The Dread is the concluding volume in The Fallen Kings duology, which in turn is companion to The Chronicles of the Necromancer trilogy. It was published in February 2012. I read the Nook version.

The Blurb

War has come to the Winter Kingdoms. The Dread will rise. Kings will fall.
Summoner-King Tris Drayke takes what remains of his army north to fight a war he is ill-prepared to fight, as reports from spies confirm Tris’s worst fear. A new threat rises across the sea: a dark summoner who intends to make the most of the Winter Kingdoms’s weakness. And in Isencroft, Kiara’s father is assassinated and she will now have no choice except to return and claim the crown. But she must leave behind her husband Tris and their infant son and face the dark power that threatens her rule. THE DREAD is the epic conclusion to the Fallen Kings Cycle. [GoodReads]

My Review

Oh, this book and I have such a love-hate thing going on here. Except I don’t hate it. I just mildly dislike some of it. Oh, but I love it, too!

You see, I love the characters. I have had such hopes for the Warrior-Queen Kiara (no relation), ever since The Summoner. However, she never really lives up to her potential. For the first couple of books, she was fabulous. Then she ends up married, pregnant, and stuck as far from the battlefield as she could possibly get “for the sake of the heirs”. Sigh. Tris is a great character. Summoner and King, he is forced to balance his power against his morality. My favorite character, I think, has always been Jonmarc. He is quite the rogue, an ex-slave, and an excellent fighter. In this particular part of the series, though, I think my favorite is Aidane. She’s a serroquette – what is known as a “ghost whore” or one who can speak to and be possessed by ghosts. She reunites lovers parted by death for one last night together. In her homeland, she is hunted and if caught would be tortured and killed. She’s a remarkably complex character and one who stands up admirably under pressure.

The world is fascinating and filled with compelling characters that I would love to sit down with for a drink. I love them to pieces. It’s the plot I find myself scratching my head over. Take your pick: the enemies of the last two volumes are either a) a group of supernatural creatures b) foreigners compelled by a spell or c) Isencroft (domestic) traitors. Except, somehow, the answer is really some strange combination of all three. Plus, there’s a Ripper-esque serial killer, some rogue vampires, and an evil Summoner all seemingly working in collusion with each other for the downfall of all of the myriad heroes who’ve been introduced to us over the course of five books.

If you’re scratching your head about now, don’t feel too badly. So was I. It all sort of makes sense in context as you’re reading, but I really don’t understand the motivations of the bad guys here. I think it’s a matter of the opposition being underdeveloped. You see what they wanted, but not why they wanted it, and it leaves something essential lacking that would push the story from good to great.

That said, Martin is just as adept at epic, sweeping battle scenes as she is at brief, poignant glimpses into ones that tugs at the heart strings. Jonmarc’s thoughts at being off to war during the birth of his twins comes to mind, and likewise Tris’ reasoning for walking into death and also for effectively damning his own soul. You can see how Talwyn and Jair’s story will go, but that doesn’t make the ending any lighter for the reader. The poetic beauty of the words is so haunting that you can forget, for a time, that a lot of the plot doesn’t really make sense.

So. I love it. But it confuses me. I don’t regret reading it. Nor do I feel entirely comfortable recommending it to others. This is one you’re going to have to make your own decisions about, readers. I’m giving it 2 and 1/2 stars.

Rating:  

The Heir of Night

The Wall of Night #1

Written: Helen Lowe [website]

Published: Eos

When: September 28,2010

ISBN: 0061734047

Obtained via: Publisher (ARC)

Back Cover Blurb:

If Night falls, all fall . . .

In the far north of the world of Haarth lies the bitter mountain range known as the Wall of Night. Garrisoned by the Nine Houses of the Derai, the Wall is the final bastion between the peoples of Haarth and the Swarm of Dark—which the Derai have been fighting across worlds and time.

