My Five Word TL:DR Review : Epic and Impressive, Fantastic Fantasy

Talonsister is just an absolute delight to read.  It’s the type of story that originally hooked me to the genre in the first place and it literally made me anxious to get back to the characters and their plights every time life took over and forced me to temporarily stop reading (which happened a lot more than I wanted during the past week). Okay, so this is definitely epic in every sense of the word.  This is a book with a number of characters and a lot of ground covered, it takes a little time to get into but it was such a pleasure to read, the characters were flawed and the setting was so magical that I swear that mysterious forces kept me reading late into the night.

Here we follow a number of characters.

Blessed Eleven (or Leven as she is predominantly known). A herald of the Imperium, imbued with magic that gives her strength and speed and the ability to fly.  Heralds have been ‘tattooed’, if you will, with the crushed up bones of dead titans making them into a formidable force.  Unfortunately, the procedure causes the person to lose their former memories and eventually Leven finds herself taking a journey of self discovery,  leaving the Imperium behind to look into her past and find out more about the only known titans that still survive.

Ynis is a girl, found in the forbidden lands of the griffins as a baby, she is raised as part of their clan although as a human she obviously never truly fits in, although her family and sister love her very much.  Eventually Ynis is banished from her home following an argument with a couple of young griffins and her sister joins her in the search for a new home.  A search that eventually brings the two to a strange place populated by Griffins known as Edgewalkers – those who help others to pass comfortably over to the land of the dead.

Cillian is a Druin who walks the paths of the Wildwood.  He is still in training but his elders, fearing he is maybe getting a little ahead of himself, give him a task that they believe will keep him in check a little.  Ahh, the best laid plans.

Finally, Kaeto.  An envoy of the Imperium (also, let’s be honest a ruthless assassin who takes whatever action is needed to complete the tasks he is saddled with). Kaeto and his assistant are about to accompany an ambitious, aka totally ruthless and without any feelings for others, alchemist.

The setting is inspired.  Think of Britannia during the rise of the Roman empire (known here as Brittleton). The country here comes alive with myth, legend and history.  Griffins live in the North. The Wildwoods are traversed by use of complex and magical interconnecting paths using Druins as guides.  Pixies roam causing mischief.  There is even an abandoned city that people fear to visit.  It’s all so wonderfully magical whilst at the same time taking a particular period in history and giving it a few fantastic embellishments that feel almost like a reflection of the fears and superstitions that people from the period believed.

The writing is really good, Williams excels at writing people who are flawed and hoping for second chances.  She is really good with dialogue and has a great knack for inserting conversations that really help to lighten the mood and prevent the story from becoming too dark.  I love this aspect of her writing.

All told I really enjoyed Talonsister – my only issue, the insufferable wait for book No.2

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars