (it could be science fiction not a fantasy fiction) The plot twist has done well in near the end of story.It's all set up for the climax of the end of the story.
I highly recommend The Lion Of Senet to readers who want a special background story.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to get into this one, but once things started coming together I enjoyed it. I will continue on with the series. I don't know yet if this series will be something I would heartily recommend, but it is pretty interesting so far.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked. I liked. Sweet tension!

It starts with volcanos eruptions and tidal waves.

From the top of the cliffs the world appeared to be bathed in blood. The dawn was ruddy, stained crimson with red sun as it began to set in the west, chased out of the sky by the larger, brighter, yellow sun on the eastern horizon.The scarlet clouds hung heavy and thick and tasted of ash.

Decades after a years long solar eclipse, named the Age of Shadows, wrecking devastation on the island of Elcast with volcanos and endless nights, young Dirk, 2nd son of the Duke of Elcast rescues a shipwrecked man.

The man Johan, carries terrible secrets that shakes Dirk's belief in the Goddess, and the Shadowdancers, acolytes to the Goddess.

Belagren, High Priestess of the Shadowdancers, is the human Voice of the Goddess, long thought to have brought forth the Age of Light.

With the death sacrifice of Prince Antonov's child and yearly barbaric Festivals of orgies and human sacrifices, Belagren plays a deadly political game decades in the making. She must learn the secrets of the Labyrinth, clues from the ancient past about the next solar eclipse or she will lose all power over Prince Antonov, the powerful Lion of Senet, ruler of the Kingdom of Senet.

Only Neris, drugged genius mathematician knows the truth. He is dead.

Dirk, talented beyond his years, must now use his wits and courage to find out the truth about the Age of Shadows, the religious order of Shadowdancers and his own history with the Kingdom of Senet and Dhevyn.

What I Thought

I absolute loved the slow reveal and tension.

We start with such beautiful little details. A volcano painting the sky red, Tia looking for her insane father and Neris talking about a Goddess. I just knew this book was going to be good. The author slowly layers the story with each character introduced but doesn't bulk down the story with long winded backstories or awkward narrations. Slowly we learn about the Age of Shadows, Belagren's role and her ultimate power, the indoctrination of a society, Duchess Morna history with Johan, and a forgotten war.

The political backdrop of Senet practically ruling over Dhevyn with the added bonus of a Goddess mandating Prince Antonov's power just made this story richer to read.

The baddies have divine right and no one but science can go against this.

It's also been awhile since I've read a novel with such a full cast of characters and not get lost in their interactions or backstories. So this was a unexpectedly navigable read. Every character has a distinct voice which made it similarly very easy to be invested in each of their development.

The only real awkward moment for me was when Dirk's paternity by Prince Antonov was revealed with such little fanfare, Dirk killing his father Johan, and Tia and Rahian escape. It didn't really make any real sense that Antonov would believe Dirk and then let him escape with the prisoners with all that build up. It felt like the author needed Dirk to kill his father-infallible Dirk getting blood on his hands and the author couldn't think of a better way to do it. Unfortunately because of those scenes, I didn't read the next book and just skipped to the end of the third.

[StrixVaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst book I've read in a long time. It was hard to find (which should have been the first clue), so when I found a vendor that sold it, I bought all 3 to save on shipping. What a mistake. There's no way I can bring myself to read any more by this author.

I like to think of books as having three critical components: characters, setting, and plot. Some authors are better at one or another, but any one of the three can really carry a story (for example: Realm of the Elderlings is carried by its characters; The Divine Cities is carried by its setting; most of Sanderson's books are carried by their plot). This book fails spectacularly at all three.

Setting

This setting is a catastrophe. The physics of the main premise, the fact that there are two suns and one eclipses the other once in a while, doesn't actually seem to work at all. Even if it could work, then the plotting based around that event is still nonsense, because either 1) this happens so infrequently that there are so many generations between this event occurring that it's impossible for it to happen again within any of the characters' lifetimes, or 2) this happens frequently enough that there is some history of the event happening, so it can't possibly catch everyone by surprise. However, the plot revolves around both of these at once: the eclipse came as a surprise and no one knew what was going on, but the next one is going to come so soon that people are scrambling to try to take political advantage of it. You can't have it both ways.

