Hello everyone!
That's right, I'm talking about another advanced reader's copy which I was lucky enough to be gifted.
I've been going through a few at this time, I still have one I have to finish, but out of the lot this might be my favourite, probably because it's a fantasy novel, and fantasy, as you all know, is one of those things I THOROUGHLY enjoy.
So what do you do when there's a dark sorcerer/demon rising, there's another army you've got to deal with before you can even begin to contemplate how you'll kick him back to kingdom come, and you're missing the third part of your trifecta to be successful?
Well, you kind of start an epic journey. And hope beyond hope that everything's going to end well as you do it.
While you're at it, you also listen to the advice of one crusty cat, and help keep him warm when the snow starts falling.
All that, and more, is what we're going to find in Odriel's Heirs.
The book, like I've mentioned before, is part of the fantasy genre; a long time ago, a necromancer who was also kind of a god decided that he wanted to rule the entire world, and brought an army of Lost to fight for him. This army is made up of fallen warriors whose souls haven't been able to pass over to the afterlife, meaning they're lost, so they're dead, but not really.
Think Walking Dead, only a whole lot more annoying.
Anyway, the armies of the land converged to battle him, and they had their own magical weapons along for the ride: the Fire Heir, the Shadow Heir, and the Time Heir. The first one burned through the ranks of the Lost, the second one attempted to assassinate the demon-god, and the third one healed them.
And so the day was won.
In present day, however, the current Fire Heir, Kaia, just wants to live a normal life as a seventeen-year-old girl, or if she can't have THAT, she wants to ride on missions with her father.
See, when the demon-god was defeated, he wasn't actually destroyed, just banished, and he's been trying to break free of his prison ever since.
Also, his Lost have been roaming the lands, too.
They attack Kaia's own village, prompting her to release the Dragon Fire, and everyone and their mother hate her for it, because apparently it's much more dangerous to look at her than to be thankful she burned their enemies to a crisp. Having no time to worry, Kaia packs up and leaves to find both her father and the Shadow Heir, which is how she runs into the crusty cat I mentioned earlier.
Shadmundar tells her that the duo she wants has been caught by Mogens, an agent for the demon-god, and they head off to rescue them. They manage with Klaus, the Shadow Heir, but Kaia's father isn't so lucky.
Mogens wants Kaia to surrender so he'll let the other man live, but her father takes the choice out of everyone's hands when he kills himself instead.
Grieving, the pair head south to try and figure out what their next move will be, and Shadmundar enlightens them: it's time to go to war, and they'll meet up with Everard, the mage who's a fabled commander of men, along the way. But first, they have to send a war-call through the land so the warriors join them for this war. Only the Heirs have the power and the authority to do that, and the people usually answer (regardless of the fact that, for some reason, they think the Fire Heir is evil).
Of course the journey to the tribe from where they can send their messages isn't smooth since they get sidetracked in a magical forest, attacked by big snake-like creatures, and Klaus gets bitten by one of them so he needs immediate assistance. Thankfully, they reach their destination in time, and the messages go out - along with the Lost coming right in.
Kaia burns the lot of them and they realize there's no more time to waste, so they hurry south as soon as Klaus feels good enough, reaching the farm of one Fiola, erstwhile lover of Everard (as I read it), where they can recover for a bit.
They also meet with a nobleman and his son who Klaus dislikes at first glance but Kaia thinks they're not so bad, almost on purpose being contrary to what everyone else tells her.
Her judgement is clouded further when she falls ill from the deadly flu going through the village, and ends up kidnapped because the nobleman is actually the guy responsible for all the Lost roaming around, and he's convinced that they can only defeat the demon-god with his own powers.
Thankfully, Klaus is smarter than the rich guy gives him credit for and comes to rescue Kaia (also because he's in love with her, but, ya know), and takes her back to the farm where Everard joins the lot of them. It's decided they have to deal with the first undead army before they can head down to confront the demon-god, and the sooner the better, too, otherwise they might be caught between the two forces.
It should be noted that, for some reason still unknown to me, Kaia keeps on second-guessing decisions made by people actually qualified to make them, with no explanation as to the why of it. Sometimes it feels like she's just itching for a fight, but moving on.
The armies do indeed meet in the field, and what happens is pretty much your standard battle in which our heroes almost don't make it, but Kaia unleashes her Dragon Rage which will later make her feel guilty, but she does burn through their enemies and rescues a wounded Klaus.
Unfortunately their job is only halfway finished, since the demon-god is still there, and he's gaining strength, too, judging by all the earthquakes and attempts to eclipse the sun.
How do you go after someone like him, though? The nobleman was an actual human who did sorcery. The demon-god ... well.
What you need, says Count Dooku, ahem, Everard, is the Shadow Heir's sword, the one used in the very first battle.
Say what now? say the Heirs.
A magic sword, you say?
Good enough for us, let's go.
