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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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The One Kingdom (War Book 1) by Sean Russell
It is an enticing beginning to a truly massive tale that stretches through time and the length of the land.
If Russell had been any less masterful, this book would have been a passive boat ride towards a predictable conclusion. Instead, he has used classic cues to create an original, enchanting story filled with memorable characters in believable environments. The text is heavy with symbolism, none more prominent than the river Wynnd, which wends down from the newly inhabited Vales to the ancient Kingdom homelands: 'It seemed to be a dark vein of mystery running through the hills. A vessel bearing the souls of a lost race. Had they offered their dead to the river? Tam wondered. Were these countless generations confined to the sunless depths, all drifting south toward the endless sea?' There is a definite inevitability about the book, but it is deliberate and powerfully used. It reads like a Greek tragedy, complete with death-singing birds, pacts with spirits, morality tale asides and endless political scheming. Not only that but it is almost self-analytical as it explores the meaning and importance of storytelling: 'We are alive, though briefly. Then we are memory, for the lives of those who knew us. And then we are story. Story lasts longest of all - if there is any story to tell... Some write their story across a single field or the walls of a cottage. Some write them across an entire land, an entire age.' This story is certainly impressive and it is the tantalising hints at backstory that make you keep turning the pages. Throughout it all, a dark and bloody history drips from half-spoken sentences and seemingly careless remarks. The ending, although dramatic in itself, was dampened by a sense of incompletion but, with the history firmly established, the rest of this series is set to be an exhilarating read. As a final note, it must be said, that the female characters in this book were woefully undeveloped. Elise, who is supposed to be twenty years old, reacts like a spoilt child to every event. She is weak and unresourceful to such an extent that I honestly didn't care what happened to her. With naïve, irrelevant musings such as that beautiful women are 'terribly uninteresting' and 'prisoners of their own beauty', I doubt that she'll ingratiate herself to many other female readers either - something that could be a potential problem in this male-dominated tale. Hopefully though, this is just part of Russell's grand plan and she'll bloom into a force to be reckoned with in the rest of the saga - in a struggle between armed force and diplomacy, there's certainly scope for an expansion of her role. Lucy A.E. Ward check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk
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OTHER REVIEWS - April 2002
NEW NOVELS The
Mammoth Book Of Science Fiction edited by Mike Ashley Carolan’s
Concerto by Caiseal Mór
The
One Kingdom (War Book 1) by Sean Russell
Antrax
(The Voyage Of Jerle Shannara Book 2) by Terry Brooks
The
Time Tunnel by Murray Leinster
Celtika
(The Merlin Codex Book 1) by Robert Holdstock Wizard’s
Funeral (The Red Pavillions Book 2) by Kim Hunter
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From
its Shakespearean opening, you know this book is going to be a classic.
A group of young Renné nobles plot the murder of their statesman
cousin to prevent the weakening of their family in a blood feud
for dominance of a divided kingdom. 
The
story can be broken down into three main strands: the Renné
plot to kill their leader Toren, the Valemen's river journey and
Elise Wills' desperate attempts to avoid an arranged marriage that
would cause a devastating war. Behind all this is an immense history
- legends of sorcerers, great battles, mysterious Fáel, secret
knightly orders, ghosts, hidden places - so much, in fact, that
in places it is almost overwhelming.
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