Vicki of Reading At The Beach hosts A-Z Wednesday. Today’s letter is W.
This is one I read in the spring of 2008 and I still remember. Of course, I’m waiting for the sequel, which hasn’t come out yet. Last I heard, the author was hoping for 2010.
Warders of the Gate by Mark Murray
In Rhillai there is no High King, and the nine dukes of the realm fight amongst themselves for the coveted seat. Alisandra, a powerful mage, wants nothing of it and she plots to put a puppet on the throne. someone that she can control. But in her attempt, she opens a Gate to another world and provides entry to the Hylnan–an alien race bent on destroying everything in sight. Caught in the midst of the mayhem are the Warders–the sworn protectors of these magical Gates. Using their abilities to shape shift they fight against the oncoming power struggles in an attempt to keep the Gates open with the hopes that they can bring order to the chaos. One thing is certain for all living on Rhillai. the beginning of the Hylnan War is at hand, and the most unlikely people will find themselves bound to one another to fight their common enemy. (Goodreads.com)
I enjoyed this one, and it immediately popped into my head for W. It’s an interesting idea and has a lot of standard fantasy characters, like elves, dwarves and mages, but adds new ones, like the warders, hylnan and trogu.
One complaint would be the way the book is formatted, though, but I did get used to it. It was put out by Arctic Wolf Publishing, a small company, and the author left a comment on Goodreads that he had no control of the formatting.
It did just kind of end, obviously so the story can be continued in what is a planned trilogy. There are a lot of characters, but by the end I was able to keep them straight.
I don’t read much fantasy. It is frustrating when I don’t know how to pronounce names. Need a glossary. LOL
I’m not much of a fantasy reader, but it does sound interesting!
Thanks for playing!
I hope you get your sequel this year. 🙂
Well, fantasy isn’t really my genre, but it does sound like a very intense read.
Haven’t read much fantasy lately, although I’ve read quite a bit of in the past. This one sounds intriguing. I like the fact that it has a woman as one of the major “power” characters – you don’t see that in a lot of standard fantasy novels.
I too do not read fantasy, BUT in one of my New Years challenges I’m to read out of my comfort zone, this sounds like something I could handle with some enthusiasm, another challenge is to read a trilogy. thanks for your visit, and your awesome review.
This does sound interesting! I get so impatient when I am waiting for the next book to be published…lol.
It’s too bad that the author had to apologoize for the formatting!
Oh, wow! This sounds like a GREAT fantasy series! On my wishlist it goes. Thanks 🙂