But beyond the main plot-driving premise making no sense at all, the actual politics and history of the setting are also essentially nonexistent. Exactly as much political infrastructure exists as is shown on screen, and no more. Other countries are mentioned in passing, once. But there's no trade with them, no influence by them in any way, nothing of the sort. The Lion of Senet is obsessed with conquering a bunch of islands that provide no strategic value of any sort, or if they do, then it's not developed at all. Overall, this is a book where nothing is happening when it's not on screen. This complaint goes into setting because it means that the setting isn't a living, breathing world but rather a thin veneer barely able to hold itself together.

Additionally, everyone knows everyone. There aren't really any characters that aren't related or involved with everyone else in a tangled romance/relative spiderweb. Again, the author couldn't help but add a bunch of conveniences that would make the plotting cheap later.

Characters

Where do I even start? Every character is a caricature of a single trait brought to the extreme to make sure that you know that they're unique. Dirk is smart. He's super duper smart. He's the smartest person who ever lived. He's so smart he can do square roots. And play chess really well. Those are classic smart person things, right? Also note how many times I told you how smart he is? Well, if you decide to read this book, be prepared to be reminded every time he shows up in a scene. He's super smart. Remember it. Or don't, because you'll be reminded.

The rest of my complaints with characters are kind of integrated with how they interact, so...

Plot

There is no plot. There's just a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off for 550 pages wasting everyone's time.

You know that trope where a character overhears something they shouldn't, overreacts, and then there's a bunch of needless drama because no one is able to communicate like a human being? Check.

You know that trope where a character hears something, jumps to a conclusion that is completely nonsensical, overreacts, and then there's a bunch of needless drama because no one is able to communicate like a human being? Check.

You know that trope where a character talks about their long-term evil plans right in front of their new recruit who joined their ranks only a few weeks ago and hasn't proven their loyalty at all? No, because no one but this author would ever think that that's a reasonable thing to have happen. But it happens here anyway! Check.

This book is melodrama incarnate without a hint of real actual conflict.

Conclusion

This is the second time I've bought an entire trilogy before reading any of it. So far, I'm 2 for 2 in absolutely loathing the first book and deciding it's not worth reading the rest. The first was a decade ago, but hopefully the lesson sticks for more than a decade this time.

In summary, I don't recommend it.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon
*****5*****

Re read with my friends at Buddies, Books and Baubles Thanks for taking on this book with me you guys, it's still a favorite.

Dirk Provin has always lived a peaceful life on Elcast with his mother, father and older brother Reece. Dirk is exceptionally brilliant, and this comes to the attention of the feared Lion of Senet when he visits Elcast after a mysterious stranger is shipwrecked on the island. As the Landfall festival looms closer, a religious ceremony led by the High Priestess Belagren, and frowned upon by those in Elcast, Dirk's future grows less and less certain. The friendships he makes are not as solid as they seem, and his enemies may become his allies. This book is packed with great characters (both loveable and hated), political intrigue and just plain great storytelling!

***original review***

I think Jennifer Fallon is simply brilliant. I adore this trilogy, I couldn't put it down and have already re read it once. I anticipate many more readings. I read somewhere that her advice to writers was never create a character smarter than yourself. Well if she is even half as brilliant as Dirk she's doing well.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)

It pleases me to see that Australian author Jennifer Fallon is slowly starting to receive some well deserved international attention. Her recent ‘Tide Lords’ quartet garnered a couple of positive reviews, and I’ve seen some blogs posting about her latest series ‘The Undivided.’

But I want to talk now about one of her older, less known, set of books; The Second Sons trilogy, comprising of 'The Lion of Senet,' 'Eye of the Labyrinth,' and 'Lord of the Shadows.' It’s a shame that these books haven’t received a lot more attention, because they’re really pretty great.

The title "Second Sons" is a clever little play on words. The trilogy concerns it self with the second sons of two powerful families, but the plot also hinges on the second sun in the world's sky. Ranadon has two suns you see, a large one which sets like ours, and a second one which never sets. Except for this one time when it did. A generation or so ago the second sun set, ushering in a disastrous dark age. And here’s where things get interesting. A super genius dude was able to predict when the dark age would end (with the power of maths!), and he told his priestess friend. She uses this information to convince the big ruler dude, aka The Lion of Senet, to sacrifice his son to end the dark age, and because she knows the time it will end it appears the goddess was talking through her.

