Scan barcode
A review by mousie_books
A Fading Sun by Stephen Leigh
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.