Hello everyone!
It's an incredible honour and privilege, and I honestly don't know what I ever did to deserve it.
But here we are, with yet another ARC, and a good one, too!
A little bit ago I started chatting with a lovely author, Kathryn Troy, who just released her latest book, the one we're talking about tonight.
I was very intrigued by the blurb about it - perfect for fans of Wheel of Time and Sarah J. Maas, it said - and if it's a fantasy book? Chances are, I'm going to read it, because fantasy is how I got my kickstart into this whole reading business.
So I did read it.
I liked it, too.
I bet you're wondering when I'll stop blabbing and get on with it, so here we go: The Shadow of Theron, book one!
As Ms Troy is a new author in my lineup, I don't have anything that could really connect to her, but I'll link my Wheel of Time and Sarah J. Maas things for you all to have a look at, in case you need a refresh there.
Onwards!
The Shadow of Theron is the story of Lysandro, who's living a pretty good life as one of the landed gentry in his hometown; his father wants him to get married and have babies (usually something parents want you to do in general), but he hasn't really met anyone he'd actually want to have next to him, like his father had his mother, a true love match.
That is, until the arrival of one lady, Seraphine.
Lysandro is immediately smitten - not even smitten, but in true Bambi fashion twitter-pated! He does his level best to make an absolute fool out of himself, but luckily for us Seraphine has a good head on her shoulders and enjoys dancing with him at the festival the town organizes. They even get to humiliate the town magistrate Marek while they're at it!
Marek is a self-important kind of person who's got more ego than actual skill, but he's important to the story because he's our villain - and he's been trying to knock Lysandro down a peg since forever, not that it's been working. He's also been having his own men robbing houses because he's looking for something - ancient relics, to be precise.
Now, he's mad at Seraphine, too, so Lysandro tries to protect her by offering to court her, not that it goes well since she's initially convinced he's doing it just for the money, not for her.
So he tries to solve the situation in his own way, the way we've seen has never worked out before, but no one's told Lysandro this yet (they will over the course of the story, don't worry): he approaches her at night as his alter-ego, Shadow of Theron.
See, because Marek can't be trusted to do his job, Lysandro took on that task for himself, dressing all in black and riding a black horse and dealing out justice in the night, for everyone, not just the rich in town, driving the magistrate up the wall, though the man has no clue it's actually Lysandro.
And he nearly kills him once, too, because our magistrate is a dangerous person who carries an even more dangerous knife with him, a knife that seems to be poisoned, so Lysandro nearly croaks from that and is only saved by the town's surgeon who knows about his nightly exploits.
So you know, while the Shadow's over there trying to tell Sera he'll kill Lysandro for her if she asks (complicating his own life in the process), Marek's busy threatening the surgeon and blinding him. He has this weird ass skeleton powered by dark magic in a cave where he and his followers gather, which is creepy as heck, but not as creepy as him taking a finger bone, grinding it, and using it.
Ew.
Anyway, Lysandro discovers the cave, the skeleton, and the box of pages and stuff Marek kept hidden; he destroys it and takes the box to the high priestess at the warrior temple (as the Shadow), not that she believes him when he tells her Marek's been stealing the relics and gathering them, though for what, exactly, they can't tell yet.
And while it's all fine and dandy that Sera's no longer mad at Lysandro and happy in their courtship, that she's guessed he's the Shadow and that he managed to save her from Marek's men because she didn't listen to his warning not to venture beyond her father's property and so landed herself in the middle of a night raid, the problems are mounting all around.
Because relics have been disappearing throughout the land, from all temples, so said temples have now sent two of their own to try and figure out what the heck is going on.
Turns out, there's a whole lot more floating just underneath the surface which the most important temple never shared with the other two, though the priestess now kinda sorta has to if anything is to make any sense: Marek seems to be the bastard successor of this guy Argoss, who was at one time slated to maybe succeed the High Priestess, but because he was into dark magic, a whole kerfuffle broke out and a random shepherd was elevated to rank of god to defeat him - Theron.
Theron also had a child, and his scion has lain hidden - you can probably guess who it is, not that he has any clue about it because his mom was against violence and told his dad not to tell him the family history, so ya know.
Mother sometimes, I swear.
ANYWAY, Eugenie (the priestess) shares something else: Marek is confused and mixing up two different histories. Argoss was very much into figuring out details about a cult even older than the goddess he served (and later betrayed), and it's THAT cult that Marek is kind of recreating again, thinking he's serving Argoss.
