He puts a curse on Tigana so only the ones that have been already born in the place and survived the aftermath, can remember or hear its name, while the rest of the world will never hear it again. He leaves his wife and other children behind and heads to the river at once, overwhelming Prince Valentine and slaughtering all of his host, destroying its cities and killing most of its people. The young man is defeated and the father is mad with grief. After spliting most of the provinces, King Brandin sends his favorite son to lead a force against the Prince of Tigana and they meet for the first time at the River Deisa. On the one side is the Empire of Barbadior, and the brute of a warrior-sorcerer Alberico, on the other is the Kingdom of Ygrath with the sorcerer-king Brandin.

The nine provinces were always competing, to the point of enmity, often warring among themselves, and this is what made them an easy mark for the conquering sorcerers on two different sides of the Peninsula.

Its people were known for their passion and fervor, but most of all for their stubborn pride. More than twenty years ago, the city-state of Tigana, one of the nine such in the Peninsula of the Palm, was a place of beauty, prosperity and pride, exalting in its culture and arts and lead by Prince Valentine, a handsome and beloved ruler. Through the square that cry rang, along the streets, up to the windows where people watched, over the roofs of houses running westward to the sea or eastward to the temples, and far beyond all of these- a sound, a name, a hurled sorrow in the brightness of the air.”.' In this case, the pace of the story seems to be overly slow and the prevailing theme itself often hard to relate to, especially if you come from a culture which has been dominant in its history. Thus I often find myself in love with books for reasons others find detrimental to the story.

Although I know myself to be a person who loves all styles of writing and all sorts of genres, I have to say that the easiest way to my heart is through old-fashioned feel in the prose, be it bouncy and playful, or dreamy and lulling. It is a throwback to a time long past, it carries a lyrical magic which simmers in every sentence, and without being in itself overly flowery, it conveyed a sense of Gothic melodrama, which made me feel as if a bard of old was telling the story of an even older legend he learned on the road. How do I even start on writing a review for this book? I think, just as most everyone else has done, I have to begin with the style of writing. A Buddy Read with the Fantasy Buddy Reads Group, because we wanted a stand-alone for a change.

Nettle and bones