Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. WilsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
The tairen were dying.
Lord of the Fading Lands was a high fantasy romance story that introduces readers to a world full of humans, Fey, and Mages. Centered around Ellie, the daughter of common folk, her world suddenly gets turned upside down when the King of the Fey declares that she is his truemate. Rain is the last of the tairen fey, a fey who has the power inside of them to shift into a tairen, a cat, dragon like creature. Rain hasn't been in the mortal world for over a thousand years, leaving after the bloody war with the mages where his heartmate was killed and he scorched the earth. When he suddenly feels someone calling out to him, he discovers the connection with Ellie and what she is to him. With the fey dying out, there have been no fey births for the last couple centuries, he thinks Ellie has not only the power to save him but the fey. Ellie has suffered from seizures and nightmares her whole life but even though she knew she was adopted by her parents, she has always thought she was human, but Rain senses magic and power in her.
She had dreamed of Rain Tairen Soul all her life, and here he was. She felt herself moving towards him, her hand reaching out. He had asked, and she had to touch him. If only to be sure he was real.
This first book in the series is an introduction to the world and characters, this ends on a cliffhanger. At 400 pages, you're going to have to want to sink into this world and accept this is the start of threads with just the beginning of weaving happening. There were a couple times I thought the pace dragged but for the most part, I was captured by this world. The fey warriors that guard Ellie, were given enough life to make them distinctive in my mind, Ellie's bestfriend stayed mostly to the shadows but was given an aspect that will have her playing a bigger role in the series, the King and Queen of the mortal land played excellent secondary characters adding a lot to the story and making me interested in them without taking time away from the main characters, Ellie's family of mother, father, and younger sisters helped fill out some aspects of Ellie's character, the two mage villains that pop in and out to bring on the looming danger, and other smaller roles provided great meaty secondary characters.
She felt his lips press against her hair, felt his need for her down to her soul, and for this moment in time she did not feel alone.
Most of this was dedicated to placing the reader in the world, introducing the fantasy setting, familiarizing the reader with the political atmosphere, and starting the romance between Ellie and Rain. Since they are truemates, there is some of that instalove between them but you still get Ellie having to learn to trust Rain and Rain trying to let Ellie get to know him, while trying to keep his tairen tamed so as not to frighten her. They have some quiet talking moments and some physical moments but the quick open door scene doesn't come from these two, they're in the slightly push and pull beginning part of a relationship. I felt like I didn't get to fully know Rain, as this was more about Ellie discovering things about herself, but I think future books will probably bring him into focus more as he'll have a stronger roll to play, he's more waiting around for Ellie to accept things in this one.
The Mages had regained their power, and the world was in danger once more.
While Rain is courting Ellie, he senses the Eld, who he battled a thousand years ago, growing stronger again, even though the King and Queen don't realize it. Readers get povs from the High Mage, leader of the Eld and one of his minions, so the looming feeling is definitely felt. When Rain feels the magic in Ellie, he sends two fey to investigate the origins of her birth and while readers get to see what they find out, Rain, Ellie, or no one else on their side learn what is discovered and will be going into the second book not knowing that looming thread. This had fey, magic, evil looming, and romance, an introduction to a high fantasy world that you'll want to sink into as the characters you're starting to care about look to be on the brink of a war.
I remember when these books were sweeping romance blogs, and how the author was often credited with "inventing" the "new" subgenre of fantasy romance (which, gratingly to me, is now in 2024, being called "romantasy"--gog help me), ignoring the work of writers like Maggie Shayne and others who had been writing these kind of stories, albeit in shorter form, since the early 1990s. /rant
ReplyDeleteSorry about that.
At any rate, while, once upon a time, I had an intense, years-long affair with shapeshifters, vampires, and other magical/immortal/mythological beings in romance, I've never been partial to the Fae, and this resistance continues to this day, so not only have I never read them--despite owning this book in print, courtesy of a friend who used to own a used book store, and tried her level best to get me to read it--I'm really unlikely to do so any time soon.
Funsies: I was thinking that 400 pages is too much investment for a story that doesn't have closure, then I realized that the most recent Nora Roberts release, Inheritance, is longer, and not only had I no problem reading it, it didn't feel long at all. So now I'm pondering where my resistance to these stories stems from.
I really can't with the romantasy too, it feels too infantile. I was such a big Medieval, Regency, rom-suspense, and dabbled in vampire pnr, but fantasy romance I kind of just stayed away from. Which is probably why I'm hitting it harder now and enjoying it more than my hit hard subgenres. I don't think I've ever read a Shayne before, do you have rec to start with.
ReplyDeleteI know Singh and Kenyon had some popular pnr/fantasy/scifi around 1990s. I always think it's funny when a popular book gets credited with inventing a subgenre, there usually a few that got ignored before but were steadily building interest, kind of the popular overnight thinking, a lot work behind scenes.
I always seemed to have a problem with shifters, kind of so far out there I had/have trouble envisioning everything. Like the tairen in this, a cat, dragon thingy?? I'm kind of curious why not fae for you, the "perfectness" of beauty for you?
I wouldn't say these 400 pgs breeze by but once I changed my mindset and around 60% went and looked how the series goes, I was able to sink into the world more. I don't know if you've read the Lord of the Rings or watched the movies but that's the kind of mindset you need here, marathon not sprint and wanting/willingness to really put yourself in the world instead of skimming by only relationships of characters.
I think that my lack of interest in the Fae has more to do with the fact that I didn't grow up on Lord of the Rings or other British/Irish/Celtic mythology; I grew up in Mexico, and while I had access to Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, Emilio Salgary, Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin, Agatha Chistie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Nero Wolfe, and other non-Spanish genre authors, most of the myths I was familiar with from early childhood have a lot more to do with both ghosts and magic, and shapeshifting/vampires, than elves and fae. By the time I became aware of fantasy in the British/Western tradition, in my mid-to-late teens, I was much more into mysteries and police procedurals, then romance and some science fiction, than anything else, and I just never developed an appetite for that type of fantasy.