But (the plot thickens) the super genius dude didn’t just predict when the dark age would end, he predicted when the next one would start. And priestess girl, who’s now insanely powerful high priestess lady, kind of needs that info to maintain her credibility. (It would be bad for her health if the ruler found out he sacrificed his first born for nothing…) Too bad super genius guy hasn’t been seen in decades.

But! There is another young lad with the brainpower to figure it out. This is Dirk, one of the "second sons" in the title. He and the Lion of Senet's son Kirsh are the main tagonists of the books. Not a typo. Tagonsts. It's a word I just made up. They're not protagonists (good guys), they're not antagonists (bad guys), they're just people. They do good things, they do shitty things, and believe me when I say they'll break your heart. This true for most of the characters in the trilogy. There is no black and white here, trust me. The Lion of Senet, in particular, is very well done. It would have been easy to make him a straight up villain, what with him killing his own son and all. But Fallon makes him a far more complex character than that. He’s fanatical in his his religious views, and a lot of the plot is driven by this. But what choice does the guy have? To admit that his religion might not be all-knowing would be to admit that he sacrificed his son for nothing. It makes for compelling reading let me tell you.

And the ending. Ah, the ending. It’s one of those ends that hits you like a punch to the gut, that stays with you for months or years or hell, probably the rest of your life. Years later and I find myself thinking of these books at odd times, running over in my mind the course of events that made things in the final volume play out the way they did. There is nothing so impressive as a book drawing to a perfect and inevitable close, with all the small pieces set in place over the three books leading to one magnificent finale.

They're not perfect, I'll admit that. These were written early in Fallon's career when she was still smoothing out her prose a little. She gets a bit heavy with the adverbs (he said sadly, she yelled angrily, he sighed ecstatically, and so on) but it's certainty not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the story.

[Tamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intrigues, scheming, cunning and interesting world building.
Great writing and lovable characters.

There's no magic in this world, the story take place in a world named Ranadon where are two Suns. Once, one Sun disappeared and started the age of shadows, after a few years the Sun reappeared but not without Implications. Those implications now cause the great fight between faith and science.

So happy do discover this gem on GR.

[Ithlilian · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Lion of Senet has been recommended to me a few times, and has glowing reviews here, so I decided to pick it up. I do not mind a fantasy book without magic one bit, so I had no trepidations about reading this book. The novel started off nicely introducing us to some teenagers throughout the world and the major power players on the story. I could tell that their paths were converging ever so slowly, and things were looking good. At around page 200 my annoyances with the book really started to get to me. I found myself skipping over sections and blundering through just to finish.

My first gripe was that some of the characters, Belagren and a few others, knew a major secret that everyone else was blind to. The readers were told that secret pretty quickly in the novel. The world in The Lion of Senet has two suns, which means at some point they will overlap causing darkness. Since this occurs in the real world fairly often, it is a no-brainer to readers. However, all of the characters in the dark ages of this novel don't know anything about that. So we have to read through hundreds of pages with a few characters revealing everything to us and all of the other characters being extremely ignorant. I fail to see the point of reading further novels in this series just so the characters can find out that the suns will eventually overlap and that it is not a goddess causing darkness. If the entire point of the series is debunking a religion where people believe a god figure ushers in the suns each day, I have to say I do believe that has happened in the real world a few times before.

Another issue I have is the maturity level of the characters. I wasn't expecting most of this novel to be comprised of teenagers talking to each other. No one had anything promising to say, and all of the characters lacked depth. Petty squabbles and predictable discussion is not my idea of an interesting novel. Another small problem I had was the timeline. We are thrown into the story in the midst of action. Pirates are washing up on shore, festivals are occurring, and temples are being raided. Through dialogue between characters we pick up much of the back story, and everything is great. Then, a character decides to reminisce about the past, rehashing details that any intelligent person already would have picked up. Our ignorant characters must be enlightened of the past somehow, and I understand that, but something could have been done differently. For example, don't give us any hints of the past until our characters glean them. The reader is told that Dirk is the pirate's son, and it is practically said right in front of his face. Yet, as the most intelligent character in the book he certainly missed that HUGE detail. We then had to wait another few hundred pages before he was finally told. Very frustrating.

