It is a land without colour, a monochrome
world leached of the very thing we all take for granted: Colour.
A warrior woman searches for work in the sprawling city of
Tronaelend-Lis but becomes allied to a dark mysterious man
escorting his cousin and aunt to an arranged marriage.
A City in a kind of turmoil for nearly three
hundred years. Its King suspended in a kind of stasis, displayed
for all to see like a children’s legend yet there he rests.
Two Regents oversee the City and control the day-to-day goings-on,
however this brother-sister regency is a farce.
The City is really ruled by two factions, the
Light Guild that creates great orbs of single colour and the
Assassin's Guild of the Bilhaar, so secretive that it seems
non-existent except for the killings and dark forms of its
patrons.
All is not well in Tronaelend-Lis, it has become
the source of interest to strangers of dark complexion from
outside its range of power and that very power has become
threatened by the lack of real collective authority. In this
suffocating darkness of foreign origin, a miracle is needed
to overcome a tyranny and the lives of all that live in Tronaelend-Lis
will never be the same again.
There is nothing I can say about this book that
is negative. Don't let the front cover put you off, it isn't
a biblical piece hiding behind a fantasy label. I found myself
aching to read the book again after I had finished it. The
style is new and fresh in the fantasy genre, it breaks fundamental
rules with wild abandon and carries it off superbly. You have
a constant feeling that Tronaelend-Lis really does exist in
the mind of Vera Nazarian as she wrote this book, it is imaginative
and spellbinding.
Nazarian has a delightful array of characters
that form the basis for the beginning of the book. Characters
that range from the complex and unreadable to the seemingly
shallow and of dirty mind. We actually meet so many of these
characters that you almost lose track of them but what this
actually does is give the reader an almost instant life amongst
the dwellers in Nazarian's story. It is as if you have dropped
off the page into the folds of the text that she has woven.
The book has an eroticism throughout, it expands
on the lives of some of the characters and helps make them
feel more real to the reader. At times, this type of writing
becomes intoxicating but overall, it is a reflection of the
characters' souls and desires that adds to their integrity.
I loved the character of Ranhe, she is the kind
of heroine that you can accept and identify with. She is human
and she makes mistakes but these only serve to expand her.
As a Freewoman she is a warrior, hiding knives upon her person
and her inner most thoughts from the world. She is bold and
brassy at times when you might imagine she need not be.
Why on earth isn't this book available to a
wider audience? To get this you will have to put in some effort,
whether you are in the UK or across the Atlantic, it is a
print-on-demand title. The fact and blatant lunacy is that
it shouldn't be. This book is classy. It has a unique but
somehow olde world feel to it without stifling the story,
and the story is really quite exquisite.
The story is that of good and evil, the battle
that faces humanity in any and every form imaginable. However,
it goes far deeper than that exploring the idea that our very
personality is the same such battle. The concept of ‘Lords
Of Rainbow’ could have been overdone thus making for a clever
concept without the guts of follow-through.
This isn't the case, Nazarian balances perfectly
a blend of beautiful backgrounds in the form of landscapes
and character development, magic and classical writing making
for an immensely enjoyable read. This book I have to admit
was savoured while I read it, it will be one of my favourites
for the rest of my life I am sure.
Donna Jones
