In the remote village of Mandryn, Tessia serves as assistant to her father, the village Healer. Her mother would rather she found a husband. But her life is about to take a very unexpected turn. When the advances of a visiting Sachakan mage get violent, Tessia unconsciously taps unknown reserves of magic to defend herself. Lord Dakon, the local magician, takes Tessia under his wing as an apprentice. The long hours of study and self-discipline also offer more opportunities than she had ever hoped for, and an exciting new world opens up to her. There are fine clothes and servants—and, to Tessia's delight—regular trips to the great city of Imardin. But along with the excitement and privilege, Tessia is about to discover that her magical gifts bring with them a great deal of responsibility. For great danger looms on the horizon for Tessia and her world.
(Summary from Goodreads)
(Summary from Goodreads)
(Photo from Goodreads)
This is what compelled me to write a review when can't normally compose myself enough to write a decent one. NOT that this review would ever be decent but I guess it'll somehow sum up the feelings invoked upon my... dealings with the book. I have few issues/observations/Comments with the entirety of the book and words could never give justice to what I felt when I finished the novel- But there you go:
First, the overall theme was fine. I loved the idea that there was that something new that took a woman to have been discovered. I was drawn by the story from reading the summary and somehow reading through the first chapter encourages me to read on. The whole medieval feels realistic based on the imagery that can be derived from it, and the magicians, and monarchy. Politics, though it wasn't a central theme, could never be divorced with hierarchies and wars could never eliminate deaths. I liked how discrimination had been exhibited with gender stereotypes. It certainly empowered women with highlighting the achievements lead by women behind or in the frontlines. Then there was Romance. I had to admit - this was the one thing that kept me from ditching the book entirely.
Second, the characters were consistent enough. At least if I didn't consider their inner thoughts - which had been all over the place and somehow misplaced. The inner thoughts could have been okay if it were told in a one-person point of view - not the shifting perspective that kind of left out the use of imagination and inference with reading. Instead of liking at least one character - I ended up hating them. It was like I got a full view of the personalities and that somehow made them all too similar. I couldn't take sides in the story because I understood their predicaments which overly impacted how I felt in reading the book. Because it somehow made things too calculative, in my perspective, I somehow got lost with using the magic in reading novels - the whole escapism point gone with too much explanation. THIS had been the major turn-off factor for me.
Lastly, the entire plot had been too long drawn to the point where I almost skimmed through the pages. I hated the whole Hanara perspective for some reason. Stara's perspective which didn't really clarified her role in the entire story until the ending when war was breaking. The story itself had some hasty conclusions which could probably be accounted for it being a prequel into a series - BUT that in itself should be able to stand alone or at least INVITE to read further on.
The entire experience somehow felt traumatic that I was unsure whether to read any other works of Trudi Canavan in the future.
