Customer Reviews

Children Of Rhatlan: Twiceborn: Book One

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Fesmire's Children of Rhatlan is a refreshing, entertaining fantasy tale. In a day when the standards of fantasy have either been squeezed for all they're worth (Xanth, Shannara) or are way too large to be accessible to new readers (Xanth, Shannara, Wheel of Time) Fesmire brings a relatively unexplored concept (duals) and inserts them into a character-driven, quick-paced book that I couldn't put down.

Children of Rhatlan is the first book from Jonathan Fesmire that I read. As a result, I've become a fan of his work. It was a complete accident that I even found it. As it turned out, it was a wonderful accident.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Once I started, I couldn't stop. While it may have themes that are familiar to some, it is told in way that is very original, highly entertainig, and utterly addictive. The idea of "duals", twins that share one body, captivated me immediately.

This book had it all, magic, mystery, adventure, danger, and everything else a fantasy should have. I'd highly recommend this to anyone that is looking to discover something new.

A review by Lisa DuMond

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New concepts are a rare thing in fantasy literature. Settings are created. Characters are wrought from legend or from thin air. New mythologies are conjured up. Genuine inventions, though, are a unique treat. Fesmire's duals is definitely one of those inventions. And all of the previous short stories, and now this full-length novel are certainly a treat.

Vayin and Garum are the closest of twins. Born duals, they are a brother and sister who exist inside one body, allowing only one of them to surface at any given time. Vayin's female form can only exist when Garum "switches" and his male body vanishes. They remain in constant contact in the internal space their thoughts share. It's not the ideal situation, but it would be bearable if only so-called normal people didn't fear and hate the mysterious duals.

Does that explain the phenomenon? Probably not. But, you don't really want me to tell you about it when Fesmire is there to do it so much more eloquently. Instead, read Children Of Rhatlan and you will understand. And you too will find the duals fascinating and intriguing.

The twins want nothing more than a bit of adventure to spice up their overly protective lives on the family farm. They are aching to see the world outside the strict discipline they've grown up with. In the closest town, they find excitement and more trouble than they ever imagined. Finding and keeping love, safety, and peace are difficult to find and keep in a time when most of the citizenry is scrambling just to survive. Sadly, for duals it appears to be impossible.

Garum and Vayin have a long and dangerous journey ahead of them to find any of these comforts. Dealing with their dualism is crucial to every step of that journey. The way in which Fesmire deals with the intimate aspects of their situation is a struggle of its own to watch. (Anyone who is aware of the existence of conjoined twins has wondered about such delicate matters as twins' sexual activity. If someone tries to convince you they haven't, they are probably just too embarrassed to admit to it.) Fesmire manages his own solution with practicality and just a bit of bawdiness.

Magic, treachery, valour, prejudice -- Fesmire builds a world sword-and-sorcery fans will welcome and adventure fans will want to explore fully. Something tells me Children Of Rhatlan may be just the first of a long and popular series. With an imagination as fertile as Fesmire's, a return appearance of the twins sounds like a smashing idea.

So you take the nice myth of the Disocuri (that is, if you even heard of Castor and Pollux and didn't recreate the out of ignorant accident), in which, after one brother is killed, the other gives up half of his life, and the brothers alternate, spending one day on earth while the other is in the underworld, and then switching with the next sunrise.

You chance this to some kind of laughable pseudo-scientific premise about two objects not being able to occupy the same space at the same time, throw in post-modern gender politics, and then decide to erase the miraculous quality of the myth by extending it to some tired ps.-Tolkien universe where there are thousands or more of these pairs of twins.

Then you graft this onto the premise from Voyage to Arcturus of male and female twins occupying the same body, another triumph of recycling.

Finally, you add the elements that the twins are public despised and persecuted for their being `special' and `different.' That's an idea you could never have borrowed from any number of comic books published in the last twenty years! And then, there's a romance angle, and not one that will be easily resolved! Nothing clichéd about that!

After the amazing failure to interest a literary agent or publisher in this masterpiece, you take the bold step of publishing it yourself, and then, when your Amazon ranking sky-rockets past 4,000,000th place, you take the even bolder step of giving it away for free. When there are no takers for that offer, will you send each reader a coupon for a free beer?