The second book in this series picks up the story of Corban, the son of a blacksmith who has discovered that he is the “bright star,” the prophesied savior of light, and Nathair, the son of a king, who has been tricked into believing he’s the bright star, whereas he’s actually the “black sun,” an agent of the dark. For the most part, it’s a fairly generic fantasy story, and not particularly memorable, but there are handful of plot points, characters, and action scenes that are just compelling enough that I’ve continued to read anyway.
For the most part, this feels like a knock-off of the Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time series. There’s a young boy who is “chosen” to be a hero, a wise mentor, an evil god-like bad guy, an army of not-quite-human bad guys, and a long quest across countless forests, inns, mountains, and battles. That said, I suppose this is the classic hero with a thousand faces narrative, so I you could argue all these series are knock-offs of stories going back as far as the Odyssey and before.
That said, this book has a handful of elements that keep me reading, if only barely. While the main hero, Corban, is pretty generic, the inadvertent and unknowing villain, Nathair, is a fun twist. In part, I keep reading just to see how he, and his first sword Veradis, will react when they finally realize they are on the wrong side of the battle. The characters around Corban are pretty interesting too: especially Gar, the stablemaster and Corban’s protector, who turns out to be a master warrior, and Cywen, Corban’s sister, who seems like a maiden in distress, right until she throws a dagger at your face. I also find the side story of Maquin, who has been becomes enslaved by pirates, and forced to fight battle after battle in the fighting pits, to be unusually compelling, and slightly reminiscent of The Burning Series.
I guess it’s on to the third book in this series to see what happens!