The lack of a compelling plot was the last straw for me. I can't read a book about dethroning a religion due to scientific thought. I learned about that in elementary school, and it is just plain common sense. It is very hard having to read about religious zealots unwilling to think outside of the box because it is such a stale topic. In the end the only things resembling fantasy in this novel are the two suns. Everything else comes straight out of our history. There is nothing special about this novel at all.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a while for this book to grab me. The beginning seemed bog-standard fantasy; a young boy raised in obscurity who suddenly learns he's the son of a king? Yawn.

Then the political machinations take off. Boy, do they take off. I spent the last several hundred pages engrossed, never quite sure of who was going to do what. The ending had satisfying closure but still sent me rushing out to find the sequel. (Six bookstores later, I still haven't found it, but hey, that's what the Internet is for.)

The one down note for me was the book's typecasting of women. Female main characters came in three types: virgins (good), married mothers of main characters (ineffectual), and unmarried but sexually active (evil). One woman starts a world-wide cult of human sacrifice to get in the bed of the man she desires (and power, of course); another woman drugs a man and falsely accuses him of rape to gain the sympathy of her love interest (and to gain power, of course). Way to show female desire as a normal, neutral part of life, there.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on a whim one day. For the first half of the book I kept asking myself why the hell I was reading it. By the end of the book, I wasn't really sure exactly how I felt about it. The book certainly picked up after the half-way point, but I certainly wasn't overwhelmed. I decided that I really didn't care enough to finish the series. However, in the coming days I kept thinking about the characters. I kept wanting to know what the hell happened to them next. I'm profoundly glad I decided to pick up the next book. This series is not really a traditional fantasy series in any sense. This series has no epic battles, no evil orcs threatening mankind, and no wicked demigods threatening the planet. This series is about the mistakes two men made that broke the world and the struggle between their sons to fix it. After reading the whole series, I've realized this is probably one my favorite fantasy series now. Their are anti-religious undertones in this series (expected of contemporary Australian authors) and that may upset some readers. On the whole though, if you are tired of orcs, trolls, goblins, illithids, githyanki, baatezu and tanar'ri, then this series is probably something you'd be interested in. This book and this series is about conflicts between people. Who thought that could be interesting?

[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. I'll read the next one!

[Lennie Wynker · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. The ending was a bit of a letdown and I hated Tia, except for that this book was fabulous. Reading this is only reinforcing my belief that the quality of YA books has dwindled.

[Bridgett McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Second Sons Trilogy is a story centralised on Dirk Provin, the second son of a regional lord, and cousin to heirs of two ruling families. Set on Ranadon, the series is set after the Age of Shadows, a time when the second sun (incidentally, a clever double meaning to the book's title) disappeared from Ranadon and created widespread famine and disarray. The end of this event was uncovered using mathematical knowledge of the orbit of suns, discovered by Neris Veran, a genius-level researcher who worked with Belagren, the self-styled High Priestess of the Shadowdancers. She subsequently stole this information, proclaimed it as divinely inspired visions, declared herself as High Priestess, and used it to dupe the Lion of Senet, Antonov Latanya, into offering his infant son for sacrifice to bring back the second sun. After this event, Neris disappeared, and Belagren's power grab becomes desperate as she realises that her inability to read the symbols and writing could cost her her place as High Priestess. She needs someone who can puzzle it out for her to maintain her power. Once Dirk's towering intelligence comes to light, he becomes a pawn in these power games, but he has an end game of his own...

At first when I picked up this book (and it may have been that my opinion was somewhat swayed by other reviews) I found it slow to start - slower, it seems, than either the Wolfblade or Demon Child series, which are, in my humble opinion, Jennifer Fallon's crowning glories.

