| Winterbirth | Contributor: Martin | Posted: 12/02/07 | 20:35 |
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page 1 of 3  Winterbirth
Author: Brian Ruckley Publisher: Orbit Out: Now Pages: 560 ISBN-13: 978 1 841 49423 4 Class: Fantasy Niche: Epic A hundred pages into Brian Ruckey’s debut novel, Winterbirth, and the signs aren’t good. The lead character, Orisian, and his sister Anyara, the children of the Thane of the Lannis-Haig "Blood" (or tribe), have just escaped the slaughter of their father and the destruction of their childhood home by disguised raiders from the enemy of the Bloods, the exiled followers of the Black Road. All Osirian is left with is his faithful guard Rothe, while Anyara flees with their father’s loyal counsellor, Inurian, a Na’kyrim halfbreed (of Huanin (human) and Krynin (elfin) parentage) talented in magic or "Tapping the Shared" to use Winterbirth's parlance. So far, so predictable. The story is even set in the Third Age, and the role of the elves in what appears to be a Tolkien-lite epic is filled by the Krynin, forest-dwelling aliens who live on the fringes of the land of the Bloods. What lifts Ruckley’s Winterbirth above the host of well-written Tolkien imitators is the haunting spectre of past events hanging over the story. Winterbirth opens with two scenes of carnage – the first in the preface, which details the Gods turning their backs on their creation in disgust after two of the races of the world, the Huanin and the Krynin, turned on the Whreinin (werewolves, *cough*) and wiped them out. The second takes place in the prologue (yes, there is a prefance and a prologue) and recounts the fate of a people on the run, pursued by merciless enemies intent on slaughtering men, women and children on the basis of their religious belief: the Black Road, a bleak Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. Only a heroic and doomed stand by a group of 100 brave warriors gives the people of the Black Road time to escape. |
