Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Differences must be put aside when vengeance becomes all-consuming.

Anan, a spellweaver of the Talac people, returns from a hunting trip to find his village decimated, his mate dead, and everyone else captured by Varas slavers. The sole survivor is Terja, a young man without the velvet that covers most Talac, marking him as a spellspinner. Since Talac magic requires both a weaver and a spinner, Anan and Terja must move beyond their ingrained mistrust. All that remains is revenge and a desperate plan to rescue their tribesmen before they are sold to Varas pleasure houses. A goal Anan and Terja are willing to die for.

With the blessing of the Talac gods, they discover new and surprising ways to complement each other’s power. But as they race through terrain full of enemies and dangerous creatures to reach their people before they pass into Varas lands, they must take drastic steps to face the overwhelming odds against them. Understanding their connection might be their only hope.

 

Book Review

A new fantasy world like the one Jon Keys has created with his ‘Obsidian’ series is a rare delight. There is some very creative magic around the idea of weaving spells, but more than that, the entire culture of the Talac is built on threads, weaving, and how two opposites work together to make a new whole. Spellspinners are the ones who produce the magic and energy-infused threads, and spellweavers take those to create spells of all kinds. Other than this cooperation they are not supposed to interact, they even have a strange disdain for each other.

But then one day Terja, a spellspinner, and Anan, a spellweaver, have no other choice but to work together a lot more closely than they ever thought possible. It is not by choice, and not before they have tried absolutely everything else, and even then it takes quite a while before they start trusting each other, never mind actually like each other. But in a world where they are the last two men left of an entire Talac clan extinguished by Varas slavers, they have no other choice.

Theirs is a tale of the discovery of old wisdom, deciphering and reinterpretation of historical records, and a quest for revenge that comes close to killing both of them more than once. But it is also a journey that teaches them about working together and trusting again, and as they come closer to their goal of avenging the dead of their village, they also discover there is a lot more between them than professional cooperation and a talent to do the unusual, sometimes even the supposedly impossible.

‘Obsidian Sun’ is an imaginative action/adventure and a quest, but it is quite bloody and brutal in places. After all, these are slavers Terja ad Anan are dealing with. A lot of the underlying violence is, unfortunately, quite familiar. The Talac dwell in the wilderness and live close to nature. Their bodies are covered by a fine pelt (except for the spellspinners), and the Varas consider them animals. The Varas live in cities and keep the Talac they can capture as pleasure slaves. There are some more fine details around these two cultures and their societies, but the core elements of their conflict sound awfully familiar. I can’t wait to see how Jon Keys is going to solve this problem – hopefully – in the sequel!

If you like magic and fantasy, if you want to find out how two men fall in love who would have never even been friends under normal circumstances, and if you’re looking for an imaginative read full of fresh ideas about magic and how it works, adventure, action, brutality, and characters who have to learn and grow if they want to survive, then you will probably like this novel. I look forward to the sequel, that’s for sure!

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 200 pages/60399 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	10-July-2015
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $14.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/obsidian-sun-by-jon-keys-864-b