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| Cover image courtesy of DieselPunk Creative |
Zyntael Fairwinter is a young Kimora girl whose village is raided by a rival race of wolflike beasts known as the Vulkari, then groomed to become a potential warrior among their kind in this well written folkloric fantasy tale. It’s a 3+ read for me while not quite tipping into 4 territory.
High marks for characterization and world building. Greaves builds a solid YA world for a high school junior through new adult reader. It's in tune with many an old world fantasy novel with its dwarves and goblins and the like in an ages old battle for domination. The Vulkari leader Karthak, who becomes Zyntael's teacher and surrogate mother, is an admirably complex antagonist who has a purpose for kidnapping and enslaving little Zyntael even though we might not entirely know what that purpose is by story's end.
The bulk of the story, though, feels like the backstory to a bigger epic, and since it’s the first of a trilogy that makes sense. But because of it, the middle half of the book dragged a bit for me. It focuses mostly on Zyntael's journey from unassuming 8 year old girl to her role in a war between nations by the time she reaches adulthood. The girl was enslaved, then accepting of her decided role among the Vulkari without question. Granted, she's eight at the beginning, and her life path, as decided for her, is unique—an admirably strong female character most definitely, but the one thing that nagged me (and which is eventually touched on in the last quarter of the book), is why she never sought out the life she had before, or the people in it. Because of this, I never developed a deeper connection to Zyntael.
But this is a trilogy. This first book feels like it’s meant to be the setup for the real challenges to come. Zyntael makes connections from both her past, and most definitely for her future that might sway other readers to continue.
Also, I’m less of a fantasy reader and more of a horror reader, so I easily recommend fans of the genre to check it out.
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