To find the sword, they have to go and deal with Dorinar, Everard's brother, who took the sword when humankind failed to care for it properly, and hid it, and of course now the Heirs have to go and find it in the caves where he'd done so. They almost get overwhelmed by some scary goblin-like creatures, though thankfully Dorinar still has some sense and comes to their rescue. He doesn't, however, want to have any part of the world-changing battle that's about to come, so Kaia and Klaus are on their own.
Only, Kaia's lost her fire.
If anyone's still reading this, I'm sure you can tell what happened. The girl unleashed her rage and burned through an army like wildfire, and she ended up killing the commander, which in turn frightened her out of her mind and her subconscious is preventing her from reaching the flames she has within her out of pure fear.
It's why she abandons Klaus to go on a self-discovering journey to ask help of Odriel himself from the top of a mountain, which she actually succeeds at. She also learns that the demon-god is Odriel's brother, Idriel, on top of everything else.
Perfect, right?
Well, reunited with a pissed-off Klaus, they now have the Shadow sword and Kaia's fire, and they hurry south to meet with Everard and the army to push the demon-god back where he belongs, since he's already broken through the magical barrier which was put in place to contain him. And it's finally time to accept that most of those who've come to fight on this particular battle-field won't survive the battle, too.
In the thick of it all, Everard tells Kaia that the only way Klaus can kill the demon-god is if his path is clear, so she needs to distract the Lost around him, which she hurtles off to do, having realized by now she's in love with the guy, and he with her.
And that's where we see the third Heir for the first time (in person, we've seen him in memories before).
As you may guess if you pay attention to the hints throughout the book, Jago was taken by forces of the demon-god, and he's been turned into one of the Lost zombies, so Kaia has to kill him before he can continue using his restorative powers on the demon-god himself. Only after that can Klaus actually kill their enemy, but Idriel tells them his children will avenge him before he dies.
Um, say what now? What children?
Nobody seems that interested in discovering more about this, thankful only to be alive and well, and Kaia is actually saved by something Dorinar gave her during their visit, since otherwise she REALLY would have been dead. But now she can finally go home, after all.
Which she does just in time for that festival again, where Klaus joins her and brings back her beloved ragehound who she'd had to leave behind on the way to the final battle, and the two share a sweetly passionate kiss as they're also finally reunited.
Little do they know that the guy who held Kaia's dad captive and the dead nobleman's son, Idriel's children, are watching all of this and plotting their revenge.
There's gotta be tension for the sequel, after all!
Action-packed, fast-paced and intriguing, Odriel's Heirs cover a lot of ground and sets up this magical world the reader is pulled into while reading. And by a lot of ground I mean A LOT - you have the rescue at the beginning, one of the battles with the minor minion, and then the big battle at the end of the book, along with all the side quests. It's a bit like trying to fit reaching Rivendell, fighting in Helm's Deep, and the battle at the Black Gates all into one book, but somehow it works. You just have to take mini-breaks in between to make sure you aren't rushing through it, either.
I was really amused by both Everard and Shadmundar, though part of the reason might be because in my mind's eye I kept seeing Dooku and Salem the Cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I'm biased, okay? But I loved them.
Klaus was also one to love because he was trying to do the right thing, and generally could see the heart of the matter much better than emotion-driven Kaia.
Kaia, on the other hand, was a walking contradiction, which I think stems from the fact that we as readers haven't actually been told yet why her father kept her so isolated and away from all the action until it was too late. The other two Heirs have apparently been doing their respective jobs since they were mid-teens, but Kaia was held back for some reason still unknown to us. Why? Will we learn that in the second book? Will Kaia's mother explain why they'd done it?
I hope the answer won't be because she's a girl, since there HAVE been female Fire Heirs before her, and even if her parents were afraid for her, she WAS the Fire Heir, something her twin brother kept harping on about and being annoying over. It's not like they had much of a choice about keeping her from doing her duty, and maybe if the general populace had seen more of her and seen more of how she can protect them, they wouldn't have turned into narrow-minded idiots.
This was also confusing to me since somehow, you have a situation in which you almost die at the hands of this Walking Dead extra, said extra gets burned, and in thanks, instead of being grateful you're alive, you're all OHMYGAWD SHE HAS FIRE SHE CAN BURN US ALLLLLLLL!
Yeah, not using your brain much, are you, everyone?
And what about her and Klaus? Are two Heirs even allowed to be together, given their powers? Will we be looking into this more in the future?
All in all, this was an interesting book that really pulls you in, and even with some of the questions which I still have, I enjoyed the read. It may just be that my questions are all MEANT to be there and will be answered in the second book, which wouldn't be too surprising, really.
So once Odriel's Heirs hit the shelves in March, why don't you go and have a go? I bet you'll love the book if you love anything remotely magical and fantasy-oriented. I know I did!
xx
*image not mine
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