Malian, Heir to the House of Night, knows the history of her people: the unending war with the Darkswarm; the legendary heroes, blazing with long-lost power; the internal strife that has fractured the Derai’s former strength. But now the Darkswarm is rising again, and Malian’s destiny as Heir of Night is bound inextricably to both ancient legend and any future the Derai—or Haarth—may have.

My Review:

I’m pretty late in this review, since the book came out in September, but I really wanted to talk about it. I finished this book awhile ago but life has kept me from my review. This book, though, deserves to be talked about and so here I am, late to the party, but with a case of wine in hand (figuratively speaking anyway).

When Eos offered up advance reader copies of this book, I jumped at the chance even though I knew nothing about the book. I’ve had good luck with Eos’ fantasy offerings as a whole, so I figured even if I’d never heard of the author before that I probably wouldn’t be disappointed. Man, am I glad that not only did I make that jump but that I actually managed to snag a copy.

I have to admit to a few misconceptions going into it. The cover art, though beautiful, is pretty misleading. I mean, we have a huge dark castle looming out of a creepy-looking forest and a cloaked figure in the foreground holding aloft a lantern. I thought for sure that this was a vampire book. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Make no mistake that this is a fantasy novel – and if you don’t believe me, one look at the blurb will prove it. It has a very slight science fiction flavor, in that the history of the Derai seems to be that they came to Haarth from a distant world. But it’s a science fiction flavor the way the first couple of Pern books were science fiction — only by the most remote of the world’s origins and (for this book, at least) that seems to have little bearing on the story.

In point of fact, we don’t learn much about the Darkswarm who are the sworn enemies of the Derai, or of the Derai people themselves. This novel focuses mostly on Malian, Heir to the House of Night, daughter of the leader of the foremost of Derai houses; and on her new-found friend, the young Kalan, who is a sort of apprentice priest at the local temple. They are separated from those who care for them, lost in the mountain-sized warren of the House while the treacherous and mysterious Darkswarm attack the House and Temple both.

This is another volume with more questions than answers, though I think not on the scale of Brandon Sanderson’s. The compelling portrayals of the main characters are comparable though. Both Malian and Kalan are young and naive but brave and they both live in a harsh world and culture. Their characters are vivid and both make choices believable for their age and experience.

The Derai seem to be a brutal people, one who put much stock in war and in physical might. There is also an undercurrent of treachery that sours their fearlessness into something dark and sort of bitter. I wanted to know more about the Derai, but I was also relieved when Malian begins the fantasy-series-required “hero’s journey” at the end of the book. The Derai and the Wall of Night they protect are just the tip of the enigmatic iceberg. The reader is given many teasing hints of more – and just as strange – cultures and peoples of Haarth.

I’m sold on this world, and on the characters. I want to know more. I think Helen Lowe has given us a unique new twist on the old “coming of age” fantasy trope and I can’t wait to see what else she’s going to do with it. Not only that, but now that I know from her website that she’s also a poet, I understand the beautiful imagery of this novel. The language here is gorgeous and unobtrusive. You’ll only notice how musically the words go together if you’re looking for it, otherwise you’ll just see the beautifully painted pictures of the scenes described. (Unless, of course, you don’t see pictures in your head**. Which boggles my mind, but is possible. Doubtless even if so, you’ll be able to appreciate this book anyway.)

The good news – at least for my overseas readers – is that I delayed in my review enough that now those in the United Kingdom can look forward to their local Heir of Night debut. The book is set to be released in March 2011, per the sidebar on the author’s website. Don’t feel bummed, US readers – you can pick up The Heir of Night now and still look forward to the sequel, coming out this fall. If you’re not convinced, then hear it from the author’s own lips over at John Scalzi’s Whatever feature: The Big Idea. 

Buy it at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Rating:  

**I was going to link, here, to an article I read by (I think) CE Murphy about how she doesn’t see images in her head when she writes and had no idea that anyone could even do that until she’d met someone who’d explained it to her. Except that I can’t find it. Oh, well.