Four young lives bound together in friendship, love, rivalry and tragedy. A realm ravaged by civil war, a ruler scarred by betrayal, a legacy that haunts them all.Caught between two cultures, a pawn in a deadly power struggle, Dinnis longs for the day his father will rescue him and his sister from the sorcerer Akrad’s clutches. But things don’t turn out how Dinnis imagines and his father betrays … father betrays him.
Does Dinnis have a future among the Tamrin? Will he seek revenge for wrongs like his sister or forge a different destiny?
This is the first book in the Akrad’s Legacy series.
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An enjoyable read, and a good introduction to fantasy for young adult readers.
It follows several children from their early years into adulthood. Set in a detailed and richly imagined fantasy world, one is drawn into their issues as they face hardship, tragedy, violence and loss. One main theme for all the characters is the feeling that they are pawns in a larger game, and it is interesting to see how they develop their personalities within this framework. The characters are diverse, and their conflicts and interactions realistic.
The setting is within the world the author has created in several other books, yet can be read as a standalone. A fantasy world with magic, shape shifting and complicated political alliances that affect the action and plot.
One reading issue was that the beginning leapt straight into the complex world and some quite intense emotional battle scenes. This part felt like I had missed a great deal of background, and could have done with some more explanation or a lead up into it all. However, once you are past that, the story is compelling reading as you follow the characters growing up, making life changing decisions and find out more about the world.
Akrad’s Children is a clean coming-of-age fantasy story. Two of the POV characters, Ista and Dinnis, are great-grandchildren of the villainous Akrad. Ista, the younger, is pampered and favored by the power-hungry Akrad, but Dinnis gets the brunt of the patriarch’s temper, and seeks only to escape and rejoin his father, who has promised to return for them one day.
But when Dinnis’s father does come back, nothing is as it should be. His father now commands a mighty army, as their ruler. His little sister Ista, whom Dinnis has done his best to look after, remains loyal to their slain, wicked grandfather. His father pretends that Dinnis is just another war orphan, and Dinnis must now address him as Your Majesty. Dinnis cannot ever tell anyone that they are even related. Worse, he must now wait on the “real” son of the king, Mannok.
Dinnis must find his way through the convoluted power games on his own, and somehow, find a safe haven for both himself and his sister. But right now he cannot even shake the suspicions of his father’s right hand man, who thinks it would be expedient to simply kill Dinnis and have any future danger done and over with. Somehow, he must find a way to make sense of the confusion and find his own path out of the chaos his life has become.
Akrad’s Children contains an impressive amount of world building, which enriches the story overall, but makes for a slow start. It took me the first ten percent of the book to really warm up to the story.
The descriptions of setting are skillful and detailed, as is the author’s use of metaphor. I particularly liked: “A soft, warm feeling stirred inside him, like a small animal emerging after a storm.”
The characters felt three-dimensional and plausible, particularly the trio of Akrad, Dinnis, and Ista. Those three formed a realistic shapshot of a narcissistic family, with abuser, scapegoat, and golden child, respectively. I felt that Ista seemed too adult for a seven-year-old, but other than that her character rang true.
If you enjoy a clean secondary-world fantasy with complex characters, Akrad’s Children might well be a satisfying read.
This is a dense fantasy tale. The descriptions are rich and detailed, and the characters clearly presented. You won’t have a moment where the next page doesn’t beckon you to find out more.