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mousie_books's review against another edition
3.0
Fast read, but I had a hard time getting into most of it. It felt too flat / straightforward. I wanted more character interaction and personality.
Voada lives a comfortable life as the wife of the Hand, basically, the head Catteni administrator / tax collector until her husband dies. In her grief, she shows her magic to help her husband cross over. This causes the Voice (governor) to go ballistic, and steal her children and nearly beat her to death. Her daughter is taken as the head of the guard's second wife, and her son is sold into slavery in the mines. She runs to the north with a long lost, powerful mage spirit..
In the north, she binds with the spirit and becomes draoi. She is taught to use her powers, and learns that draoi are vunerable to the mad violent ravings of the spirits and hers is especially mad. She is pressed into service in defending the north, but sees an opportunity to go south and free the lands there (along with finding her children and getting her revenge).
She and the commander of the troops, Maol, sneak south and build and army. They take back a swatch of land, and burn the capitol to the ground. She becomes increasingly unstable. In one last battle, to take out Savas, the Mundoan commander, he unexpectedly gets reinforcements to fight to a draw. Both she and Maol die. The spirit goes off to find her daughter Orla; to get more vengeance. Madaigh, the younger draoi friend, also pledges to find her daughter. Seems like the new commander is going to lead the troops back north for some reason.
Spoiler
Celtic (Irish) inspired although the names make way more sense. The Mundoa are an occupying force in southern Catteni lands, and are fighting their way north. Catteni are mostly servants and slaves.Voada lives a comfortable life as the wife of the Hand, basically, the head Catteni administrator / tax collector until her husband dies. In her grief, she shows her magic to help her husband cross over. This causes the Voice (governor) to go ballistic, and steal her children and nearly beat her to death. Her daughter is taken as the head of the guard's second wife, and her son is sold into slavery in the mines. She runs to the north with a long lost, powerful mage spirit..
In the north, she binds with the spirit and becomes draoi. She is taught to use her powers, and learns that draoi are vunerable to the mad violent ravings of the spirits and hers is especially mad. She is pressed into service in defending the north, but sees an opportunity to go south and free the lands there (along with finding her children and getting her revenge).
She and the commander of the troops, Maol, sneak south and build and army. They take back a swatch of land, and burn the capitol to the ground. She becomes increasingly unstable. In one last battle, to take out Savas, the Mundoan commander, he unexpectedly gets reinforcements to fight to a draw. Both she and Maol die. The spirit goes off to find her daughter Orla; to get more vengeance. Madaigh, the younger draoi friend, also pledges to find her daughter. Seems like the new commander is going to lead the troops back north for some reason.
lourdes_chapters_we_love's review against another edition
4.0
Surprisingly GOOD! I loved the characters especially Savas and Orla. Voada was a great strong protagonist.
Review: https://chapterswelove.com/2017/07/04/a-fading-sun-book-1-of-the-sunpath-cycle-by-stephen-leigh/
Review: https://chapterswelove.com/2017/07/04/a-fading-sun-book-1-of-the-sunpath-cycle-by-stephen-leigh/
whiteraven191's review against another edition
3.0
Part of my "Reading the Lowest-Rated Books on my TBR List" Challenge
Average rating as of writing this review: 2.88
Actual rating 2.75 rounded up to 3
So I actually kind of liked this book? Based on the average rating, it's entirely possible I've just lost my mind, so take my review with a grain of salt. This is a fantasy retelling of the story of the historical figure Boadicea. I thought the setting was interesting and the magic system was really unique and cool. The only problem I had was how the gay characters were handled. We have two: the enemy general and his lover/chariot-driver. The driver gets fridged pretty quickly. It's always disappointing to see the Bury Your Gays trope, but this is hardly the most offensive case I've seen (*cough* The Belles *cough*). Weirdly, I seem to be the only reviewer bothered by that. Everyone else either complained that this book had apparently been marketed as paranormal when it's more like high fantasy (a valid issue) or that there was too much world building exposition. I didn't really have that problem. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for that than most people? *shrug* Regardless, I don't think this book deserves to have quite so low a rating.
Average rating as of writing this review: 2.88
Actual rating 2.75 rounded up to 3
So I actually kind of liked this book? Based on the average rating, it's entirely possible I've just lost my mind, so take my review with a grain of salt. This is a fantasy retelling of the story of the historical figure Boadicea. I thought the setting was interesting and the magic system was really unique and cool. The only problem I had was how the gay characters were handled. We have two: the enemy general and his lover/chariot-driver. The driver gets fridged pretty quickly. It's always disappointing to see the Bury Your Gays trope, but this is hardly the most offensive case I've seen (*cough* The Belles *cough*). Weirdly, I seem to be the only reviewer bothered by that. Everyone else either complained that this book had apparently been marketed as paranormal when it's more like high fantasy (a valid issue) or that there was too much world building exposition. I didn't really have that problem. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for that than most people? *shrug* Regardless, I don't think this book deserves to have quite so low a rating.
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