Having said that, the minds-eye visuality in Fallon's books grabs you immediately. But when the story really took off, after all the scene-setting, it honestly felt like a *bang* in my head. The 'light bulb' moment when you, as the reader, are almost... permitted... to view the end game, while still watching how the characters reach it. Suddenly I saw all the parts come together, and I started to second-guess at the parts that weren't quite making sense yet. But that is the brilliance of Fallon's novels: she leaves out just enough info to keep you hungering for more, while giving your mind a work out to discover the political and social machinations permeating her books.

I enjoyed the characters, although I felt that, the connections between them were a little too instant or unexplainable in some ways. There was some duality in the traits of the characters, where they acted one way because of their values, then acted totally another way because it helped the plot. I found Tia's consistent hatred to be wearing on me after a while, but I guess that it was also true to how the character would have felt. Maybe it just pushed buttons. The only other criticism I have is that when I started reading, the names felt 'clunky' in my mind at times.

The series itself is definitely up to Jennifer Fallon's standards, and her flair for understanding the minds of villains and their twisted psyches is ever-present in these books. Would I read it again? Probably, if only for the opportunity to read the story with knowledge of what every twist and turn was leading to :)

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caught my attention when I opened the cover flap and saw praise for it from one of my favorite fantasy authors, Robin Hobb. One of the reasons I really like Hobb is that her style is cerebral, with the focus being on the political intrigue and emotional relationships between the characters, rather than hacking and slashing of an evil horde of underdeveloped minions.

Jennifer Fallon's Lion of Senet fit that style and pushed it even further. Where most fantasy involves magic spells, mythical creatures, epic battle sequences and objects of power (even Robin Hobb's to some degree), not a single one of those elements were present in Lion of Senet -- a refreshing departure from a mostly formulaic genre.

Instead, there was an incredibly rich story, many believable characters, all with different individual motivations, and a detailed, complex view of court life. That, combined with the political and religious undertones that shaped the story, was enough to make this book down impossible to put down.

Another interesting note about Fallon's style is her ability to seamlessly switch points of view in each chapter without harming the overarching narrative. In fact, seeing the world through each of the characters -- protagonists and antagonists alike -- helped to give the story more depth.

[Glitterfairy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess this is 'fantasy' but it's not your classic myth and magic story - fairly grounded in politics and reality, actually. And this is where this trilogy truly shines.

This isn't Fallon's best trilogy - I feel that ball lies well in the Hythrun Chronicles court - but in terms of plotting and "oh my god, you know what? I really have no idea what's going to happen next" it's unbelievably good. In terms of morality and fate it's also a bit bleaker and harder than the Hythrun and Medalon - more Hobb-like.

I started reading this book fairly soon after Hyrthun and Medalon and was a bit turned off by it's lack of classic fantasy-ness, but I definitely advise readers to stick into it. I was fairly intrigued by the end of the first book, but by the end of the second book I was on one of the biggest plot-influenced tenterhooks I can remember in my life. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

[Doc Opp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts slowly. Very, very slowly. But it builds. It becomes stronger and more compelling. The characters become rich and nuanced. The world and the politics become deeper and more complex. Different strands of the tapestry are drawn together. Misunderstandings turn allies into enemies. Ambition and naivete turn enemies into allies. The plot thickens. The book becomes all but impossible to put down. As a reader, you become engrossed, excited that you have found a new author and a whole set of books to keep you company for weeks, months, and years to come.

And then you hit page 400, and it all comes crashing down. It took me two days to read the first 400 pages. It took me over two weeks to read from page 400-450. It is a plot twist that desecrates an otherwise excellent book as badly as any I've ever seen. And the worst part is, it isn't even needed for the plot. The author just ruined a perfectly good book for no reason. After page 450, aside from occasional reference to what happened in those 50 pages, it as though it never happened. (To the extent that it is even referenced later as a driver to the plot, it just makes the plot less plausible). And then the book ends in an engaging and satisfying way, much like the first 400 pages.

I can't really say much more without spoilers, but that 50 pages entirely ruined the book and the series for me. I'm not planning on reading the sequels, or anything else by the author. While the author is clearly an elite storyteller, I won't risk putting myself through getting invested and then ultimately disappointment like I did with Lion of Senet. In 50 pages, the book went from what would have been my most enthusiastic recommendation of the year, to a book I wouldn't recommend to anybody. Such wasted potential.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really happy to trip onto this series.