DeleteOn the paranormal romance publishing history: warning, lecture incoming, skip at will!
Actually, Kenyon started writing paranormals in the early 2000s (before that, she had a more scifi series, Nemesis Rising and subsequent series in the same world, starting in the mid-1990s), and Singh didn't start with the Psy/Changelings until 2006; there were plenty of romance authors dabbling in paranormal/fantasy/science fiction combos much earlier than them.
[Virginia Kantra, Alyssa Day, Meljean Brook, Kresley Cole, Gena Showalter, Lilith Saintcrow, Lynsay Sands, and a bunch more, many well known today, started their careers with different flavors of paranormal/fantasy/scifi series/trilogies in the mid-2000s or later.]
Emma Holly was writing an erotic paranormal/scifi Highland-set series in the early 2000s; her Tales of the Demon World, starting in the mid-2000s, has very good worldbuilding, set between an alternative world British Empire, the Middle East, and a "somewhere in Asia" (these involve both menages and multiple partners)
)
Off the top of my head for much earlier paranormal/scifi books and series:
DeleteElizabeth Lowell had been writing fantasy/scifi romance since the early 1980s as Ann Maxwell (The Concord tetralogy), and had a Medieval trilogy in the early 1990s that included Druid magic (set right after the Norman Conquest).
Jayne Ann Krentz wrote a fairly complex fantasy/scifi world in her Lost Colony trilogy in the mid-1980s, and in the mid-1990s wrote a more scifi trilogy, the Curtain/St Helen (which is a direct precursor, in inspiration, to her long-running Harmony series) as Jayne Castle.
Jude Deveraux had a one-off time travel romance in the late 1980s that set many romance readers against each other because of the ending (A Knight in Shining Armor, part of her long-running Montgomery series)
Johanna Lindsay wrote the bananapants space opera Ly-san-ter trilogy starting in 1990.
Justine Davis wrote a space opera series (Coalition) starting in the early/mid-1990s.
Linda Howard had a smattering of stories with paranormal/fantasy elements in the mid-1990s (Son of the Morning, Dream Man and "Lake of Dreams).
Mickee Madden had a short series (five? six? books) around Scottish ghosts, starting with Everlastin' (and yes, the apostrophe matters--phonetic accents) in the mid-1990s.
Laurell K Hamilton started the Anita Blake series in the early/mid-1990s (it got off the rails, in a very bad way, after a half dozen books) and started her Merry Gentry (fae-centric, so I haven't read any) in the, I wanna say, early 2000s?
Lyn Kurland had a couple of successive series with time travel (ergo, some kind of magic), starting in the early 1990s.
Patricia Briggs had a short series in the mid- to late 1990s that had fae/shapeshifting elements, set in a fantasy world (well before the Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series)
Susan Krinard started a long-ish werewolves series in the late 1990s.
Christine Feehan started her Carpathians (and from there all her other paranormals) in the late 1990s.
Anne Bishop started her Black Jewels series in the late 1990s.
(I know I'm missing at least a couple, probably more authors, but my memory isn't what it once was).
Now, for Maggie Shayne. She started her Wings in the Night series in the early 1990s; they were mostly vampire-centric, and the first oh, four or five? were very good, with world-building that actually considered the mechanics of living for centuries (changing identities, escape routes for when someone inevitably finds out sunlight will kill you, and so on). They went off the rails for me soon after that, and I don't know that I would recommend them today--I cannot find my copies, dammit! so I can't do a re-read and review for CN/CW.
::ahem::
(I'm done now
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DeleteSorry, my replies are all out of order because blogger wouldn't let me publish them as one comment (apparently you can't post novella-length replies, who knew?), and the second one up here (which should actually be the first) lost all the formatting (bolding and such)
DeleteThat makes sense, I'm Irish, so I didn't have a choice 😂 I grew up in American midwest, so everything seemed fascinating to me. Probably why I'll still give most anything a go.
DeleteThe League, Nemesis is what I was thinking of. I haven't read it for a while, know I liked the few I read. Singh I didn't even try until a few years ago. My mind pretty much groups 1990-2010 as the same-ish year. Kind of like how'90s is only a few short years ago to me lol
Lowell and Lindsay I know I read when I was teen in 90s. Time travel used to be so popular! I wish GRs was around then because I know I've forgotten books I read then.
I think I'm still team not HEA regarding Knight in Shining Armor 😈
I read a lot of Moning's Highlander series during that time too, which was Fae and time travel!
Since I still will try bodice rippers, I'm ok with just picking up older books and giving them a go, I'm going to add the first Wings in the Night to the tbr, I've always had a soft spot for vampires.
Reading your responses was fun, it was a trip down memory lane and some authors for me to add on the Tbr because I missed them first time around!
Thank you for cleaning up--blogger hated on me today.
DeleteThe sweating making sure I was only deleting a repeated comment!
DeleteWordPress always tries to get me, so definitely been there there.
Sorry!
DeleteMust learn not to write treatises in comments.
No worries, lol
DeleteYou've liked it!
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel as positive as you while reading and the possibility of war in future installments certainly did not interest me. I just didn't feel really a part of the world as I was reading...
Will you read the rest of the series?
I did! The fantasy world building really interested me but it did have first in a series syndrome where a lot felt like an introduction, I can see how'd you have problems not really feeling a part of world.
DeleteI think I am going to give the second book a try. I did see the series seems to be centered on just this one couple though, which worries me that I could get bored with it.
If you ever think to give the second a try, let me know and we can do a buddy read if you want!