Throne Price [Paperback]

Fiction, to me, let's us do what we try and do with life - take apart reality and put it back together again to ask "why not THIS way". If it's good fiction, the re-formed reality works. This book, "Throne Price" is good fiction.
"Throne Price" (not 'Thorn Prince' as the title graphic looks like) by Lynda Williams and Alison Sinclair. Book 4 (1st published however) of a projected 10 book series.
A vivid world as complex, ugly, and promising as our own with characters I knew right away, and many I wish I could know here and now a lot better. (and a few I would never want to meet without a few decks of armor plating between us.) These are characters, and a world, I look forward to visiting. This book is a 'stoplight' book for me (carried in my car, so I can read a line or two whenEVER I get a chance.

What is it like, reading Book Four first?
Think of being tossed to live in, say, Paris. It would take a while to get to know the way of it, but from the first, you would know you are in an ancient place that would still be there in a thousand years... with some things barely changing. It would fascinate, attract, confuse, and reward you. Welcome to the world of Okal-Rel
Let the large cast and complex politics wash over you, enjoy the imagery and language, and don't fret remembering all the details. Save that for the second reading.
As with Stephan R. Donaldson's 'Thomas Covenant' series, Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth' series, the main character is not my favorite and even share an uncomfortable habit of being put to pain... a lot of pain. It is the other characters that attract me with their independence, flaws, and unpredictability.
In the advent of the Web, books no longer are singular experiences. Chat rooms, in depth commentary and visual aids abound and help continue the experience after the cover closes. It reminds me of Dickens reading his works aloud to early versions of FanCons (albeit with a less tacky T-shirts). Web sites give the author, and fans, a chance to interact much more with each other. I am glad to see the Okal-Rel world having one as well. There is evidently a way for fans to read sections into a MP3 file and having it posted. Amateur aspirations to make the world of the authors even more real. Mr. Dickens would approve.
I recommend this book. Ashley Robins (aka G.Robin Smith)

Published by Edge Science Fiction.

This is a difficult subject to handle well in fiction. Many novels sensationalize or even romanticize this kind of personal cruelty, bleeding it for its shock value while pretending it has no real, lasting effects. Others recognize the ugliness of it, but in doing so, create a victim who is always a victim and never a hero. Sinclair and Williams walk a very thin line between these two potential pitfalls, and they walk it flawlessly. We see Ev'rel as a comprehensible human being, a woman with her own tragic past, yet NEVER FOR A MOMENT do we lose sight of how evil and unforgivable her actions are. In the character of Amel, the authors walk an even finer line, capturing with bitter poignancy the very real scars he carries, yet fashioning, in spite of this damage (NOT because of it) a gutsy and exceptionally likable character. As he fights to rebuild his identity, and to stay alive in an increasingly dangerous world, he becomes one of those unforgettable fictional heroes whom we really, desperately hope will make it.

I have one small caution, however. The society of Gelion is hightly ritualistic and structured, and there are coined words and terms for many unfamiliar things, places, relationships, and behaviors. Some readers will find this manageable and even fun. Others, like myself, might find it hard to keep track of at first. To those readers I would say: "Hang in there. Read on. You will be wonderfully rewarded!"