Customer Reviews

The First Betrayal (The Chronicles of Josan, Book 1)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The First Betrayal by Patricia Bray is the first book in the Josan Chronicles. The second book called The Sea Change is scheduled to be released in July, 2007. I stumbled upon this gem while looking through Amazon recommendations, and I must say I am quite pleased I took the risk of getting this sight unseen.

There are some things that need to be discussed prior to the actual review. Yes, this is a fantasy book. However, it is not a traditional fantasy novel in the terms of what people expect to see in a fantasy book. Meaning, if you are looking for a book that has wizards hurling fireballs, a vast assortment of monsters rampaging the countryside, and large scale battles with gallant knights - this book may not for you. You will find none of that within these pages.

The plot of this book has a couple different layers to it, which are all written very well. The first plot like follows the monk Josan as he is the lighthouse keeper of a distant peninsula to keep ships from crashing against the sandbars. As the story unfolds we find the reason Josan is there, or shall I say the reason Josan believes he is there. A certain sequence of events takes place that turns Josan's world on its head causing him to make some decisions that have larger consequences. The second plot is one of political intrigue and a group of people trying to give rise to a rebellion and coup of the current queen of Karystos. Throughout the book we learn that there was a similar rebellion attempt six year previous and the ramification of that failed rebellion still linger today. Both plot come to an unexpected conclusion.

The main character of this book is the monk Josan. There is also a myriad of other characters that all play important roles within this book. While the plot of this book is solid and well written, it is the characters that steal the show by far. If you enjoy books where character development is not only present, but one of the driving forces then you may enjoy this book. The character development of Josan is second to none. Ms. Bray does a fantastic job of building Josan from the ground up so that the reader not only understands him, but also begins to care about him as well. Another favorite character of mine is Lady Ysobel Flordelis and the role she plays in this novel. She also develops quite a bit as a character - but I won't delve into spoilers so I can't say much more. All of the characters in this book are well written and I felt I had a decent understanding of each and every one of them, which based on the number of pages in this book (342) says a great deal about the quality of Ms. Bray's writing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a fresh take on the fantasy genre. This book proves you don't need fantastic battle, hoards of monsters, and wizard duels to be a good book. The political intrigue was written very well, the characters are some of the best I have ever read. This is an engaging book that will help the hours fly by. I have read a lot of fantasy book over the course of time, and I have no qualms saying that this will most likely be on my list of top five books I read in 2007. It's that good. I can't wait until the next one comes out.

Josian is a monk and a lighthouse keeper on a remote island who has no reason to doubt his past till an assassin tries to kill him and he responds with deadly skills he knows he never learnt. Forced to leave the only home he has Josian finds there is more to his past than he ever suspected.

This is a good opening instalment to this trilogy. Josian is a likeable, if somewhat conflicted and tortured character. This book is a good introduction to Josian and his world but by the end of the novel you have the clear feeling that this is only a starting point and the main act is yet to come.

My only reservation with this series is how it will end given the very poorly written 3rd novel in the Devlin series by this same author, but based on this book I'm willing to give this a series a chance to prove itself better overall than the last one.

After reading the Sword of Change series with Devlin, I eagerly waited for the next adventure from Patricia. I can honestly say that this series(so far at least) is better than her first. Her stories are grand kingdom changing stories without having to consult a glossary of hundreds of names of people, places, gods, etc. She writes a nice flowing story that is easy to read, yet still tells a terrific story. I hope she continues to grow as a writer, and I will continue to support her efforts.

Good concept but really a set up book. Looks like the rest of the series will be really good. Interesting twists and great characters just kind of slow moving until the end. But without the detail in the beginning you would be lost. Looks to be a great series as good as the Devlin series.

I first started reading Mz. Bray's work with her entertaining story of Devlin in a previous series. Patricia showed herself an entertaining storyteller in that series, turning a relatively mainstream fantasy plot into a very easy read, and a likeable character (I recommend it).

Here, in _First Betrayal_, Patricia is proving out herself as a storyteller once again, in providing great entertainment, this time with a decently non-derivative and unpredictable story involving a character with an interesting history who has to make some very hard decisions for himself and his future, when he discover that his past and future both could involve very high human costs indeed.

With this book, Mz. Bray has stepped up a notch as an author in my eyes.

The story sets up nicely, the characters promising and interesting as Bray establishes past events and motives. The pace moves along quickly, the narrative smooth.

And then everything just kind of washes out into blah.

Don't get me wrong, Bray is clearly an intelligent person, she uses big words and has some strengths (plot, pacing), but unfortunately, they aren't enough to carry the story.

Her characters start off interesting enough, but as you continue into the story they don't get very deep, and they do contradictory things, leaving me incredulous with all their actions. By three-quarters of the way through the book I just didn't care. Bray tries to make them sound sophisticated with her semi-formal prose, but they just come off sounding silly--her dialogue is dull and her prose cliché.

There is action enough to move the story forward, and a little dialogue here and there, but mostly the characters do a lot of internal thinking. I mean, a lot. So much that they get repetitive and annoying, and their thoughts contradicted their actions enough times that it really got on my nerves.

The climax was not built up very well so when it happened I was thinking, "That's it? Huh? So what?"

The magic was a crutch used to have a story in the first place, it's not explained, and barely mentioned. Makes it less of a fantasy book than a story about queens and kingdoms on a planet not much different than ours. The setting is basic. Bray hardly talks about the envrionment and city that is the setting of her book. You don't get a feel for the place or its culture beyond simplistic comments.

I finished this book, so there's an extra star for that, but I'm not quite sure if I'll pick up the sequel. I like the author's writing, but I'm just not sold on this story. In the beginning of the book there was definitely enough to intrigue me - evident in the fact that I stuck with it to the end - but once the climax hit I was pretty much done with it. I don't know who to like here. I connected with two of the prominent characters, but then everything shifts quite abruptly and my ties to them were lost. I will admit that I am curios to see how this "Chronicles of 'Josan'" will play out, but my indifference to the story line is winning out. Maybe I'll check out the sequel at the library. But until then I'll be filling my time with other stories.

The First Betrayal is not a bad fantasy novel. Patricia Bray does a nice job with her characters and plot. For me, however, the characters never transcended the solid writing to resonate emotionally. The plot, which starts out as an interesting mystery, never lives up to its early potential. I can't decide whether to pick up the next book in the series or not.

As one person mentioned, the plot is multilayered. I liked that I couldn't predict the ending. Complex plots like this book feel more realistic, which I like.

However, I gave this book three stars because I have no interest in reading a sequel.

I felt that the characters were 2-dimensional and under-developed. When introducing characters, rather than showing or describing the character's character (for lack of a better word), the author described the locations and circumstances of the character. A description like that doesn't tell me WHO the character is. It only gives me a snapshot of the character in one moment. Then when he's out of those circumstances, I don't know what to expect.

I like realistic characters - characters like people. And people are more or less predictable, once you know them well. I never got to that point in this book.

However, my concern over characters was my only complaint. A reader who doesn't care about that one point will probably really enjoy this book.

This book is very slow and to tell you the truth it did not have much going on. The part I hated about this book was when the chapter was devoted to the women and all they did was speculate in their minds. Very boring. "If I do this then this will happen but if I ask him I will make out better...". That sort of thing. Very boring.