Desmond Lorien is a widower farmer who is infused with the Latency of War, a legendary ability rendering him an unbeatable general. All he wishes, though, is to stay on his secluded farm and avoid the war that is tearing apart his once peaceful existence. Sand is a bitter young bowyer's daughter bent on revenge for her father's senseless murder in that same war. Though unable to affect justice herself or persuade Lorien to help her, she is willing to risk everything. Ayasha is the enslaved concubine of a powerful dictator. While her own past is hidden to her via the drugs that keep her in submission, eventually she will awake, and the world will know her for who she is - the Latent of Empathy, Elise Journey. Lastly, Michelas is an idealistic, reckless mage, who despite being half-blind and stripped of his powers, relentlessly seeks the answer to prophetic visions he's received. In his struggle to unite the four, they all discover to their horror the heavy responsibilities inherit in being legends, the prices that must be paid for wielding power, and the true nature of their world.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughts on Elise Journey,
By Mom DePlume (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elise Journey (Paperback)
This book reads a bit like a cross between George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones" and Cook's Black Company books. If you're thinking it's not exactly light, fluffy stuff, you're on the right track. This is not an average fantasy novel - neither hobbits nor elves are anywhere in evidence, for one thing.The prevailing theme is one of tension; it's evident in the interactions between the main characters, Michelas' relationship with his teacher, Desmond and his wife's memory, Sand and her desired for vengeance, and Elise's attempt to extricate herself from bondage. In less skilled hands, this might have been wearing, but it fits well here. As may be guessed from the above, it's heavily character-based. There are kingdoms rising and falling, sure, but the question of whether one of the main characters will go to war becomes more important than the actual results of the war he goes to. There are a few blemishes, of course, as any novel has. The title is not as snappy as one might like, and the cover blurb is unfortunately similar to a thousand others in the genre. A few word choices might strike one as odd. Nothing serious. In any event, I'm not going to blather on, because I'm verging dangerously on spoilers as it is. The book is good. Buy it. Read it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dreamlike Mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi,
By Kevin Wohlmut (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elise Journey (Paperback)
Duncan's first novel left me hungering for a sequel. It had a great dreamlike quality -- which I really enjoy in a book -- where everything feels so natural and sensible while you're immersed in it, but when you put the book down and shake your head a little you're bemused to realize how chimerical it all is. The story starts out as a traditional swords-and-sorcery fable, but slowly Duncan sneaks in a few science-fiction themes seamlessly into the fantasy. Overall, I'm in awe of the way the author describes things that I can only hope he hasn't personally experienced, such as soldiers getting maimed in combat... The work is original, (the cover says it was written seven or eight years ago), but the story hearkens back to the reluctant warrior Cincinnatus, the inspiration for Russel Crowe in the movie "Gladiator". And I mean that as a compliment. If you like a REALISTIC war story -- one where the strategy and the drama is intelligent and fast-paced; yet a story which does not _glorify_ war, a story where the characters experience and lament the terrible carnage of a time when heroism is required -- then this is your book. There's room for improvement. Even though it's such a cliché, when I enter a different world, where the plot revolves heavily on the names of various nations, I like to see a map. Also the physical descriptions of some of the main characters were a bit sparse, which was a slight barrier against emphasizing with a few of them; but they certainly had distinct personalities so they were easy to keep track of. The flaws were not significant compared to the rest of the excellent and immersive experience. Hopefully Mr. Duncan's next book will come out soon. And hopefully it'll receive critical acclaim which will draw people back to this deserving first novel.
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