A tale from the mists of time

Set in a world of the author's imagination, orphans Kassia and her sister Irisa try their best to eek out a life in a harsh cruel city, living under the regime of a harsh cruel ruler. One day, Kassia is given a mysterious assignment by a mysterious man who mysteriously gives her a bag of coins. As she takes herself out of the heart of the city to work on her mission, she is spared the fate of her sister's disappearance and meets a young man, Jack, who vows to help her discover the secret of her missing sister's fate. along the way, she learns the truth about who she is and is faced with a terrible decision.

The things I like most about this book was the pace, the characterisation, the writing style and syntax, all coming together to produce an enjoyable tale. The product was professionally created and the narrator characterises Kassia very well, ensuring that her wit and her humour shine. There plot is intricate but not so much that its difficult to follow, and although we only glimpse small chunks of the world in which Kassia and her companions live, there are some very clever world building, such as the customs that when a wife dies, the man must marry the sister who will take her place to keep the alliance going between the two families, and when a life is saved from a deathly illness, a life must be sacrificed. These little snippets made me envious that I had not thought of them myself.

The narrator does her job in bringing us this entertaining story making it enjoyable to listen to. I loved the deep emotions that Kassia speaks of as she tells us her story in the first person. There is a cast of memorable characters from the heavily accented pigdog 'Swine', to the handsome Jack who is captivated by Kassia and the loyal, always helpful Cai, one of my favourite secondary characters. Kassia's sense of humour and wit are a joy to listen to, but just as easily as she can make you smile, she can make you feel her emotions and the reader cannot fail to feel for her.

Written as a book for young adults (and older adults), the plot is creatively and intelligently woven. As she narrates her story, we learn the story of her transition from a girl to a woman, damaged by the cruel abuse she experiences on her journey. There are times when you want to shout at her and ask her what the hell is she thinking! Just like Jack, whose relationship with her has its rocky moments.

On the face of it, fantasy sometimes feels as though it must be the easiest genre to write, but can also be one of the most difficult. World building is a skill, and this is Ms Churchill's first go at it and she does it well, making you feel as though the world she is writing about once existed, somewhere in a medieval fairy tale. Her use of language and the skill she uses in putting words together in such a way that you makes you wish you had written that line. The love affair between herself and Jack is a clever device to drive the plot and there are some beautiful scenes between the two of them where the dialogue is so natural, you feel as though you are listening to two real people and not characters in a book.

This is the first book that Churchill has written in this series and there is a second called the King's Daughter, which I cannot wait to read, and i believe a third is in the offing too. Churchill is definitely an author to watch for!

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting book, but didn't grab me fully

This was quite a difficult review to write because technically this is a good book with a strong plot that also lays the foundations for subsequent ones in the series, it has a wide variety of interesting characters, but it just didn't grab me as there was something about the pacing where it just seemed to meander on without really picking up even during the major plot points.

The narrator did a good job overall with a suitable arrange of tones for the various characters, but the overall delivery probably didn't enhance the audiobook as much as it could have done.

Overall, objectively speaking this was a good book, but just wasn't for me.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]

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