As an added bombshell, Eugenie reveals that there were never three gods, the way everyone believes - it was just the goddess, who gave Theron so much power that he was basically a god by the end as well, and she loved him, and they had two kids together who joined her as gods that the people worship nowadays.
(We later discover that Theron kept a diary, and because we know he had human offspring there has to be more to the story, aka in said diary he writes 'I hate her' which tells me he may not have been as welcoming to the affections of a certain goddess as everyone believes, but we're left guessing for now.)
This is all well and good, and the two priestesses find themselves in Lysandro's town (I swear this is like Tatooine, everyone eventually arrives there), where things have been ... well.
Marek went and killed the High Priestess, when she finally decided she believed the Shadow, had a relic removed from her temple and returned to Lysandro's father (turns out to be the Sword of Theron, natch), and summoned him to her temple for a fight. The knife touched her, unfortunately, so that's a bye for her, but the other two priestesses are finally on scene again as well, and Eugenie explains that the reason no one can repair the broken window panel from the age of heroes is because that knowledge was never shared from her temple, either.
So, she helps the other priestess repair it to be as good as new - and to toy with Marek's mind, seeing as he was the one who originally broke it.
Marek, in the meantime, gets his house brought down on his head because Lysandro's pissed as all get-out, and Lysandro's father goes and gets the High Magistrate over to judge Marek for his crimes, because the town isn't safe and he clearly isn't doing his job (he's actually too busy trying not to be in too much pain from a key he's discovered and acquired, apparently something that will open up an ancient fortress, Argoss' stronghold).
It's then Lysandro's father figures out who the Shadow is when said Shadow rides into the courtroom on his black horse to testify, and Lysandro's also in a slightly better mood by this point because he's realized the doge that Sera's been telling him about (and who happens to pop up to stage a play in town because, that's something that happens) isn't actually a romantic rival, and Sera's been staying with him to nurse a bad ankle.
He FINALLY manages to cough up he's the Shadow, realizes she knows, and she's honestly able to help him with tips and suggestions because she's smart like that - and more importantly, he needs that.
Of course Marek then comes barging in, kills Lysandro's friend and nearly nabs Sera, but Lysandro beats him off, at which point his father reveals their lineage to him, though Lysandro's more mad that the two priestesses who HAD Marek at the tip of their fingers didn't just kill him.
Eugenie says they can't interfere like that, not directly - instead, they assemble the panels of a huge scene that reveals the secret of Theron's grave (also catches the doge in its grasp; he's fine though), which is where they take off for because Eugenie deduces Lysandro's going to need what's at the grave.
Lysandro, meanwhile, is incensed because Marek abducted Sera and her mother, and takes off after them.
He doesn't catch up to them until they're already inside the fortress of Argoss and Marek's been attempting to use a ring to bend Sera to his will, but she's been snooping around and found what looks to be a pretty important book with a dark magic stone on the front cover, which she buries, as well as finds the hidden route Theron had taken into the fortress that first time.
Lysandro arrives to battle Marek, Sword of Theron in hand, but he might have failed even so if the priestesses hadn't discovered the hero's sarcophagus and the bow he'd been buried with - the Hand of Arun, and what was used to eventually kill Argoss. They teleport to the desert and reach the fortress in time to hand it to Lysandro, who - despite never holding a bow before in his life - uses it without batting an eye, and kills Marek.
He then hands it back to Eugenie, and while the other priestess is disappointed, Eugenie tells Lysandro to find her in a castle by the sea when it becomes too much, then the two women head off, because Eugenie senses this was only the beginning.
Lysandro finally gets to marry Seraphine, who instructs him not to reveal his identity as the Shadow as he may still be needed; so he doesn't, and feels the itch to hold that bow again even though he has everything he wanted, happy as a clam.
MEANWHILE, the ruling priestesses are having a conclave of their own, deciding that maybe moving the relics to one spot for safe keeping might be the better idea, though one of them doesn't trust this route and will do some investigating on her own - luckily there's at least one, because turns out, their leader? She's been dead for some time, and Argoss has weaseled his way into impersonating her, had guided Marek through all the shenanigans, and is ready to rise again.
Because what would a fantasy book like this be without a cliff-hanger, right?
DUN DUN DUN!
As a fan of both Wheel of Time and Sarah J. Maas' books, I was intrigued to begin reading the story, and I have to say, overall, it comes across very well.
It's definitely a cross between Wheel of Time and Zorro - mostly because of the hero's exploits after dark on a black horse, dressed all in black, hat included - rather than Maas' books, but that's beside the point.
