First of the Darshian Tales. Darshian is a vast land, inhabited by a peaceful, rational society where people with extraordinary Gifts are common, and life is lived according to strong ethical principles. Kuprij is made up of a thousand crowded islands – thrusting, ambitious, war-like, driven by a booming population and a desire to bring its religion and its laws to the whole world. Twenty years ago, it conquered south Darshian, now it has greedy eyes on the north. The war brings Kei, a gentle, fun-loving healer from an isolated village, into collision with Arman, an embittered, honourable general, a man trapped in a loveless marriage and joylessly wedded to duty. The fate of two nations will rest on these two men–and somehow they must not only learn to overcome their own personal difficulties, but bring peace with honour to their countries. If they fail...many innocents will die.
FULLY REVISED AND REFORMATTED EDITION
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By ajousch
Sep 14, 2010
The two books of the Darshian Tales I've read so far, are excellent fantasy (with only a slight touch of the m/m that Ann Somerville is best known for). They explore racism, actions that have consequences even years later, family and community, different forms of government, learning and ignorance, mistakes and how to deal with them, love and growing up - all within a family&friend circle of characters whose focus are two men from very different cultures eventually falling in love and really having to work at making a life for both together. In this first book there are actually truly evil characters, too (without motivation - Mykis and Senator Medus) - but as her writing gets ever better, all the other bad things that happen naturally evolve out of what has come before and it's an emotionally very satisfying story seeing how the heroes and their friends deal with life and rebuild again and again when circumstances yank security out from under them. If you've enjoyed reading... More > Sherwood Smith's Inda series, you'll enjoy this book, focusing mostly on Kei's point of view, but with other points-of-view occasionally as needed. The world is logical in itself, with a renaissance fantasy feel and only small but lovely psychic powers included. The focus is on the characters and dialogue, which I very much appreciate. The book is huge but you never get bored (at medium size font on my Sony PRS505 I have 2000 pages), so I bought the second one right away and read it, too. I'm just here now to buy the next two books (already sorry there are no more so far) available here. Don't buy this for sexxoring, the love is shown, but you get as much in romance books - which I basically see this as - long epic fantasy romance. Think McMaster Bujold Sharing Knife, I think that is even closer than Sherwood Smith.< Less
