The Antrim Cycle: New Release and Book Review: On the Edge of Death by Ciara Ballintyne

Thursday, June 22, 2017

New Release and Book Review: On the Edge of Death by Ciara Ballintyne

EPIC FANTASY

Date Published: 22 April 2017

Publisher: Evolved publishing

All the Left Hand of Death wants is something to call her own, but is the price too high?

Ellaeva, the fated avatar of the death goddess, is desperate to track down her missing family but the trail is decades old. Instead, she discovers her battered and bloodied sister priestesses driven across the Jerreki border on pain of death. Ellaeva must turn aside from her personal quest to investigate the murders, only to find her parents have been taken into the heart of the conflict.

Lyram Aharris, favoured son of the royal line of Ahlleyn, is the only living person she trusts to help her infiltrate the enemy stronghold and uproot the horror they find there, but their chequered past threatens the mission. Accompanying him is his crown prince, the one man Lyram wants dead above all others.

Now Ellaeva must face down the darkness in her soul before a dark god is brought into the world.

At the boundary of life and death, all oaths will be tested.

Review:

Ellaeva, the battle priestess, is on a quest to enter Jerreki, a land where the rulers have been killing and driving out her fellow priestesses. Turned back at the border, she asks the king of Ahlleyn to send her in secret as part of an embassy that includes Lyram Aharris, a man from her past as well as the hated Prince Drault and the Duchess Narrawen. What they find in Jerreki is unspeakable evil, and Ellaeva and Lyram must put duty and justice above love in order to prevail.
This is the second book in The Sundered Oath series. I didn't read the first book, though I intend to remedy that omission, I felt I picked up the story and the characters very easily. The author weaves the backstory into the narrative seamlessly, no data dump here. In fact, the writing is quite brilliant; the descriptions give an excellent description of the world and people while not being overly verbose. There's a lot of battle scenes and fighting which I sometimes get bored with, but they drew me in, and I could almost see each parry and thrust. Drault is a wonderful villain, not over the top, but still capable of great evil. Narrawen's character is more subtle, but I disliked her just as much as Drault by the end of the book. And neither of them is the true enemy.

Ellaeva and Lyram are heroes in the true sense of the word. Both have lost much and want so much more, but let the needs of others and their own senses of duty override their love. I can't wait for the next book in this series and I will definitely find some more of Ms. Ballintyne's books. A truly great fantasy series.

Ciara Ballintyne grew up on a steady diet of adult epic fantasy from the age of nine, leaving her with a rather confused outlook on life – she believes the good guys should always win, but knows they often don’t. She is an oxymoron; an idealistic cynic. Her debut work is Confronting the Demon, and In the Company of the Deadis her first book to be published with Evolved Publishing. She holds degrees in law and accounting, and is a practising financial services lawyer. In her spare time, she speculates about taking over the world.
Twitter: @CiaraBallintyne
Facebook: http://facebook.com/CiaraBallintyne
Website: http://ciaraballintyne.com