Restoration by Carol Berg

Title: Restoration

Author: Carol Berg

Series: Rai-Kirah

Date Read: January 15^th

On TBR for: 57 days

Format: Physical book - Mass-trade paperback

Source: Bought - New

Challenges: 2012 Outdo Yourself, Off the Shelf 2012



Restoration is the book that closes the Rai-Kirah trilogy, and reveals much of the secrets of its world, specially when it comes to Ezzarian mythology. Things do not start easy for Seyonne, who is living with Blaise's rebels, but trying to keep his demon in check. Only he sometimes loses his mind and gets this urge to kill all humans. He has been postponing crossing the portal that leads to Kir'Navarrin in part because he wants to spend as much time as he can with his son, and in part because he is afraid of what will happen when he does.

Things aren't going easy for Aleksander either. His father is dead, murdered, and the hegeds blame him, in order to get a more malleable emperor in his place. He finds himself empire-less, army-less, and mostly friendless because all his loved ones are being targeted by assassins, so he had no choice but to drive them away.

At first I was really excited with this book – Aleksander was once again one of the main characters, and even if things were going horribly wrong with him and Seyonne, I was having so much fun with their dynamics. This series strongest point is, undoubtedly, Seyonne and Aleksander's unlikely friendship. And for about half of the book that was what I got. For once, I was glad that Seyonne is one of the most high-functioning procrastinators ever, doing so much in order to not having to do what he must.

But as he accompanied Aleksander in his quest to find supporters and an army to get his empire back, he went through various changes, that at first were slight and understandable, but as they progressed something started to not feel right with Seyonne. Fortunately (I guess), this is the point where he decides he can't put off going to Kir'Navarrin any more.

At the end of Revelation, I thought that in Restoration I would have a nice banter between Seyonne and Denas, much in the fashion of the relationship of Seyonne and Aleksander in Transformation. I didn't get that, but I didn't complain because there was Aleksander, which made all so much better. But once in Kir'Navarrin there was no Aleksander, and I felt the injustice that had been done to Denas. It also didn't help that the pacing came to a complete stop in this part, with Seyonne mulling on his thoughts more and more, and being morose the way only he can be.

Even worse, his changes in personality didn't stop, in fact, they intensified. And even if he was helping his friends, I was not liking the direction the story was taking, and was starting to dread the ending it would have: I simply couldn't see it end well, or not badly. There were some twists to the plot, some thinking that occurred behind the scenes that I hadn't factored in, which meant that I got to be positively surprised on how the situation resolved itself.

I ended up liking this last book, even with the complete changes of pace and the transformation of the main character. Maybe not as much as the first one, but I think it brings a nice close to the series, the mythos of the Ezzarians explained, Seyonne with a somewhat happy ending, and Aleksander fulfilling his potential.


Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews: Dragons, Heroes and Wizards | Ubiquitous Absence

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Revelation by Carol Berg

Revelation

When I finished Transformation, the first book of the Rai-Kirah series, I thought I was done with Seyonne and Aleksander, that its sequel would probably be in the same universe but with different characters. It turns out I was wrong.

In Revelation there is more of Seyonne than of Aleksander, to be sure, but both characters are back. There is also a lot more about Seyonne's race, the Ezzarians, their traditions and why they fight demons.

This book can be divided into four parts: the beginning, with Seyonne as the sole warden of the Ezzarians, overworked and still very much under-appreciated by the rest of his people. Still, there is some joy in his life, he is back with his wife, the Queen, and she is expecting. But two things happen to bring suspicion on Seyonne (yet, again). First, he lets a demon go unpunished, sensing he has no ill intent. That is unheard of (at least in recent memory) and the talk of his corruption returns. And second, his son is born a demon, and Ezzarian law and tradition dictates that he must be left in the wild to die and that everyone else must go about their lives as if he had never been born conceived. He, however, begins to question said traditions and complains quite loudly about it.

Despairing and cast away, Seyonne goes in search of some answers. This is the second part of this book, when Seyonne first goes through severe depression, then goes about the world looking for some of the demon-children, that were saved by some that were not so keen on tradition as well, encountering prince Aleksander along the way who thinks him to be the leader of a rebellion against his empire. This encounter means one more task for Seyonne, who promises to help Aleksander squash the rebellion.

When he finds the leader, Blaise, he discovers what he had been searching all along – the demon-children. He learns a bit more of their powers and their nature, which leads him to question a bit more the Ezzarian traditions. He is accepted into the group and then cast away again (boy, this man cannot catch a break), and he decides to go to the one person who knows more about demonlore in all of the world, but who is also anathema to all Ezzarian (especially for those who have been made slaves and put through the excruciating rituals that he devised - like Seyonne).

