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i_read_whatSo, it's apparently been almost two years since I read the last book in this batshit series that I love and love to mock so much. That's a lot, considering that I genuinely do enjoy reviewing this series.
It is a time and energy investment. These books are fucking HUGE and thanks to the level of purple prose and the ridiculous actions of the characters, I'm inclined toward a LOT of excerpts. To be honest, I'm pretty sure only one person has actually read these. I'm okay with that.
Anyway, I have just learned that the most recent and FINAL book in this series has just gone up for preorder. So the time just feels right to go back to this universe. I hope I have the stamina.
--
So one interesting quirk about this series is that it is divided into arcs, of sorts. The first book, Curse of the Mistwraith, was standalone. Ships of Merior and Warhost of Vastmark are one arc - actually, they started as one book (and the hardcover is published that way) - but it turned out too big in paperback form. That's why Warhost of Vastmark is so small - a mere five hundred something pages.
The next arc in the series, "The Alliance of Light" did not start as one book. Or perhaps it did, I don't know any backstory. What I do know is that this arc consists of books four through eight of the series. It's fucking LONG. And none of these books are Vastmark length either. They do flow together, at least in my memory, enough that I'm not entirely sure what happens in which book.
I THINK this is the one with the naked cuddling? We'll see.
One thing I do know is that this next part of the series will take place over a substantial period of time. We're dealing with a hero and a villain who drank from the five-hundred year fountain after all, and we're going to start to see that. Child characters are going to grow. Some characters are going to die. And it's going to be rough. But we're at the start of the trip, so I don't think we have to worry too much about that yet.
Yet.
Now, given the length and general complexity of the series so far, and the fact that it's been so long since the last one, I decided rather than start outright. I'm going to write a refresher of the series so far.
The real content will be next week.
So here's the story so far, simplified to the best of my ability.
Two half-brothers, each the prince of a rival nation, end up crossing over into a world called Athera. There they learn that they are the heirs to much older kingdoms, and have been prophesied to defeat an eldritch horror. They succeed, but not before they're cursed to try to murder each other for the rest of their (very long) lives.
These are the major characters that we're dealing with:
Lysaer - Prince #1 - charismatic, urbane, and, post-curse, a rampant genocidal asshole. He's got very good publicity but a lot of blind spots. He has the power of purple prose, "beauty that makes maidens weep" (a direct quote, I shit you not), and elemental mastery of light. His family has been supernaturally gifted with the virtue of "justice". This was a terrible idea.
Arithon - Prince #2 - a feral gremlin of a man incapable of making a decision that doesn't somehow screw himself over. A mastermind type character that's mostly believable as such. He has the power of purple prose, is "scarred by severe conscience" (another direct quote), and elemental mastery of shadow. His family has been supernaturally gifted with the virtue of "compassion". This was a worse idea. Also a bard.
The Fellowship - A group of god-like sorcerers (think Gandalf/the Maia in Tolkien) who can basically be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the series. They're obsessed with a "Black Rose Prophecy" and are collectively the Worst. Individually they can be tolerable. Except Asandir. Asandir is always The Worst. Their hypocritical ideas of consent are always good for a laugh though.
The Koriani - A group of jewel-using sorceresses. Sworn to celibacy, which Matters Sometimes. They chose Lysaer's side during the feud because Arithon was just that obnoxiously angsty.
Dakar - former apprentice of Asandir. Loved Lysaer, but forced by Asandir to protect Arithon. (Because consent matters!) Spent most of two books in a "please hate-fuck" dynamic with Arithon before he finally clued into things the Fellowship could have told him at any time. Now they should just get a room and regular-fuck.
Elaira - Arithon's love interest. A Koriani sorceress sworn to celibacy, but released from that vow in order to allow her to manipulate him, which she has no intention of doing. They still don't manage to fuck though.
Tanith - Lysaer's wife. Got kidnapped by her brother-in-law and had a never ending bitch-fight with him that she absolutely could never win. Eventually, she decided he wasn't so bad, so her husband locked her in a tower.
The Towns and the Clans - Athera's had a complicated history, but basically 500 years ago, there was a big revolution in which the original rulers of the land were exiled into another world (hence the heir thing) and the original nobility was banished into the wilderness to live as barbaric "Clans". They are subject to genocidal persecution by the people of the Towns, who displaced them.
