The series has had two editions and, as it might be confusing, I am giving you the full list of the titles.
The first edition, published as six books by AMI and Ridan Publishing (these books are now out of print) consists of the following parts:
- The Crown Conspiracy,
- Avempartha,
- Nyphron Rising,
- The Emerald Storm,
- Wintertide,
- Percepliquis,
The Orbit version (most likely to be found in bookshops nowadays) consists of three books:
- Theft of Swords (1-2),
- Rise of Empire (3-4)
- Heir of Novron (5-6)
Synopsis:
A classic fantasy
story, full of great characters who have to save humanity and discover a lot
about themselves in the process. You see? It must be a nice series if its
summary can be included in one sentence!
What I liked:
A bunch of incredible
baddies
I really mean
‘incredible’ here – three-dimensional, shadowy, complex and sometimes even
funny. Take Sauly aka Maurice Saldur, the bishop and head of Nyphron Church in
Melengar. He looks and often behaves like your average depiction of Gandalf
from LOTR but even the most vicious sea
snake would envy him the poison. This man is capable of anything and I suppose
his “benign granddad” looks were meticulously cultivated over the years. The best bit – he thinks he is more or less
ok. Well, as the old saying says prisons are full of innocent people. Sauly
would never admit to any wrongdoing which shows that his conscience is
non-existent.
The other specimen: Archibald
Ballantyne Earl of Chadwick. I loved sweet, ambitious, cowardly Archie!
Not only he was handsome and self-centered, he also managed to fall in love
with only the proper girls – the most advantageous candidates at the moment.
Every aristocratic father would be proud of him. The best bit - he seemed to be
genuinely infatuated with his latest choice (not saying who, find out on your
own) and he died as a result of his cheek. Really, who would invent a better
way of getting rid of a baddie? Make him fall in love and get him killed
because of that!
Finally Magnus the
treacherous dwarf who almost got Royce killed twice – no mean feat – and then
finally found out a bit about friendship and loyalty and redeemed himself.
How the series develops
and ends
As you progress it
becomes obvious this particular story was carefully planned from the beginning
to the very end and maybe because of that
the author was able to end it on a high note. Fear not, the mysteries
will make sense, questions will be answered, characters will receive their dues
and loose ends will be tied up leaving you more or less satisfied. Actually each book
reveals a little of the whole picture but only when you know everything it is
possible to appreciate how it seamlessly works together. Well, you might
actually regret the fact that the end came so quickly. Mind you the plot
of every of these six books is fairly stand-alone – a truly
difficult thing to achieve in a series.
I complained in my review of the first book
that the characterization was a bit lacking. I am happy to say it improved
greatly in the next installments, especially when it comes to the pair of main
protagonists, Hadrian and Royce. Well, especially Royce.
Female characters
I liked most of them
with one exception (more about her in the third section of my review). Fantasy
books often presents females following some well-worn templates. Usually we get
a pretty princess, worth fighting for, a servant who is useful and faithful but
not especially pretty, a witch who is devious and clever but not especially nice
etc. Here every female character comes with an unsuspected twist.
Arista is a princess
but she is also a witch who must learn more advanced ropes on her own; she is
not especially pretty and she must go through a lot to reemerge as an
independent woman. Yes, she still needs that male arm to rescue her from time
to time and give her more strength but,
as far as princesses go, she remains independent - she thinks on her own, she
plans her own future, she decides what is good and bad for her. I really liked Arista from the beginning, even when she was just
a lonely girl sitting in her high tower, wondering how to make lesser magic
work.
Thrace/Modina starts as
a simple village girl but then she transforms; it takes a lot of pain but she
manages to turn into a compassionate leader. She might have lost her innocence
and ingenuity on the way but I liked her strength and I found the whole
transformation rather believable, especially for a fantasy book.
Amilia also starts low
- as a scullery maid - but then she provides Modina a much-needed support in
crucial moments. She finds her knight
in the shining armour in the process which was kind of sweet. She might be the
weakest of those three, never exceeding her ‘friendly servant’ capacity, but
still rather likeable. Overall not bad – I managed to say something good about
three out of four female leads in this series! I can sometimes surprise myself!
Male protagonists:
Well, they are
complicated as well, especially Royce who seems to be the most shadowy type, full of surprises, not all of them nice. It is sometimes difficult to call him 'protagonist' at all but it worked for me just fine. Hadrian provided a nice contrast to Royce, showing him that the better side of human nature still exist.
What I didn’t like:
The elves
For most of the series,
like five books, elves are spoken about, hardly seen and not heard at all. Ok, there
was one exception – a short scene between Royce and Ren, a half-breed which had
been treated with kindness by the thief and found a way to show his gratitude
in return. Throughout the books I kept
wondering why elves were such a dirty secret (while it was logically explained, you can understand it only at the very end). They are presented as a race of very
intelligent beings who could live for a very long time, their culture was so
sophisticated and still most humans had only harsh words for them or
half-breeds. It was actually strange any half-breeds existed at all, taking all
this negative attitude into consideration.
Only in the last book we learn that
elves can be brutal and murderous, that it’s either them or us and the future
of mankind is endangered while they live. Well, pity because I would love to
see them cooperate with humans – I am sure it could be arranged, if not for those pure breeds then at least
for those with mixed blood. By the way
the whole elf destruction routine felt
over the top – not only were they trying to kill literary every last
human but their methods seemed a bit haphazard, especially keeping in mind how
powerful they were supposed to be.
Gwendolyn DeLancy
The romantic interest of Royce is indeed my major complaint. She is a
former prostitute and a successful businesswoman, owning Medford House (a
brothel) and The Rose and Thorn Tavern. Reading the books it seems Miss DeLancy’s main
occupation is to take care of Royce whenever he happens to be
close – our good Gwen predict his future, feeds and pampers him and sleeps with him
(but it is only hinted in a very delicate way). She is so good and sweet that she becomes annoying after a short while. The fact that she is also a person who
knows everything the best doesn't help either. You know, she has a gift of Sight and I hate those ‘know-it-all’
seer types. BTW how come Gwen was able to predict Royce’s future while her
compatriot seer almost lost her life while being coerced to do the same thing?
Overall whenever I read a scene with Gwen, it always put me in a blood-thirsty mood. Call it a hunch but I never believed in Royce’s and her ‘happily ever after’, especially when she told him that she had already chosen names for their future children (sic!). As a result I couldn’t wait for her to die. She was simply too flimsy as a character and too cloyingly sweet as a woman not to mention the fact that we never saw her in the role of a 'madam' or a prostitute. The scene of her death was the only one which I read with interest as it showed another aspect of Royce’s dark personality. Finally this saintly whore (an oxymoron, I know, but I couldn't restrain myself) was put to a good use. A pity
it came so late – if I had anything to say I would get rid of Gwen earlier and I would pair Royce with
an elf or a half-breed. If I sound callous and unladylike well, I do admit I
like dark fantasy.
Final verdict:
Despite my carping above I enjoyed this series very much and I would love to
reread it after some time. I recommend it very strongly to fans of good, classic fantasy or just a good, consistent story. A warning: this series is highly addictive, buy or borrow all the books if possible or you will regret it later (like me).