This bring us to the third part, when Seyonne willingly travels to the demon realm, to find some answers. But things are never easy for this guy, so he is captured, tortured, made to forget everything he knows and his purpose, and kept like a pet by the demons (AKA, a slave, yet again). The first three were probably the most boring parts of this book, he is tortured, in the dark, he hears voices...and this goes on for pages. But when he reaches the court of the higher-ranking demons, things get interesting again. The society of the demons, their world, their relationships were really fun to read. That Seyonne had no idea what he was doing there, and kept being enticed by the demoness Vallyne, which lead him to forget what he was doing at the moment, only added to the fun. There was some intrigue, with an old warden living among the demons also as pet, and the demons blaming the Ezzarians of crimes against them, of rendering the lower castes crazy with their attacks, so much that they had no hunters, and their society was bent on collapse. And they also blamed the Ezzarians from keeping them from their promised land.

And because Seyonne is such a good guy, he helps them with that too. Which brings us to the last part of the book, back in the mortal realm, with a controlled demon attack, two armies about to go to war in the vicinity of where Seyonne wants to be (on of them Aleksander's), with the Ezzarians also moving to war against the demons, who Seyonne has to protect, and the rebels lurking close by. Not very good odds.

This is turning into a rather long review, but that is because there is a lot that goes on the book. Maybe not so much action-wise (most of it happens in the end), Seyonne does spend a lot of time wallowing in self-pity, and yet more time being torture and completely out of sorts. But there is a lot that is learned about the Ezzaians and the demons (quite a few revelations), and some new characters that kept me always wondering if they were to be trusted or not.

I missed not having more of Aleksander in this book, his relationship with Seyonne was always fun to read. But, Fiona, who dogs Seyonne most of the book, proves to be quite good to read as well. The stronger point in this book, besides Seyonne, is the history of the Ezzarians, of the traditions and rituals they follow blindly, without ever questioning their purpose [this actually reminded me of The Third God, by Ricardo Pinto].

Contrary to Transformation, this book ends in a cliffhanger, not a mean one, but enough to make me want to read the next one, and see how the story concludes. Comparing with the first one, I think it's a good sequel, maybe not as good as the first, but then again, the first one's ending was a bit of a let down. On the plus side, Revelation has a much more better cover (not that it was hard to achieve).


Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews: Dragons, Heroes and Wizards | Ubiquitous Absence

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Transformation by Carol Berg

Transformation

Seyonne is a man waiting to die. He has been a slave for sixteen years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to him: his dignity, the people and homeland he loves, and the Warden's power he used to defend an unsuspecting world from the ravages of demons. Seyonne has made peace with his fate. With strict self-discipline he forces himself to exist only in the present moment and to avoid the pain of hope or caring about anyone. But from the moment he is sold to the arrogant, careless Prince Aleksander, the heir to the Derzhi Empire, Seyonne's uneasy peace begins to crumble. And when he discovers a demon lurking in the Derzhi court, he must find hope and strength in a most unlikely place...



The characters of Transformation sucked me in from the start: the calm but spunky slave, and the spoilt but (very secretly) honourable prince. Their interaction was great, the voice in which it was told even better.

This is a story told by Seyonne, a slave since the age of 16, but he doesn't give away his past easily, it slowly unravels, depending on the will of the character to revisit it. He is bought by Zander, the prince of the Derzhi empire, and it doesn't take long to get himself in trouble.

Even though this is fantasy, there aren't elves and dwarves (and hobbits) all around. Sure there are different "races", but they are mostly different tribes. Some are different in appearance, but mostly human. Some can do magic, some can't. I liked that these different races had personality and culture of their own; their differences not a result of different physique, but of having a different history.

The central point in this story are the demons, the way they possess people and how the main character gets rid of them. I actually liked this, despite being a bit afraid at first. It isn't The Exorcist, and even if there is a lot of religion in the story as part of the cultural background, it never becomes more than that.

But, because there is always a but, the ending didn't quite work out for me. It seemed pretty tame and easy compared to all the rest, and the tying of loose threads seemed unnecessarily long. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I think it should have had a bit more of a bang to it. Despite that, it was still a pretty decent ending, just not to the level of the rest of the book

This book reads like a standalone, although it is the first in a series. I imagine that the other books take place in the same universe, but not with the same characters.

Still, it was a very enjoyable book and a keeper, even if the ending was a bit of a let down. I liked the writing a lot and will definitely check out other books by this author.


Rating: 4 out 5

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