Product Description
First Summer’s Eve has come and all elves celebrate as the black moon’s shadow fades from the world. It is also Luthiel’s fifteenth birthday. With it come two extraordinary and dangerous surprises: a Wyrd Stone, its silvery heart a window into a world of dreams and nightmares, and a Blade Dancer, dreaded protector of the Faelands, who bears a dark message. Instead of celebration, Luthiel is given a terrible choice: if she does nothing, someone she loves deeply will die. Or to save a life, she can break the most perilous law of the Faelands, and venture alone to the Vale of Mists. If she chooses the journey, she must race Othalas — eldest and most feared of all the werewolves — past great back spiders who weave webs out of nightmares, through glittering mists with the power to reshape flesh, and at last into death by the teeth of dark and ancient Vyrl, who feed on the blood of elves. Either choice will bring death — unless Luthiel can find the secret in her remarkable Stone, a secret that even the nightmares fear.
Lee @ 3:02 pm
A little over a year ago, I set out to find a solid, female-led novel. I’d gotten my fill of fist-pumping testosterone action, and I was looking for a little bit of girl power to serve as a change of pace. I excitedly ventured into Barnes and Noble, to find the book that would satisfy this desire.
I won’t name the first book I bought. In fact, I won’t even name the second book that I bought several weeks later. I won’t name them, because I didn’t finish either of them. I couldn’t finish either of them. They went on my shelf, never to be read (or cared about) again.
They were terrible. So much for girl power.
Or so I thought…
I recently stumbled upon Luthiel’s Song: Dreams of Ringed Vale. In short, it is the story of a young elf named Luthiel, a girl who is given the opportunity to essentially sacrifice herself to save the life of her sister. How? By replacing her sister as a sacrifice, to be handed over to the bloodthirsty monsters known as the Vyrl. You see, the Vyrl demand these sacrifices. If these demands are not met…let’s just say bad things tend to happen to the general populace.
I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to pick up a novel, start reading it, and by the fifth page have decided that only the slow and painful death of the main character will make the book worthwhile. Some authors simply don’t get it. No one wants to empathize with a character that begs to be hated. Do we love cruel characters? Of course. They add so much to the story. But you see, that’s the whole point. They add to the story. They aren’t the story. Being in the thoughts of a main character that you utterly despise is one of the most irritating aspects of literature. That’s not a problem in Dreams of the Ringed Vale (hereby shortened to DotRV).
Luthiel, as a protagonist, is immediately likeable. She’s good-natured, she’s loyal, and she’s flawed. Without flaws, a character isn’t real. Luthiel has just enough to make her the perfect underdog girl to root for. You want to read on, because you want to see her succeed. You want to see her victorious. You want to see things work out for her in the end.
That’s one of the great things about this story. It’s a good story. It’s genuine, and it’s the kind of thing you can get behind. It’s the story of a girl who–whether she realizes it or not–is trying to be her sister’s hero. That’s unconditional love, and that’s a very refreshing thing to read about. In a literary world full of gimmicks, grandeur, and garbage, DotRV stands out in the crowd as decidedly straightforward and pure. Not many authors have the self-confidence (or morality) to write something like that. Fannéy pulls it off like a pro.
I won’t talk much about secondary characters, as to not inadvertently give anything away, but I will say this: they’re diverse and they’re excellent. Make no mistake…you’re going to get attached to someone other than Luthiel. It’s going to happen.
There is one thing I’ll caution you about, though. If you’re looking for a book that’s going to wrap itself up by the last page, by design DotRV isn’t for you. This is the first book in a series, and it’s obvious that in order for this story to be told, it’s going to take more than one book. Since I’m a fan of series literature, I find this perfect. If you’re a fan of the whole “all TV dramas must fix themselves in 30 minutes” thing, this book won’t satisfy you. It’ll leave you thirty for more, which is the point.
The story is heartfelt, the progression isn’t cookie-cutter predictable, and the characters are memorable. The bottom line?
This is a very good book.
For parental references, this book is perfectly safe for a child to read. There’s not a lick of profanity or sexuality. You may purchase it without a weight on your conscience.
giniajim @ 3:33 pm
This story centers on a young girl, Luthiel, and her adventures in a mystical land. Luthiel is an orphan with an uncertain past who was adopted by a loving family. The family has a younger daughter and the two are lovingly devoted to each other; the book opens with a scene of them playing in the friendly woods around their village. Their life, briefly described, is very ordinary in a small and intimate village in the middle of a big and mostly unknown world. The village is beset by evil that appears during their woodland play; Luthiel is drawn into it. Luthiel starts on a frightning and lonely journey to try to save her sister and her village. Her adventures reach a temporary conclusion as this first volume ends. A very satisfying read. Even in my busy life, I had to read a chapter a day, and I didn’t want to read faster so as to make it last longer. Highly recommended and waiting anxiously for the second volume.
J. Graham @ 5:22 pm
One of the absolutely best written fantasy books of all time. What I liked about it, everything. What I disliked about it, nothing. Ok there was one thing, none of my local book stores carried it, but fortunetly Amazon had it and for a very good price. If you have kids get this book for them but make sure you read it first or get 2 copies so you can enjoy reading it, because once you give it to your kids you won’t be able to get it out of their hands.
G. Terleski @ 7:50 pm
Being a Terry Brooks fan among others, and having reviewed within the romance and mystery genres for quite a few years away from the fantasy/science fiction genre, it was a refreshing and unexpected delight to read such a well done tale of fantasy! Luthiel’s Song: Dreams of the Ringed Vale is light and dark, with a heart-felt touch of character dilema sandwiched inbetween. It’s Luthiel’s fifteenth birthday upon which her sister Leowin presents her with a wonderful gift; a Wyrd Stone. But the treasure is not the only thing that comes to Luthiel upon the day of her birthday. A Blade Dancer comes bearing a dark and very disturbing message. A message meant for one Luthiel holds dear in her heart. So disturbing and dark is the message the Blade Dancer bears, Luthiel is faced with a horrifying choice. Should she do nothing and wait for death to steal away a cherished loved one, or does she go against the most sacred of laws and make a journey alone into one of the darkest places known to her kind? Death lays in wait which ever way she chooses. But whose death will she choose? Only her Wyrd Stone, a window into the world of dreams can help her avoid the inevitable choice. But will she find the secret the stone holds before it is too late? Find out as I did, and read this wonderful first book from author Robert Fanney. My appetite for fantasy is now hungry for more! Very well done!
Michael Crawford @ 8:16 pm
A thoroughly enjoyable book. Mr. Fanney’s characters, creatures, and storyline made the book hard to put down. And unfortunately, when I did put it down (three days after I started it), I quickly went to Robert Fanney’s myspace, I thanked him for Luthiel’s Song, and asked when the next addition to Luthiel’s story was coming out.
There are few authors who’s books I’ve read more than once (Tolkien, Kurtz, King, and Eddings), Robert Fanney is the newest author on that list.