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The Forsaken
Lands - Book I
Glenda Larke
Orbit (Little, Brown)
15 May 2014/ ISBN 97803456502724
Fantasy
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
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Saker Rampion is a priest of Va,
and on the surface that is all he appears. In reality he is
a spy for the Pontifect, and trying to discover what his country’s
neighbor and business rival is up to. During a mission spying
on a powerful merchant he ends up in combat with a man from
a faraway island, a lascar sailor who appears to be doing the
same thing. During this scuffle he ends up with the lascar’s
dagger, a seemingly magical artifact with the power to follow
him around.
This one hits the ground running, and stays exciting most of
the way through. Saker is a likeable protagonist, although he
is not very adept at being a spy (possibly one of the things
that makes him likeable). In true fantasy style the characters
are mostly black or white, but there are also quite a few interesting
gray ones that bring the tale to life. The whole book is perhaps
like this—on the surface a standard fantasy, but a jolly
good one with more than a few surprises. Ms Larke has created
a well-realized world with many intriguing features, but it
is the pacy adventures that make it exciting and a true page-turner.
It is the sort of book that might well remind you why you started
reading fantasy, and I eagerly await the next book.
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