After a couple of years since my last time, I returned to one of the big names among self-published fantasy authors, D. K. Holmberg. With it starts a journey of mystery…

The story follows two young siblings: Lan and Sophie. They’re in their mid-teens and live a calm life, raised by their grandparents (as their parents fell in a war long ago). But their calm life is cast aside as they, one day, find their grandparents dead and with forces from the world after them – a world they’ve been sheltered from.

In the wake of their grandparents’ murder, Lan and Sofie are taken by a mage Ridaln and his retinue far from their home – and to a very different fate. This intro seems to mirror the typical structure of a dragonrider story, but things change as they arrive in the town.

Lan, who had always wished to be a soldier, is thrown into a room with no windows. In gladiator style, he’s kept in the dark, only let out of his room to fight – and if he wins, he’ll be given a meager meal. All the while he has no idea why is he subjected to such cruel ways. It takes him a couple of fights to get closer to real training, but it’s still all in a high-competition, high-violence setting that has him questioning a lot of things, but far from home and with no other purpose, he finds himself sticking to his original goal.

Even as he’s trained more, and is sent far from the town, his trouble doesn’t end. Left beaten and behind, he’s rescued by one of the mysterious Taihg – and shown that there are ways to learn that don’t rely solely on abuse and harshness, though the transition is shocking to him – in this, I’d say the book is well-written.

Sophie, meanwhile, is taken to the palace. There, she founds herself left alone, with no idea what’s she expected to do. For some time, she wanders the palace, trying to make friends and learn what might await her. She explores the events in the palace and gets some hints about the world as a whole, but her picture is severely incomplete.

Ridaln shares more – the war going on is split into two sides, and the enemy is led by the Raven Queen, a powerful sorcerer. The only one able to rival her is the Pale Princess – who died years ago. Ridaln tries to make the enemy believe in the opposite – by finding someone with potential he could train and deter the enemy with a fake Pale Princess. Sophie has the potential to be decent in magic, but her skills grow slowly under Ridaln’s guidance. More so as the sorcerer seems to be a part of some larger plan that involves the kingdom’s diplomacy.

However, not everything is as it seems, and during one large banquet, things go quite poorly. Ridaln’s and Sophie’s power are used by something worse – and only late Ridaln realizes he’s been manipulated to help something much worse. Something even the Raven Queen with her formidable powers might not be able to stop…

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Read date: 27.6.-11.7.2023
Published: 24.1.2023
Goodreads/Amazon rating: 4,30/4,4
My rating: 80%
Length: 526 pages
My highlights

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I’ll admit, the book’s pacing is quite slow, especially at the beginning, but the writing is atmospheric. And it flows well. I guess that’s what drew me through the book. The end of this book sets up the larger story, and I’ll see how it goes.