Customer Reviews

Medalon: Book One of the Hythrun Chronicles

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'd been away from reading Sci-Fantasy for quite some time now, but on a whim I picked up this book. I started reading and couldn't put it down!!! I enjoy reading stories with strong female characters and Fallon definitely does not disappoint! I can't wait for the next novel in this trilogy to be published in paperback!

It's not often that a new writer explodes on the scene with book after wonderful book that just takes your breath away. Of course, it helps when the author in question has been writing for a few years in another country and her books are just now coming to North American shores. Such is the case of Jennifer Fallon, who's Second Sons trilogy has just been published in its entirety in North America. Also, the first book of the Hythrun Chronicles has also been published, Medalon. Unfortunately for me, Tor has decided that they don't want to saturate the market and will thus be publishing them once a year. It will be a while before we're caught up. I loved the Second Sons trilogy so much that I had to read Medalon, which is actually the first book that she had written. How does it measure up? Not quite as good as the Second Sons trilogy, but much better than other first novels.

The Sisterhood of the Blade rules Medalon ruthlessly, stamping out any hint of heathen beliefs. With the First Sister having just been assassinated, Joyhinia thinks that she's going to be named head of the church. When that doesn't happen, she works a scheme to make it happen. Her daughter R'Shiel and her son Tarja get caught up in it, and find themselves on the run. They fall in with a rebellion against the Sisterhood, and end up even deeper into a massive change that will befall the world. Brak, a Harshini outcast, brings news that the Harshini, long thought dead, may be coming back. And worse, R'Shiel may be the Demon Child that has been foretold. War may be coming to the world, religious or political, with R'shiel and Tarja caught in the middle.

Fallon has created yet another fascinating world, with the various politics and religions thought out and explained. There's Medalon with the Sisterhood, the Hythrun who believe in all of the gods, and Karien, where the War God is the only God, and worshipers of all others must fall to the sword. The Harshini, long thought wiped out, commune with the gods and even have some power (at least of persuasion) over them. The world these people live on seems so real and the events of the novel follow logically.

Fallon does wonderful work with the characters as well, with almost all of them being perfectly three-dimensional. R'Shiel and Tarja are especially good protagonists, with R'Shiel understandably having trouble accepting her parentage, especially considering her upbringing as the daughter of an ambitious Sister. Tarja has been exiled and is brought back at R'Shiel's insistence (though Joyhinia fought it every step of the way). He's a great military leader and an extremely intelligent man. I did find that R'Shiel's attitude during Tarja and her's initial flight from the capital to be a little bit grating and shrill. She seemed just a little too haughty, but she did mellow a bit as the story went on. Jenga, the captain of the Defenders, is also quite well done, considering he doesn't have a major role (at least not in the first book). Joyhinia has him under her thumb because she knows the truth about Jenga's brother and is quite willing to reveal it if Jenga moves against her.

The gods are great characters, too. The goddess of love (I won't name them because some of them travel in disguise and thus naming them would be spoilers) adds complications as she casts a spell on R'Shiel and Tarja that can only make matters worse. The god of thieves is mischievous but can help matters if Brak manipulates him well enough. All of the gods have just a little touch of dimension that makes them stand out, and they are never boring.

Sadly, the only character who doesn't quite work is Joyhinia. Being the main villain of the piece, that's a let-down, but she is just this side of two-dimensional. She's the typical power-hungry woman who won't let anything stand in her way. She's ruthless, willing to torch a whole village to keep a secret safe. She rants and she raves and she really isn't that interesting. If Jenga and his other Defenders weren't so beholden to their honour and their oaths, it would be a wonder that they would obey her at all, as she is quite clearly out for her own power at the expense of the Sisterhood and its Defenders.

Whether it's the lack of a credible villain or perhaps the quality of writing, Medalon didn't grip me like the Second Sons trilogy did. Perhaps that's the fault of the book being Fallon's first, but I didn't have the incredible urge to finish that I did with the other series. Don't get me wrong, the prose is very good and I found the situation interesting. I just didn't think it was as interesting as it could be. The prose isn't quite as polished. Still, for a first book it is quite good and shows flashes of brilliance at times and definitely indicates Fallon's potential. I wonder if perhaps my thoughts on Medalon have been influenced a little by reading her subsequent work first?