It's a bit far from epic fantasy but in I way I usually appreciate.
The only trip it had happens in a week but takes only a page. I loved that in my fantasy picks.
Then, good pace; not fast but I expect more adventure in the next ones.

Good characters even if I have lost one of my favorite ones. I expect Dirk to be smarter than every one thinks he is in incoming ones but I like him and his ultimate companions.

Good word building without info dump.

It has a young adult genre vibe but I enjoyed it was not really so much as the young characters are living in complicated situations.

Overall I enjoyed it, not as much as I did with Cinda Williams Chima books but closer.

[Zaryna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant! The world, the history, the religion and the characters all make this book 100% read worthy!
I love the amount and complexity of background information that this book handles, and how its slowly dispersed thrgouthout the book.
The characters depths are also amazingly well written you either fall in love with them or hate them the moment they are introduced. It fabulous!
I'm so happy to have finally read this book after its many months of sitting, gathering dust, on my bookshelf. Onto number two already! So excited to see what is to come.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I'm incredibly conflicted by this book. I think author should have spent less time building the world, and more time building the characters first, which would have left me less confused and made it easier to pick this book up. The first three quarters moved too slowly for my taste, but this was also not helped by the author having six story lines moving at once until they start coalescing. The climax was rather brilliant, and the resolution moved me, and I suspect I may have to read the second book in the series.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this going into it, as I knew it was a fantasy that was based on political intrigue rather than magic. I found myself hooked from the first page, even though it is a book driven very much by character rather than plot. In some ways I wish there was a little more balance between character and plot, especially within the first two thirds.

There were a lot of characters introduced and I am glad for the character glossary at the end because sometimes it was hard to keep them straight. I did get confused a few times because there is a minor character whose name is Lanatyne, yet the Lion of Senet’s last name is Latanya. It was just close enough to cause confusion for me.

The first two thirds had me enamored, and I would have given it a solid 4 stars, but then the story took a turn in a direction I didn't like. This one event added a sort of sour note to the story and I found I wasn't enjoying it as much. I was interested still interested in the world, but after that with the exception of another event, I felt the ending was a bit bland.

I also had some questions about the world that were never answered. Everyone refers to the Goddess as the Goddess, never by a name. Does she have a name, and is it irreverent to say her name? Or is it kind of like God? Also, how long did the first age of shadows last, and had it ever happened before that? It’s not like these people are new to this planet, or at least they don’t seem to be.


Spoilers!

The main thing that bothered me was the story's treatment of Marqel. I wanted to like her, and I was rooting for her to overcome what people thought of her based on her background, but then she turned around and was going to use the Milk of the Goddess on Kirsh, and then decided to use it on Dirk as revenge for ruining her moment. I get she is mad, but that is going way too far, and she knew it was wrong. And then she made a false rape accusation against Dirk. I’m sort of surprised they have the cultural concept of rape since that is what the landfall festival relies on. Marqel’s behavior made me dislike her, and I was disappointed because I wanted to like her, but her behavior is inexcusable. I also disliked how Dirk and Alenor hate on Marquel because of her background, which wasn’t her fault. I had hoped Alenor would become friends with Marqel because it seems she has a lack if female friends. The only people her age we see her around regularly are Dirk and Kirsh. Even though their dislike was ultimately was warranted, it seemed Alenor was hating on her because she was another female who is threatening her relationship with Kirsh. This is an overused trope and we need to stop having women hate on other women because they are women. Perhaps if Alenor and Dirk had been kinder to Marqel, they could have steered her on the right path, but instead they condemned her for her past that she had no control over.

Also, the kiss between Tia and Dirk. He was kissing her to avoid the guards, but then it says she started kissing him back. I hope this doesn’t turn into her being in love with him after hating him because that is another problematic trope. There’s no need to force a romance between the characters just for the sake of romance. Tia was starting to get annoying when she kept distrusting Dirk even though he was clearly trying to help them, and I wanted to tell her, like Reithan, to give it a rest already. It got kind of repetitive.

After Dirk kills Johan, I felt the end of the book was kind of bland. Dirk has to help everyone escape from Antonov, but then he’s not sure what his plan is. He has no direction other than going to Mil with Tia and Reithan. It seems like he has no purpose or direction, and thus there is nothing really compelling me to immediately pick up the next book. It might be natural for him to be uncertain, since he killed his biological father, lost all his friends, and can’t return to the life he knew on Elcast, but for the sake of the plot I felt like there needed to be something. I also wish Dirk had thought more about what he did and how he and Johan never got to know each other or really come to terms with their relationship. He doesn’t really think about it at all, which is natural because it was very traumatic, but he is going to have to face it at some point.

[Margaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!! This is everything a good fantasy should be (in my opinion), and more. Complex characters, political intrigue, religious fanaticism, nefarious plotting and backstabbing, secrets and lies, and an ending that makes you want to jump right into the next one.

The interesting thing about the characters is how flawed they are. Not in a tortured, anti-hero way that makes you feel sorry for them. Instead, they have flaws that make you cringe and really wonder why you still like them at all. And there are no anti-heroes to be found, as a matter of fact. The villains are about as slimy, bloody-minded, and scheming as you can get, and there is no part of them that makes you think they might change someday, or be "saved." Normally all of these things would have me running for the hills! But somehow Fallon is magical and I can't wait to continue reading about these people.

My stomach was tied up in knots throughout the whole book, so it is not for the faint of heart. Fallon definitely doesn't go easy on you, and there were times where I needed to take breaks just to relieve the stress and anxiety. But I wasn't able to put it down for long before I was picking it up again, dying to know what happened next!

[Emily Rainsford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS is grown up fantasy!!

This might be a backlist book from 2002 but it was such a dang breath of fresh air to me. I came to this having just finished a "romantasy" arc that read like the fanfic it grew from and followed what seems to be a modern trend of popcorn reads that are far more "roman-" than "-tasy". Imagine my glee upon picking up this book and finding a meaty, elaborate fantasy with solid worldbuilding, political intrigue galore, morally grey characters that are actually interesting and complex, and an epic plotline that DARES you to even GUESS what might come next.

As someone who reads 99.5% female authors, I have found it a little concerning that two of my favourite reads were written by dudes (Empire of the Vampire, and The Book that Wouldn't Burn). Reading this book however, reassured me that the identity of the author had nothing to do with it. What I love is a substantial story with vivid worldbuilding, and characters with realistically human levels of depth and moral complexity.

I have nothing against romantasy as a genre, in fact I enjoy it myself often. But it can tend towards being shallow, and poorly developed beyond all the lusting and smoldering.

This epic 650+ page read was everything I want from a fantasy. There were plenty of feisty and interesting female characters. It had just the right amount of brutality without feeling gratuitous. It had interesting themes of religion and power.

It also made me realise that I had somehow forgotten that fantasy just means it's set in an imaginary world - that fantasy doesn't actually have to involve magic or mythical creatures.

Somehow I was absolutely hooked on this book and my very distractable self was able to read chapter after chapter after chapter without pause. I absolutely cannot wait to read the rest of this series. And I hope that authors and publishers keep putting out this type of fantasy well into the future!

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Details at my blog

A brilliant mathematician calculated when the second sun would disappear, vital information for keeping the religious establishment in power. In the midst of war, he vanished without telling anyone when the Age of Darkness would begin. But High Priestess Belagren has found another gifted mathematician in seventeen-year-old Dirk Provin, and even though his mother is a political dissident who hates the High Priestess and everything she represents, Belagren's determined to have him.

This is probably my favorite fantasy of all time. It influenced my tastes so strongly that I no longer feel magic is a necessary element in fantasy, while I'm less likely to pick up a fantasy novel if it doesn't contain intrigue at high levels (politics or religion).

Dirk is just fascinating. If I recall correctly, Jennifer Fallon's premise for him was "How many bad things can a character do and still be sympathetic?" That surprised me, because even though he's thinking ten times faster than everyone around him, there's obvious logic in all his decisions and I was rooting for him the whole time. Dirk is my favorite male character under 30.

He's also surrounded by a slew of strong personalities, each with their own agendas and secrets. All of Jennifer Fallon's books are like that, and even though they're all very well-done in terms of plotting and characterization, something keeps drawing me back to this book. I think I've read this book about once a year for almost ten years now.