Venom and Song, Day 2

As much as I hate spiders, I also despise politics. In the middle portion of “Venom and Song” we are introduced to the power of corruption and ego. And, we also learn that a people who may seem so righteous may also have their darker side buried in rewritten history!

Story:

The story continues with the safe arrival of the lords of Allyra to the Nightwish Caverns. The celebration is immediate and the lords are suitably confused and disoriented by all the attention. Quickly, the story deviates into politics as the council of elders tries to use the lords for different strategies of attack on their enemy, the Spider King. The grand warrior, Grimwarden triumphs and whisks the lords away to a hidden ancient fortress for their training.

What follows is the inevitable lessons of cooperation, self discipline, and a calling to a higher cause. What is surprising in this section is the discovery of a secret that is at once heinous and discouraging about the lords’ Elfen heritage. The story builds to the arrival of one of the political factions intent on physically forcing the lords to return to fight the Spider King whether they are ready or not. And, of course, the Spider King has his own surprise in store. The lords end up fleeing for their lives and are now on their own to find a way to defeat the Spider King. They must do this by locating the Keystone and the Rainsong, whatever that may be. Fittingly, they must do this alone without the aid of their mentor, Grimwarden.

Strengths:

In the middle portion of the story, the reader begins to get a clearer idea of the individual personalities of each of the lords. Alliances and differences begin to emerge and there is a growing reliance on Ellos, the Elfen name for God. The lords learn more about their individual powers and learn how to work together and one of them begins to emerge as the leader. Also, the seemingly idyllic world of the Elves is revealed to be far from perfect. As more of their history is uncovered, the truth of the origin of the war with the Spider King comes to light and it is very troubling for the young lords. Also, the emergence of politically complexity gives more of a realistic and very relevant angel to the story. The exploration of the fortress is very imaginative particularly when they discover the room of ancient manuscripts and a certain crimson raptor!

Weakness:

Once again, it is somewhat difficult to keep the individual lords separate in the reader’s mind. A few of the seven lords are developed to a deeper and more complex level while others seem to remain rather superficial and predictable. The sessions of training are introduced with great detail and then glossed over. I would have liked to spend more time on the Vexbane training but the reader quickly finds themselves whisked off to the more deeper levels of training. But, these are trifling complaints compared to what happens in the last third of the book.

Recommendation:

After reaching the final third of the book, I can still highly recommend Venom and Song. It may prove a bit frightening and complex for children under the age of ten, but juveniles ten to thirteen, it is a fantastic read!

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.