Customer Reviews

Avim's Oath (Okal Rel Saga Part 6)

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Better and better and even more so, Lynda Williams just keeps on delivering the goods with her Oka Rel saga. I've just finished reading Avim's Oath, the sixth volume in the series, and I loved it. It's a well-balanced blend of politics, action and romance (a love triangle, to be exact). Moreover, Williams is one of the best at making you believe that you are experiencing a unique culture filled with vivid and endearing characters that really draw you in. Avim's Oath is a captivating read

The most enjoyable part of this book was the plausible way in which Amel, once Courtesan and a victim of a great many atrocities, transforms from a weak pawn into a leader. Throughout the Okal Rel series readers have watched him as a battered human being, always rooting for him to rise up, or heal enough to stand up for himself and those he cares about. The way that Lynda Williams treats the ascension is done with profound respect to the forces in Amel's past, and for that reason alone this book is excellent.

One thing I found difficult with this book was the plethora of new characters it introduced, as well as implicating older characters. The political web in the series has always been very complex and tangled, but this book stuck out for me as the most convoluted. However, that being said, Williams uses the complexity to emphasize the real challenge for all the characters involved, and even if as a reader you come away confused, you empathize more strongly with Amel's difficulty in uniting the different sides of the Empire. This book starts to kick the political side of the Okal Rel saga into high gear, if it wasn't already on nitro.

There are some lovely passages, and I tried to flip through and find them all, but could find only one to leave you with:
"Here too, was love: a sharing that gave meaning to joys and solace in failures."