by L.M. Douglas, book 1 of the Chronicles of the Endless War
Summary:
The devastating gods’ war that ravaged the other side of the world for centuries is coming to Gharantia. Its rulers, Princess Melane and Criterious, the Guardian, stand as sentinels, safeguarding their cherished realm.
As the Queen’s protective mist—the Bleak—rolls away after another winter, prophetic dreams haunt Melane and mysterious strangers converge on their city.
Criterious must unravel the truth behind the war before it destroys them all. Who will stand with Gharantia against the coming tide?
In this epic fantasy adventure alliances will be forged, loyalties will waver, and destinies collide.
Review:
Gharantia’s Guardian is a political intrigue fantasy which barely scratches the surface of a deeper conflict outside the protective borders of the city of Gharantia. This first book is clearly setting up not only a major war between some squabbling gods, but also setting the stage for our heroes to overcome their own internal obstacles.
Despite the backdrop of a looming war, outside of a prologue character partially connected with one of the main characters, this story has a very limited cast. Told predominately through two points of view (plus a smaller third who will become a larger POV in future books), GG focuses on its core cast, showing us their external and internal conflicts in the build-up to the god’s war.
Criterious is the aforementioned Guardian, a sort of chosen protector of Gharantia, and he could be considered the main character. Criterious is loyal to country and his wife Melane (almost to a fault where he reallllly wants to be loved by her), stubborn & hard-headed, courageous, and intelligent. But Criterious also suffers from his hubris as his bonded magic with Melane (a really neat magic concept) suffers greatly throughout this book and is put to a test later when he meets another magic wielder. Our other main point of view character is Pilt, a young man who might have magical powers but we don’t really know (his backstory unravels as the story goes on). Pilt was a lot of fun because he is just this derpy young man who knows nothing about nothing and is caught in political threads way over his head. By far my favorite character is Pallemina, a serpent-bonded lady (and third POV). She comes later in the story and is at the crux of the overall plot. I know she’ll be a much bigger player in later books and I can’t wait to see where Douglas takes us with her because there is such a mysterious presence about her (and the serpent). Melane, Kywren (the queen’s man and mysterious former bad guy), Tower (a mage as old as dirt), and Queen Velardis are all great supporting characters. Some shine more than others (Kywren most of all) while others definitely round out the plot for various reasons.
The plot I’d call a political intrigue largely because a lot revolves around the queen of Gharantia and the plenty of schemes unbeknownst to Criterious (and Melane, despite being the princess and cousin to said queen). There are hints dropped along the way of things not being what they should seem with the queen and her new lover, but it’s not until we spend much of the book with Pallemina’s introduction/arc, that we learn there is a coming god’s war. Pilt is also drawn into this overarching plot due to his backstory, but we don’t really get a lot there until the very very end of the book. So it’s safe to say, a lot of the plot is set-up for the rest of the series. That’s not to say this book isn’t good, quite the contrary, just be advised there isn’t a clean ending to this book, there is farrrrrrr more to come. There are plenty of lore tidbits dropped all over the place and it shows us how big this world truly is.
The prose is accessible and the pace is fairly steady. L.M. Douglas aimed to give us a deep connection with our POV characters so we do spend a lot of time within their noggins, contemplating their thoughts and misgivings. There isn’t a ton of action scenes, but the ones we do get are well-realized, especially in the climax with Pilt and a cool beastie. And while the magic system is fairly soft in terms of rules and what a wielder can do, the magic does have some really neat concepts, such as the bonding magic between Criterious/Melane, as well as everything about Pallemina.
For a debut, I found Gharantia’s Guardian to be a fun story that is only just beginning. There is a big war on the horizon and I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes! #SecretScribes
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