The One Kingdom
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.3
The cataclysm began more than a century earlier, when the King of Ayr died before naming an heir to the throne, and damned his realm to chaos. The cold-blooded conspiracies of the Renne and the Wills -- each family desirous of the prize of rule -- would sunder the one kingdom, and spawn generations of hatred and discord. Now Toren Renne, leader of his great and troubled house, dreams of peace -- a valiant desire that has spawned hostility among his kinsmen, and vicious internal plots against his life. In the opposing domain, Elise Wills's desire for freedom is to be crushed, as an unwanted marriage to an ambitious and sinister lord looms large. As always, these machinations of nobles are affecting the everyday lives of the common folk -- and feeding a bonfire of animosity that has now trapped an unsuspecting young Valeman Tam and two fortune-hunting friends from the North in its high, killing flames. But the closer Toren comes to achieving his great goal of uniting two enemy houses, the more treachery flowers. Nobles and mystics alike conspire to keep the realm divided, knowing that only in times of strife can their power grow. And perhaps the source of an unending misery lies before an old king's passing, beyond the scope of history, somewhere lost in a fog of myth and magic roiling about an ancient enchanter named Wyrr -- who bequeathed to his children terrible gifts that would poison their lives...and their deaths. It is a cursed past and malevolent sorcery that truly hold the land, its people, and its would-be rulers bound. And before the already savaged kingdom can become one again, all Ayr will drown in a sea of blood.
Featured Series
3 primary booksThe Swan's War is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Sean Russell.
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3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Three young men from the remote Vale plan to set out for a little adventure to civilized lands. But before they can even begin their trip down the river Wyrr, they're attacked by mysterious met at arms and their boat is stolen. Daunted but not stopped, they take up with a story-finder, gradually learning that their woes are part of a much larger, much darker, much older feud.
Review
Unusually, for Sean Russell, this is the start of a trilogy rather than a duology. And it's clearer than his Darwinian books, which, while I enjoyed them, I found heavy on vague mysticism, to the extent that I often wasn't sure what was happening.
Here, as in the Initiate Brother books, we have more concrete action and plot. That's not to say that I wasn't sometimes confused; there are many players and identities, and Russell's not always good about giving contextual clues to remind us who is allied with whom. To be fair, the players themselves are often pretty unclear about where they are, and would benefit from a map as much as readers would.
All that said, this is a fairly strong character-based story centered on three rural boys going out into a world of would-be sophistication, ancient rivalries, and even more ancient magic. This first book essentially sets the stage for what will happen next, and takes its time doing so. Generally, that's a plus, but Russell (perhaps worried about the page count) crams in a final scene that I found extremely hard to follow. You get the gist of it reasonably well, but the actual action is both frenetic and frustratingly vague.
A decent start to an intriguing fantasy series.
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