Whatever way it is, I can thoroughly recommend Medalon, and I can't wait for the next book to come out.

David Roy

Having grown rather tired of the entire fantasy genre and it's archetypical formula I found this first book in a series rather refreshing. You get a great spectrum of perspectives on the multiple sides in the building conflict as opposed to the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Strong characters, great pace, political, religious and racial tensions in good balance help get you past otherwise awkward parts.

What prevented a five star rating is that Fallon does at times slip into formula rather than stay true to her characters. At certain points she dumbs down her characters to get through to a certain plot point. On such example is one of the main characters going through the "but I don't want the responsibility of these powers, I just want things to be normal again." which is completely incongruous with an otherwise strong, perceptive and driven character.

One also wonders how the supporting character Brak can be so incompetent. His capacity to lose his charge and completely miss the obvious time and time again is rather amazing for someone with his supposed lineage and history.

The last criticism is that the USA cover is HORRIBLE. It makes the book look like any other generic, yawn inspiring fantasy epic. If I hadn't been in London and seen the UK cover I would never even have picked up the book.

Overall a great book and I was able to overlook the weaker spots, hoping that the rest of the series grows stronger as it matures.

The UK paperback jacket of Jennifer Fallon's opener in the Demon Child trilogy (Hythrun Trilogy in the US) caught me off guard slightly as it has a distinctive science fiction approach to its artwork. Having never come across Fallon, I was pleasantly surprised to find a fantasy novel that looks to combine the best of Jordan and Modesitt.
The story concerns Tarja Tenragan, a dashing, battle hardened and somewhat cynical Defender of the Medalon realm whom we first encounter punching out an overly arrogant captain called Loclon, and R'Shiel, his half-sister, a Probate the the Sisterhood - a firmly secular group who rule this central state, surrounded on all sides by god-fearing heathens, if you believe the propaganda. The irony that this state atheism is actually incorrect as we meet the Primal and Incidental Gods fairly early on in this adventure - the God of Thieves and Goddess of Love featuring heavily during an episode at the prisoner town of Grimwild. Tarja and R'Shiel come to realise that they are not, in fact related and that R'Shiel is the Demon Child, fated to kill the God Xaphista or die trying. At a human level their adversary is the resplendant wicked stepmother, Joyhinia, whose ruthless cunning secures her the leadership of the Medalon sisterhood after ousting Mahina and with complete disregard for her childrens' wellbeing gets them captured during a growing insurgency and carted off to Grimwild. At a deified level she is being hunted by the God Xaphista and his horde of fanatical Kairen Priests.
What follows is a race through Medalon as they first escape, prove to their rebel friends that Tarja did not betray them and R'Shiel gets captured by a Kairen priest and Lord Pieter, the Kairen Envoy. One explosive moment later on the boat we finally get to hear the truth behind her heritage as demon-created dragons enter the fray and we learn that the once-thought extinct Harshini are in fact alive and that R'Shiel is the daughter of Lorandranek te Ortyn, the dead brother to King Korandellen.
With it comes the explanation that the demon child has unlimited access to magic (normal Harshini can only access small amounts - more with a God's help) but her human blood means she can use it to destroy. All in all a potent weapon.
Fallon's opener in the trilogy is explosively impressive combining powerful plot, plausible characterisation and effortless writing style to create a novel that is as thrilling to read as any Eddings or Feist. There has been a dearth of quality new fantasy writers over recent years and Fallon's advent has come at exactly the right time. Any fan of this genre must read this.

R'shiel, trainee in the Sisterhood of the Blade, hates her ambitious mother--but even she doesn't suspect that her mother will overthrow the legal leader and take on that role herself. when R'shiel and her brother, Tarja are forced to flee, they have to question all that they've been taught--and all that the sisterhood has stood for. Because the sisterhood exists to stomp out beliefs in the demons and gods of the world--and R'shiel just may be the long-expected child of demons--a part of the race of beings that stands between the gods and humans.

