Publisher: Del Ray
Published: July 1990
Copyright: 1989
Pages: 435
Form: Paperback
Series: The Elenium Series (1)
Author: Site | Facebook
Buy The Book: B&N | Book Depository | Amazon
Sparhawk, Pandion Knight, and Queen’s Champion returned to Elenia after ten years of exile, only to find his young Queen Ehlana trapped in a block of ensorcelled crystal. Only the great sorcery of Sephrenia, ageless instructor of magic, kept her alive–but the spell would last only a year, and its cost was tragically high.
Now a Prince Regent ruled Elenia, the puppet of Annias, ambitious Primate of the Church who planned to seize power over all the land.
As Sparhawk and Sephrenia set out to find a cure for Ehlana, Sephrenia revealed that there was only one person in the west who could defeat the plots against Ehlana. That person was Sparhawk.
My Thoughts
After years of exile, Sparhawk returns to Elenia to find his young Queen dying and encased in crystal which is the only thing sustaining her life. Annias conspires to take her throne by becoming the Archprelate and naming her illegitimate nephew as Prince Regent. Sparhawk uncovers Annias’ plots and sets out with a group of unlikely companions and allies to find a cure to save Queen Ehlana and thwart Annias’ plan to take over.
I really enjoyed this book and the interesting cast of characters made it all the more engaging. Especially Sparhawk and his fellow knights, Pandion or otherwise. Sparhawk is uncommonly clever and quite brilliant. He’s quick on his feet and also very strong mentally. He also possesses brute strength and ruthlessness yet displays such kindness and sensitivity.
His adventure takes him all across the land and he seems to pick up new people along the way. My only complaint about this book is that things seemed to come a little too easy. As far as conflict, solutions were readily available and seemed to be executed with no issues. Though this is true, I still really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to get into the next in the series.
Filed in: Fantasy, Reviews Tags: Fantasy, Review
Written by Jade
Jade is a book blogger from NC. In her spare time she loves to read and build and maintain websites. She has been reading since she was four and building websites since she was 16. SortofBeautiful.com was born on March 8, 2011 and is a fantastic merging of her two favorite hobbies. Enjoy your stay!
I’d definitely read this book. This is my first time coming across it and I’m adding it to my library checkout list. Hopefully, I can get there soon and see if I can’t track it down.
I think that you will be more enchanted with the camaraderie of the characters than anything else. I loved the story and went ahead and read the next two in the series. If you do get round to reading them I hope you enjoy.