★ 12/01/2019
DEBUT Csorwe has always known the day she will die. Raised in the House of Silence since she was an infant as a Chosen Bride, the young orc knows that, while her childhood years are spent as the voice for her god, on her 14th birthday she will enter the Shrine of the Unspoken and become his sacrifice. But then wizard Belthandros Sethennai comes to the House and brings Csorwe a choice: follow her fate to her death or craft a new one. Csorwe joins Sethennai on a journey across different worlds, training as a warrior and assassin, to help reclaim his seat of power and assist his search for a potent object that is hunted by a familiar face from their shared past. Csorwe faces lessons on loyalty, truth, and her own feelings, and discovers that she cannot run away from her god, or any others. The characters around Csorwe are delightful and maddening by turns, creating an action-packed and emotionally engaging story. VERDICT Lushly detailed with incredible worldbuilding, Larkwood's debut is a singular take on orcish fantasy, filled with fierce fighting and magic.—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
Narrator Avita Jay manages a large cast of characters in this fantasy, which begins The Serpent Gates series. She employs a handful of accents to help the listener. Csorwe is an Orc priestess who has been raised to be sacrificed on her fourteenth birthday to an old and ruthless god known as the Unspoken One. After being convinced to run away by a wizard, she becomes his assistant and begins a quest that has the potential to make her a woman of great power. Jay captures the growing affection and trust between Csorwe and those she enlists to help her. Most importantly, Jay’s narration captures Csorwe’s manner and personality as she transforms from a meek priestess to a formidable character. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
2019-11-25
Larkwood's debut, the first of a fantasy series, begins in familiar fashion as a warrior-maiden adventure and gradually develops into a love story.
In this imaginative but never fully convincing universe, places may be reached via magical gates leading through a maze of dead and dying worlds. Magic powers derive from a rare, innate ability combined with power vouchsafed by a patron god. Csorwe is of a hominin race that sports tusks—these are functionless and, unfortunately, impossible to visualize without thinking "piggish." In a narrative rendered in crisp, vivid prose, Csorwe serves the oracular shrine of a god—the Unspoken Name—but is destined soon to sacrifice herself. Then Sethennai, a wizard—his race has Spock ears—requesting a prophesy about the mysterious and powerful Reliquary of Pentravesse, offers her a choice: serve him and live, or marry the god and die. Csorwe chooses life and becomes Sethennai's ninja. The wizard, formerly the ruler of the city Tlaanthothe, needs her to help reclaim his position from a scheming rival. Later, during a quest to secure the Reliquary, she will clash with the Qarsazhi, imperial interworld extortionists, and their powerful young wizard Shuthmili, who's fated to be absorbed by their enforcement arm but, like Csorwe, never conceived other possibilities. Until this point, the story meanders, but finally the author finds a unique voice no longer dependent on boilerplate action, chases, escapes, torture, and fights. And when Csorwe and Shuthmili meet and fumble toward a relationship, we recognize heartfelt emotion, real substance, and an emergent theme: loyalties and the choices we make that engender them. These, along with the strong female leads, are solid foundations upon which to build.
A moderately promising entry that should find an audience.