The exact situation is different per kingdom though. These are the kingdoms:
Tysan - Lysaer's inherited kingdom. Technically the kings are supposed to be "sanctioned" by the Fellowship before they rule, and Lysaer hasn't been, due to the whole genocidal asshole thing. The Towns folk like him anyway. Mostly because of the genocidal asshole thing. Rather unsurprisingly, the Clans side with Arithon.
Rathain - Arithon's inherited kingdom. Arithon is the sanctioned heir, but his coronation kind of went very badly, and he fled into the hills. Lysaer's pursuit basically led to the aforementioned genocide. The Towns really like Lysaer. The Clans, what's left of them, are for Arithon.
Havish - the only country with a functioning King. This might have to do with the fact that, unlike Lysaer and Arithon, Eldir was actually raised on this world and actually was given relevant knowledge before blundering into catastrophe. He's decidedly neutral, refusing to take part in any of this fuckery. (Eldir's virtue is Temperence. Which makes sense.)
Melhalla - this country's royal line was exiled with Tysan, Rathain and Shand's. However, their prince, whose virtue was "wisdom", died like really early on. That probably explains a lot right there. Their Clan/Town structure is a little different, as they actually have Clanfolk who never got deposed. Originally, said Clansfolk sided with Lysaer - on account of Arithon blowing their shit up - but cultural chickens came home to roost. Now they're spying for Arithon.
Shand - Interestingly, both princes are descended from Shand's royal line on their mother's side. Their gift was "foresight" which is a fucking joke as pretty much everything that's gone wrong that can't be laid at the Fellowship's feet can be blamed on Queen Talera or her fucking dad. Who could have thought that developing the ability to bestow god-like elemental magic to a fetus and turning that into a wedding dowry would be a bad idea? Who could have thought that ditching your husband and magic kid for his mortal enemy and giving HIM an equally magic kid so they could continue their hundreds of years long feud would be a bad idea?
Shand itself isn't that bad a place though. Kind of quiet. Arithon hung out there for a while, but he was such an unsociable feral gremlin that they all sided with Lysaer after all. Except the clans, of course. And an island of equally feral shepherds. They like Arithon a lot.
--
I think that pretty much covers everything. Next week, we'll start the show.
It is a time and energy investment. These books are fucking HUGE and thanks to the level of purple prose and the ridiculous actions of the characters, I'm inclined toward a LOT of excerpts. To be honest, I'm pretty sure only one person has actually read these. I'm okay with that.
Anyway, I have just learned that the most recent and FINAL book in this series has just gone up for preorder. So the time just feels right to go back to this universe. I hope I have the stamina.
--
So one interesting quirk about this series is that it is divided into arcs, of sorts. The first book, Curse of the Mistwraith, was standalone. Ships of Merior and Warhost of Vastmark are one arc - actually, they started as one book (and the hardcover is published that way) - but it turned out too big in paperback form. That's why Warhost of Vastmark is so small - a mere five hundred something pages.
The next arc in the series, "The Alliance of Light" did not start as one book. Or perhaps it did, I don't know any backstory. What I do know is that this arc consists of books four through eight of the series. It's fucking LONG. And none of these books are Vastmark length either. They do flow together, at least in my memory, enough that I'm not entirely sure what happens in which book.
I THINK this is the one with the naked cuddling? We'll see.
One thing I do know is that this next part of the series will take place over a substantial period of time. We're dealing with a hero and a villain who drank from the five-hundred year fountain after all, and we're going to start to see that. Child characters are going to grow. Some characters are going to die. And it's going to be rough. But we're at the start of the trip, so I don't think we have to worry too much about that yet.
Yet.
Now, given the length and general complexity of the series so far, and the fact that it's been so long since the last one, I decided rather than start outright. I'm going to write a refresher of the series so far.
The real content will be next week.
So here's the story so far, simplified to the best of my ability.
Two half-brothers, each the prince of a rival nation, end up crossing over into a world called Athera. There they learn that they are the heirs to much older kingdoms, and have been prophesied to defeat an eldritch horror. They succeed, but not before they're cursed to try to murder each other for the rest of their (very long) lives.
