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Lord
Of Snow And Shadows (The Tears Of Artamon book one) by Sarah Ash check out website: www.booksattransworld.co.uk
Here, Sarah Ash has created Gavril Andar. A painter, an idealist, a romantic- a sophisticated equivalent to the goatherd. One who dreams of winning the heart of his latest famous portrait, Astasia. She, who is scion of a ruling family, is thus a crucial political pawn in the game of thrones. One dark night, Gavril is given
the key to his identity and heritage and literally abducted to assume the mantle
of this legacy by his father's men. A father, he has never known the truth about
or met, nevertheless bequeaths him a rich but nightmarish inheritance. So the novel continues in this vein. Gavril is uprooted from his mother's sun drenched, sophisticated home and re-planted in his father's icy domain where he struggles to find purchase and re-establish. It is a rite of passage novel, a coming of age plot. This, as book one, charts Gavril's ascension to the throne and his tenuous grip thereafter. As such, the tone of this novel resounds with jarring notes of post-adolescent discord and reflects the relative youth and inexperience of its hero. Labouring under an ancient curse which, incidentally, is also the source of Gavril's power, sometimes makes his position as hero ambiguous. Sarah Ash, however, does not exploit this role choosing to create of him a straightforward hero. A simple hero as opposed to a more morally suspect anti-hero. She
plays with this technique in her portrayal of the 'villain', Tielen's First, Eugene.
A man whose loss of his wife evokes sympathy, but whose character is as frigid
as his frost-frozen kingdom and just as ruthless. I believe this is a method Ash
intends to employ to better effect in the second part when Gavril grows into his
position and rivalries burgeon. This novel is an easy read and no real
hardship to have read. It would benefit from becoming more complex. Currently,
it presents no challenges whatsoever and runs the risk of boring the reader. Sana
Master
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OTHER REVIEWS - December 2003
Other reviews this month Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint Spirits In The Wires by Charles De Lint First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg The Life Eaters by David Brin and Scott Hamilton Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian One Lamp: Alternative History Stories edited by Gordon Van Gelder The Druid King by Norman Spinrad Star Trek: Nemesis novelisation by J.M. Dillard Unto Leviathan by Richard Paul Russo The Sundering by Walter Jon Williams Nylon Angel by Marianne de Pierres Falling Out Of Cars by Jeff Noon The Darkest Part Of The Woods by Ramsey Campbell Lord Of Snow And Shadows by Sarah Ash Tales Of Ten Worlds by Arthur C. Clarke Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Radio Sunnydale Dante's Equation by Jane Jensen Archform: Beauty by L. E. Modesit Jr
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'Lord Of Snow And Shadows', book one of 'The
Tears Of Artamon' draws on the classical convention of the goatherd
prince. A nobody from nowhere who is suddenly thrust into a position
of inherited leadership. This character tends to be unremarkable
in most ways before this advent of good fortune races him through
the ranks to sit at the top of the pile. 
Once
there, this character either displays a remarkable aptitude for
the position or they scrabble their way desperately through adversity
to prove themselves worthy.
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