The officially atheistic nation of Medalon is surrounded by potential enemies. To the North, the Karien follow the 'overlord.' The overlord hates the atheists of Medalon, but he hates the demons of Hythria worse and has made peace with Medalon for centuries based on the promise to keep paganism under control. But peasant beliefs are hard to contain and Karien just may invade at any time--especially if they learn that the demon child is in Medalon--and has been bred by the gods specifically to kill their god. To the south, the Hythria worship the gods and demons that Medalon threw out--and that many of the poor and farmers still follow. When civil war threatens Medalon, the nation becomes a tinderbox.

Author Jennifer Fallon designs an intriguing world where gods are real and play a surprisingly personal role. The half-Harshini Brak is a surprisingly complex and interesting secondary character--one who deserves more book than he gets in MEDALON. Expect to see more of him in the sequels. I found Tarja a bit too heroic, Joyhinia too evil, and R'shiel too caught up in petty anger with her mother to make them fully sympathetic, as well as a bit lacking in story goal, but Fallon's strong world-building and strong prose style kept me glued to the pages.

I'd heard great things about this author from an Australian friend and was not disappointed. The characters in Medalon are fresh and original, the world beautifully detailed, the plot is unpredictable, the politics and religious issues thought-provoking and intelligent. I couldn't put it down. It is written with a sense of humor rare in fantasy and obviously doesn't take itself too seriously. I'll be hanging out for every book this author releases and can't wait for the next volume!

I'd heard great things about this author from an Australian friend and was not disappointed. The characters in Medalon are fresh and original, the world beautifully detailed, the plot is unpredictable, the politics and religious issues thought-provoking and intelligent. I couldn't put it down. It is written with a sense of humor rare in fantasy and obviously doesn't take itself too seriously. I'll be hanging out for every book this author releases and can't wait for the next volume!

First of all, a great thing about this novel (and likely this series)is that the author avoids some of the typical pitfalls of the genre by not letting plot points stay overly predictable. Instead of black and white issues, there are refreshing greys, which I think many of us have become especially thirsty for with GRRM's great series.
However, the author's writing style *barely* kept me interested, in part because the plot would lurch from major milestones a bit too quickly and superficially. This was one of those books that I skimmed the last quarter because I wanted to see if there was a payoff, but knew I wouldn't miss much by skipping details. Also, I found the "mystery" of the elvish-type race that has disappeared really uninvolving, which does not bode well for future books in this series where they are likely to play a larger part.
Although I had fairly high expectations for this novel coming in, I am sad to say I will not take the time to read the sequels -- its just not good enough when there are so many other books that at least hint at more promise.

In Medalon, the Sisterhood of the Blade has methodically thwarted beliefs in the gods and the mythical magical Harshini though some folks quietly believe in the existence of both just not publicly because of dire consequences. The nation has enemies surrounding it as other countries are ruled by "heathens", faithful to the Gods and believing the Harshini live. Eighteen-year-old R'shiel Tenragen is the daughter of the First Sister of the Blade, haughty demanding Joyhinia. Because of Joyhinia's demands, R'shiel is a postulant studying to become a Sister, but has doubts as she sees the backstabbing jealousies as more common than true loyalty. When R'shiel and her half-brother alienate mommy dearest, they flee for their lives.

The Gods have tasked the Harshini to do the impossible. The Harshini know that success is not viable yet failure is unacceptable. They need allies and R'shiel would be perfect though she is the daughter of generations of enemies. However, R'shiel knows that a species just below the Gods that do not exist cannot be real; for those are two of the prime rules of the sisterhood.

This excellent opening of the six book Hythrun Chronicles fantasy series is superb because the key characters seem genuine with motives, pettiness, jealousy, and other human traits. Even the magical race Harshini seems real as they have doubts about their mission. The story line is as much a coming of age as it is an epic fantasy adventure to learn the truth about one's heritage mindful of Russia just after the fall of the Soviet Union. Fantasy fans will enjoy this stupendous novel that hooks the reader from the opening funeral pyre of the First Sister that sends smoke in the air.

Harriet Klausner