The story in itself is quite simple: an ancient evil seems to be rising again, but to counter it, the temples dedicated to the deities who originally defeated said evil send out their priestesses to investigate the disappearances of relics across the land. Against the backdrop of a richly tapestried history and stories which I'd LOVE to learn more of (seriously, between Morgasse, Theron, the implications he wasn't as willing as the peoples' history would make you believe, and the apparent 'heroes walk among us' trope, I'm honestly curious about this Age that's come and gone and all it's intrigue) we have the more prosaic battle between two important members of a town community, the magistrate and a rich landowner.
Enter a beautiful girl and you have yourself a story.
Now, I'll admit that I wasn't as enamored with the love story as I was with everything else. In fact, if I was to categorize it, the 3/4 that were action, history, mystique, adventure and piecing together the puzzle of what's what were brilliant; the 1/4 dealing with the love story, not so much. I feel as if it made the hero look a bit like a fool, sometimes too much, not to mention I'm never a fan of the problems that crop up because someone or other doesn't communicate well.
Aside from that, however, I have very few complaints. The writing flows very nicely and is immensely enjoyable (it does divert into very modern day expressions and exclamations at times, which kind of break the spell a little, but not much), though I needed a bit to get into the flow of things, feeling the beginning was a bit slower. Once the mystery and action pick up, however, and Marek and Lysandro really start going at it, it's a read as quick as a breeze.
There's quite a number of characters that are introduced through the text which was occasionally confusing when a name popped up that had never been mentioned before, and I felt like I was scrambling a little, but nothing too bad and it's quick to follow up.
But then, I also have some questions that I feel have been left unanswered - maybe purposefully, maybe not so purposefully. Is the leader of the High Priestesses the same one that's in the history books (the name seems to be the same, or maybe I read it wrong)? How did the bad guy use that sacred key he had in his possession to open a random house, when I think it's understood the key is actually meant to unlock the specific dark fortress of his predecessor - but when we actually get to the fortress itself, no key is necessary?
None of this really detracts from the reading enjoyment, however, and I'm actually really impressed with how the story was woven together. This is supposed to be a duology, so I anticipate the second book will answer any and all questions that the first one poses, so I'm really looking forward to it!
Would definitely recommend!
It's definitely a cross between Wheel of Time and Zorro - mostly because of the hero's exploits after dark on a black horse, dressed all in black, hat included - rather than Maas' books, but that's beside the point.
The story in itself is quite simple: an ancient evil seems to be rising again, but to counter it, the temples dedicated to the deities who originally defeated said evil send out their priestesses to investigate the disappearances of relics across the land. Against the backdrop of a richly tapestried history and stories which I'd LOVE to learn more of (seriously, between Morgasse, Theron, the implications he wasn't as willing as the peoples' history would make you believe, and the apparent 'heroes walk among us' trope, I'm honestly curious about this Age that's come and gone and all it's intrigue) we have the more prosaic battle between two important members of a town community, the magistrate and a rich landowner.
Enter a beautiful girl and you have yourself a story.
Now, I'll admit that I wasn't as enamored with the love story as I was with everything else. In fact, if I was to categorize it, the 3/4 that were action, history, mystique, adventure and piecing together the puzzle of what's what were brilliant; the 1/4 dealing with the love story, not so much. I feel as if it made the hero look a bit like a fool, sometimes too much, not to mention I'm never a fan of the problems that crop up because someone or other doesn't communicate well.
Aside from that, however, I have very few complaints. The writing flows very nicely and is immensely enjoyable (it does divert into very modern day expressions and exclamations at times, which kind of break the spell a little, but not much), though I needed a bit to get into the flow of things, feeling the beginning was a bit slower. Once the mystery and action pick up, however, and Marek and Lysandro really start going at it, it's a read as quick as a breeze.
There's quite a number of characters that are introduced through the text which was occasionally confusing when a name popped up that had never been mentioned before, and I felt like I was scrambling a little, but nothing too bad and it's quick to follow up.
But then, I also have some questions that I feel have been left unanswered - maybe purposefully, maybe not so purposefully. Is the leader of the High Priestesses the same one that's in the history books (the name seems to be the same, or maybe I read it wrong)? How did the bad guy use that sacred key he had in his possession to open a random house, when I think it's understood the key is actually meant to unlock the specific dark fortress of his predecessor - but when we actually get to the fortress itself, no key is necessary?
None of this really detracts from the reading enjoyment, however, and I'm actually really impressed with how the story was woven together. This is supposed to be a duology, so I anticipate the second book will answer any and all questions that the first one poses, so I'm really looking forward to it!
Would definitely recommend!
xx
*image not mine
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