Obsidian: Awakening (Book one of Obsidian Series)
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Obsidian: Awakening (Book one of Obsidian Series)
- Brand: Unbranded
Description
The characters and world are so clear and defined that you feel like you've read a few books in the series already. Raised from birth as the chosen one to end the centuries-long war between her people and an empire, Djari drags him screaming into the blood sport of war and politics, guided by the schemes of her oracle brother who continues to withhold the most important part of his vision. The depth and intensity of the emotional dynamics between the characters and their introspection is breathtaking. His life is overwhelmed with an anguish that compels sympathy, as he has seen so much of the future, far more than any man ought to have to see, robbing him of so much of life.
There are sprinklings of humour in the parched sands of this menacing world and it brings some light relief from the darkness which otherwise rarely lifts from shrouding events in a deep sense of foreboding.The men were also uniformly hardcore, beautiful-looking, and prone to making expansive speeches about the importance of struggle to forging character. Both his parents want to mold him into their image of what he should be, without any consideration for whether he has a reason to be that, for who he is. An award winning epic fantasy inspired by the nomadic cultures of Mongolia and the Middle East, the rich traditions of Asia and Africa, strung together by intense Thai flavors that will stay with you for life. But don’t be fooled, they develop their own voices soon enough and that initial sameness and arrogance washes away.
His visions are numerous and accurate, but he does not always see enough to do anything about them, except suffer. I wanted more culture, more religion, more philosophy… more of an existential, ideological clash between the warring sides, not just a conflict driven by the personal desires of Salar Muradi (and, I assume, his dad). While there is not much magic in this world aside from an oracle character sharing prophecies, this story somehow still felt utterly magical and entrancing because of how beautifully the world is brought to life through the evocative and vivid descriptions. Now, corrupted by hate and brokennness and atrocities as that love is, he’s come face to face with it.
They are tools, pieces on a peninsula-sized chess board, to be used as weapons by whoever proves the most cunning players of the long-game.
This isn't a short novel by any means but the pages do tend to fly by fairly quickly whenever I got the chance to pick it up. No one was shy, naive, retiring, quiet or bookish because, of course, the world was set up so they would have died before the book started. Also, I absolutely adored that even though this story is set in a deeply patriarchal world, we still follow some incredibly strong female characters who are true forces to be reckoned with. Their love/hate relationship with each other gave me LIFE, and I am pretty sure I ended up picking the most evil character in the bunch as my favorite because he was so charming.There are some horrific moments but they are amazingly told, and there are instances of such immense poignancy I was hit so many times in the gut while being stirred in the heart. Mostly, he just tries to stay in the background, not get involved in others’ fights and power struggles, and live.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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