These are the major characters that we're dealing with:
Lysaer - Prince #1 - charismatic, urbane, and, post-curse, a rampant genocidal asshole. He's got very good publicity but a lot of blind spots. He has the power of purple prose, "beauty that makes maidens weep" (a direct quote, I shit you not), and elemental mastery of light. His family has been supernaturally gifted with the virtue of "justice". This was a terrible idea.
Arithon - Prince #2 - a feral gremlin of a man incapable of making a decision that doesn't somehow screw himself over. A mastermind type character that's mostly believable as such. He has the power of purple prose, is "scarred by severe conscience" (another direct quote), and elemental mastery of shadow. His family has been supernaturally gifted with the virtue of "compassion". This was a worse idea. Also a bard.
The Fellowship - A group of god-like sorcerers (think Gandalf/the Maia in Tolkien) who can basically be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the series. They're obsessed with a "Black Rose Prophecy" and are collectively the Worst. Individually they can be tolerable. Except Asandir. Asandir is always The Worst. Their hypocritical ideas of consent are always good for a laugh though.
The Koriani - A group of jewel-using sorceresses. Sworn to celibacy, which Matters Sometimes. They chose Lysaer's side during the feud because Arithon was just that obnoxiously angsty.
Dakar - former apprentice of Asandir. Loved Lysaer, but forced by Asandir to protect Arithon. (Because consent matters!) Spent most of two books in a "please hate-fuck" dynamic with Arithon before he finally clued into things the Fellowship could have told him at any time. Now they should just get a room and regular-fuck.
Elaira - Arithon's love interest. A Koriani sorceress sworn to celibacy, but released from that vow in order to allow her to manipulate him, which she has no intention of doing. They still don't manage to fuck though.
Tanith - Lysaer's wife. Got kidnapped by her brother-in-law and had a never ending bitch-fight with him that she absolutely could never win. Eventually, she decided he wasn't so bad, so her husband locked her in a tower.
The Towns and the Clans - Athera's had a complicated history, but basically 500 years ago, there was a big revolution in which the original rulers of the land were exiled into another world (hence the heir thing) and the original nobility was banished into the wilderness to live as barbaric "Clans". They are subject to genocidal persecution by the people of the Towns, who displaced them.
The exact situation is different per kingdom though. These are the kingdoms:
Tysan - Lysaer's inherited kingdom. Technically the kings are supposed to be "sanctioned" by the Fellowship before they rule, and Lysaer hasn't been, due to the whole genocidal asshole thing. The Towns folk like him anyway. Mostly because of the genocidal asshole thing. Rather unsurprisingly, the Clans side with Arithon.
Rathain - Arithon's inherited kingdom. Arithon is the sanctioned heir, but his coronation kind of went very badly, and he fled into the hills. Lysaer's pursuit basically led to the aforementioned genocide. The Towns really like Lysaer. The Clans, what's left of them, are for Arithon.
Havish - the only country with a functioning King. This might have to do with the fact that, unlike Lysaer and Arithon, Eldir was actually raised on this world and actually was given relevant knowledge before blundering into catastrophe. He's decidedly neutral, refusing to take part in any of this fuckery. (Eldir's virtue is Temperence. Which makes sense.)
Melhalla - this country's royal line was exiled with Tysan, Rathain and Shand's. However, their prince, whose virtue was "wisdom", died like really early on. That probably explains a lot right there. Their Clan/Town structure is a little different, as they actually have Clanfolk who never got deposed. Originally, said Clansfolk sided with Lysaer - on account of Arithon blowing their shit up - but cultural chickens came home to roost. Now they're spying for Arithon.
Shand - Interestingly, both princes are descended from Shand's royal line on their mother's side. Their gift was "foresight" which is a fucking joke as pretty much everything that's gone wrong that can't be laid at the Fellowship's feet can be blamed on Queen Talera or her fucking dad. Who could have thought that developing the ability to bestow god-like elemental magic to a fetus and turning that into a wedding dowry would be a bad idea? Who could have thought that ditching your husband and magic kid for his mortal enemy and giving HIM an equally magic kid so they could continue their hundreds of years long feud would be a bad idea?
Shand itself isn't that bad a place though. Kind of quiet. Arithon hung out there for a while, but he was such an unsociable feral gremlin that they all sided with Lysaer after all. Except the clans, of course. And an island of equally feral shepherds. They like Arithon a lot.
--
I think that pretty much covers everything. Next week, we'll start the show.