Elven princess, Addilyn Elspeth, must discover why she’s receiving visitations from a mysterious creature that shouldn’t exist. She combines forces with Daemus on their harrowing journey to the scholar city of Abacus, where Vorodin’s Lair awaits.
A direct continuation of The Last Keeper {book 1 in the Warminster series} I'd strongly suggest that in order to get the best out of the books you read from the beginning.
Big on characters anyway, its no secret that I particularly enjoy a strong, feisty female protagonist and, wow, journeying with our hero, Daemus, on this, his latest quest, will she or won't she survive the Bone elf's assassination attempts?, in the elven princess Addilyn we have just that.
Not that Addilyn is the only female character worthy of note, I was delighted that there were so many of them amongst what was an altogether stellar cast.
An epic, sorcery driven tale, wonderful world building, high drama, lots of twists and turns, memorable characters each with their own back story, a romantic sub-plot.
The Faye Tree stood across from the fountain. It was a giant and ancient hollow oak, whose center contained a multi-level building that disappeared into its trunk. It had been much larger in Daemus's dreams, but it was unmistakably the place the half-ghost had led him.
The top of the library held a mechanical clock of sorts that could only have been found in Abacus. Its hands kept the time of day while massive star charts rotated along the outside, pointing to many of the constellations Daemus had learned about at the cathedral.
"This is what I saw in my dreams," Daemus affirmed. "We're supposed to be here." {pgs 249/250}
The mythical nature and strange sounding names of many of the characters that still took me some time to get my head {never mind my tongue around} a small price to pay in what was otherwise an altogether a worthy successor to the previous book; Vorodin's Lair had it all and, with the addition of folklore and myths originating in so many different traditions, more.
Once almost solely the domain of Mr T, J.V.Hilliard's Warminster series have found me enjoying a genre I never expected to have enjoyed quite as much.
Born of steel, fire and black wind, J.V. Hilliard was raised as a highlander in the foothills of a once-great mountain chain on the confluence of the three mighty rivers that forged his realm’s wealth and power for generations.
His father, a peasant twerg, toiled away in industries of honest labor and instilled in him a work ethic that would shape his destiny. His mother, a local healer, cared for his elders and his warrior uncle, who helped to raise him during his formative years. His genius brother, whose wizardly prowess allowed him to master the art of the abacus and his own quill, trained with him for battles on fields of green and sheets of ice.
Hilliard’s earliest education took place in his warrior uncle’s tower, where he learned his first words. His uncle helped him to learn the basics of life—and, most importantly, creative writing.
Hilliard’s training and education readied him to lift a quill that would scribe the tale of the realm of Warminster, filled with brave knights, harrowing adventure and legendary struggles. He lives in the city of silver cups, hypocycloids and golden triangles with his wife, a ranger of the diamond. They built their castle not far into the countryside, guarded by his own two horsehounds, Thor and MacLeod, and resides there to this day*
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