Treason Keep: Book Two of the Hythrun Chronicles [Mass Market Paperback]

Jennifer Fallon's second novel is sparkling and engenders the kind of excitement that Eddings did with the Belgariad. Utterly gripping with the kind of plausible characters that you want to follow avidly, with clean plotlines and plausible action, Treason Keep confirms Fallon's status as a realistic quality fantasy author. Here is none of the disappointment generated by the usual publishing overhype you get on so many second rate fantasy efforts these days.

Treason Keep picks up smoothly from Medalon. R'Shiel, the Demon Child, is in the Sanctuary healing from the stabbing by the now child-like First Sister, Joyhinya. Meanwhile, her one true love, Tarja Tenragan is with the Hythrin Warlord, Damin Wolfblade and the Defenders' Lord Jenga at Treason Keep keeping at bay a Karien army, led by Prince Cratyn and urged on by the Overlord God Xaphista.

In this next installment we are introduced to two new main characters, Princess Adrina of Fardonhyan and Mikel, an overzealous young boy from the Karien army. Fallon's creation of the courtes'a trained Adrina is utterly marvellous. Much like Ce'Nedra, her fiery tempered, politically sharp mind and withering sarcasm in the face of her arranged marriage to Prince Cretin (as she calls him) is endlessly amusing and she literally can be rolled by her author into the midst of any situation to devastating effect. So, she is, firstly with her hated marriage and subsequent escape to Treason Keep and eventual relationship with Damin. It's a major subplot that grips the whole novel. So much so that Tarja and R'Shiel are in danger of fading into character obscurity.

The incredibly naive and zealous Mikel, is a boy captured by the Defenders, unwillingly subverted by Dacendaran and fervent adherent to the tenets of Xaphista. His innocence and blinkered approach to reality means he becomes a pawn for miscommunication by both sides but means he is ever-present. You follow his story with some frustration hoping that eventually the scales will fall from his eyes and he will see the truth.

As in Medalon, Fallon keeps the plot straightforward here. Whilst there is a standoff at the Karien-Medalon border, R'Shiel and Tarja concern themselves with getting the conclave at the Citadel to accept a demon-meld character of Joyhinya who can then transfer power to Mahina. This fails, R'Shiel is captured and she learns to reject the whisperings of Xaphista (very much like Garion and Torak) before striding from her captivity like an avenging angel.

So...a well-crafted, utterly gripping second fantasy novel where the quality of writing legitimately declares Fallon to be as good as the likes of Eddings, Feist and co rather than some wishful thinking quotes on the jacket that inevitably disappoint.

If you're a fantasy fan, this is quality. Buy it.

Treason Keep, the sequel to Medalon, is more of the same: a fast pace and fun characters overshadow the not-so-tight plot.

Jennifer Fallon keeps things interesting by expertly developing a couple of characters who were briefly introduced in her first book: Damin Wolfblade, an intelligent barbarian warlord (always a good thing, in my opinion), and Adrina, a spoiled princess whose daddy wants to marry her off because he's tired of paying for her escapades -- she just demolished the city's wharf while trying to dock a nobleman's yacht while she was drunk (the yacht sank). I was impressed with how Ms Fallon gave us very short but meaningful glimpses of Damin and Adrina in the first novel -- their personalities in Treason Keep were completely consistent with what we had previously learned about them, and it was clear that Ms Fallon had consciously prepared that. I noticed this sort of preparation for the future in this novel, too. For example, at one point, Tarja tells Damin that he'll owe him a big favor, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a reminder of this in a later installment.

So Damin and Adrina join Tarja and R'shiel, the established main characters who we already know and love, and several other old and new characters, making this novel both familiar and fresh. Fallon effectively uses different characters' points of view to tell the story (Adrina's point of view is particularly entertaining) and there is enough humor and romance to counterbalance some of the disturbing and violent events.

There were a few things that just didn't make sense to me, however. For example, Joyhinia is now out of commission and a large group of the Defenders have broken off from the Sisterhood and gone north to defend Medalon from the Kariens without permission of the Sisters. There is a lot of fretting about how to trick the quorum into making Mahina First Sister so that she can sanction their plans and send more Defenders. An elaborate and unreliable scheme is contrived when it seems safer, and more likely to work, to just go to the quorum and tell them the truth: "Hey sisters, look at Joyhinia. She's lost her mind and there's a bunch of our enemies massed at the border. Could we appoint a new leader and send some troops to defend the country?"

Also, the religious and magical systems seem arbitrary and convenient. It's not quite clear what gods and demons can do (and when), why R'shiel can call them to help her sometimes but not other times, what kinds of powers she has, and how the magic works. And why does she wear Harshini dragon rider leathers but never rides a dragon?

The plot of Treason Keep is not drum-tight, but the characterization and pleasant writing style make this an enjoyable read nonetheless.
~ FanLit.net

I'm a big fan of these books, if you liked Medalon, you won't be disappointed by Treason Keep or Harshini. Both an enjoyable read.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars