Valley of Embers The Landkist Saga Book 1 eBook Steven Kelliher
Download As PDF : Valley of Embers The Landkist Saga Book 1 eBook Steven Kelliher 
The Embers are dying.
For hundreds of years, the flame-wielding warriors have been the last line of defense against the creatures of the night, but their light is fading.
When Kole Reyna, Ember of Last Lake is wounded by a demon unlike any they have seen before, the Emberfolk believe it is a sign of an ancient enemy returned, a powerful Sage known as the Eastern Dark.
With the tribes of the Valley besieged, the land’s greatest champions rise up to meet the coming threat. But even the combined might of the elemental Landkist may not be enough to stem the tide of darkness.
Kole has never believed in destiny, but with his people hanging on the precipice and his home on the brink of ruin, he must discover the limits of the one power he fears above all else.
His own.
Start reading today to experience the epic series that combines the haunting atmosphere of Princess Mononoke with the elemental action of Avatar The Last Airbender.
Valley of Embers is the first of five planned volumes.
Valley of Embers The Landkist Saga Book 1 eBook Steven Kelliher
I debated with myself quite awhile on giving this book 3 or 4 stars. I try to be a little more generous with indie authors, but at the same time my ratings come down to my personal enjoyment and I never quite clicked with this book, probably because I'm more of a character than action person and this book tended to be more on the action side.This is a very action-oriented book with a lot of fight scenes. Unfortunately, that rarely works well for my tastes, but that's absolutely a matter of personal preference. There will be many readers out there who will be into the action-packed fight scenes.
I did enjoy the author's vivid descriptions of the world, creatures, and landscapes; he has a gift for involving all of the senses in his descriptions, not just visual.
There are rather a lot of monsters in this book - some summoned from "rifts" from another world and some created by the summoned creatures from the bodies of their already conquered enemies. Aside from the basic troops, there are "Sentinels" which are sort of the next tier up and a bit more intelligent than the basic dark ones. Sentinels have red eyes and are in command of the basic troops. Above the Sentinels we have some larger/converted creatures that do a lot of damage and are referred to as Night Lords, but then maybe aren't real Night Lords. The classifications get confusing!
Above the Night Lords, there are the "Sages", which have god-like powers. The Sages haven't really been involved in the humans' affairs for a few generations, or at least not much. When the attacks by the dark ones suddenly pick up in intensity instead of tapering off when they usually do each year, it prompts our protagonists to take action.
The plot of the book is sort of simple on one hand - go on a quest to the dark/broken lands at the edge of the Valley to discover why we're being attacked and/or kill whatever is sending monsters to attack us. However, when you try to dig into the finer details of the plot it gets a little hard to pin down as each character has their own motivations and beliefs about which Sages are alive or what those Sages' motivations might be, and each characters' motivations are not always clear to the reader, even by the end of the book. I think those characters' motivations might not even be clear to themselves.
The climax of the book was rather lengthy, with the supposed savior-or-maybe-enemy of the people being extremely prone to monologuing. To be honest, I kept on because I was committed to the book that far in, but the conclusion seemed almost operatic to me, in that sense where the villain takes 30 minutes to die and sings an aria about dying while doing so. Plus, you're never quite sure anything is really dead because just when you think he is he pops back up for another chorus. For me, the ending was overwrought and still didn't really give the plot a strong conclusion. This, in addition to a fair number of missing word/wrong word usage type errors pulled my rating down a star.
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Valley of Embers The Landkist Saga Book 1 eBook Steven Kelliher Reviews
So, what if Gandalf was evil? This has been a topic which has been touched upon by a number of books. The First Law Trilogy managed to do it in a delightfully interesting way. However, Valley of Embers isn't a Medieval fantasy story nor does it bear anything but a superficial resemblance to the Lord of the Rings. Instead, it actually reminds me more of Princess Mononoke with a dash of The Legend of Zelda and Avatar The Last Airbender. It's the story of a protagonist who bitterly resents (actually outright hates) the wise old wizard who protects his people as well as the cosmic struggle he tries to involve his people in.
The Valley is a place full of individuals called Embers who possess the power of natural fire magic. They're not alone among elemental magicians but rule as well as hold the strongest position because, well, fire is a damn useful talent for warriors. The Valley is protected by the White Crest Sage who keeps them ostensibly safe from the Eastern Dark. New monsters have invaded, though, and Kole's group goes to seek the mysteriously absent White Crest. However, while most wish to recruit the ancient wizard, Kole harbors a different desire to kill the man he blames for his mother's death.
If I were to put my literary criticism hat on, the book has a lot of metaphor which can be summarized as a discussion of religion. The White Cresh is a figure who is attributed much benevolence and trust but many terrible things happen despite his supposed protection. Rationalizations are made for the figure even as others stew in what they see as oppression brought about in his name. Kole's anger at times seems justifiable but the book doesn't provide easy answers as many of his beliefs about the Sage are driven by his own desire to have someone to blame for his problems--much the same as others try to attribute good to the Sage.
Valley of Embers is full of action from start to finish with many encounters with the dark-tainted forces. These foes are, for the most part, about as one-dimensional evil as Tolkien orcs or zombies. However, that doesn't mean the book is lacking in moral ambiguity. Indeed, much of the book's "point" is that people who see the world in Black and White are not only wrong from egregiously so. This is the kind of lesson I could see more of in fantasy. Taking the typical conflict and expanding on it so things are more complex was a welcome element for sure.
Kole is a somewhat likable hero but there's also times I wanted to slap him across the face. His determination to kill the White Crest is built around the most specious and self-serving of reasons but he also displays great courage in the many battles his people have against the Dark. I look forward to seeing how his character matures as he does get several good reality checks. The fact a lot of his beliefs are as unquestioned as the other Valley people's beliefs are in the Sage is also a bit of hypocrisy which doesn't go noticed by the author. I'm pleased to say despite Kole's troublesome nature that there are other characters who have really entertaining personalities.
My favorite scene from the book is a quiet one in-between the fighting where a veteran Ember talks about why he doesn't use his fire powers to make his camp fires. It's a rather touching and horrifying story which shows the author has a more mature grasp of war than those who just throw endless hordes of fantasy communists at the protagonists ala Terry Goodkind. There's also quite a bit of world-building for the setting despite it taking in a small contained valley.
In conclusion, Valley of Embers is a great little fantasy novel. Lots of action, some interesting characters, and actually an interesting theme about both elevating humans to gods as well as unquestioned obediance.
9/10
I debated with myself quite awhile on giving this book 3 or 4 stars. I try to be a little more generous with indie authors, but at the same time my ratings come down to my personal enjoyment and I never quite clicked with this book, probably because I'm more of a character than action person and this book tended to be more on the action side.
This is a very action-oriented book with a lot of fight scenes. Unfortunately, that rarely works well for my tastes, but that's absolutely a matter of personal preference. There will be many readers out there who will be into the action-packed fight scenes.
I did enjoy the author's vivid descriptions of the world, creatures, and landscapes; he has a gift for involving all of the senses in his descriptions, not just visual.
There are rather a lot of monsters in this book - some summoned from "rifts" from another world and some created by the summoned creatures from the bodies of their already conquered enemies. Aside from the basic troops, there are "Sentinels" which are sort of the next tier up and a bit more intelligent than the basic dark ones. Sentinels have red eyes and are in command of the basic troops. Above the Sentinels we have some larger/converted creatures that do a lot of damage and are referred to as Night Lords, but then maybe aren't real Night Lords. The classifications get confusing!
Above the Night Lords, there are the "Sages", which have god-like powers. The Sages haven't really been involved in the humans' affairs for a few generations, or at least not much. When the attacks by the dark ones suddenly pick up in intensity instead of tapering off when they usually do each year, it prompts our protagonists to take action.
The plot of the book is sort of simple on one hand - go on a quest to the dark/broken lands at the edge of the Valley to discover why we're being attacked and/or kill whatever is sending monsters to attack us. However, when you try to dig into the finer details of the plot it gets a little hard to pin down as each character has their own motivations and beliefs about which Sages are alive or what those Sages' motivations might be, and each characters' motivations are not always clear to the reader, even by the end of the book. I think those characters' motivations might not even be clear to themselves.
The climax of the book was rather lengthy, with the supposed savior-or-maybe-enemy of the people being extremely prone to monologuing. To be honest, I kept on because I was committed to the book that far in, but the conclusion seemed almost operatic to me, in that sense where the villain takes 30 minutes to die and sings an aria about dying while doing so. Plus, you're never quite sure anything is really dead because just when you think he is he pops back up for another chorus. For me, the ending was overwrought and still didn't really give the plot a strong conclusion. This, in addition to a fair number of missing word/wrong word usage type errors pulled my rating down a star.
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