Luthiel's Song: Dreams of the Ringed Vale [Kindle Edition]

Robert Marston Fannéy (Author)

Book Description

Welcome to the World of Dreams

First Summer’s Eve has come and all elves celebrate as the black moon’s shadow fades from the world. It is also Luthiel’s fifteenth birthday.

With it come two extraordinary and dangerous surprises: a Wyrd Stone, its silvery heart a window into a world of dreams and nightmares, and a Blade Dancer, dreaded protector of the Faelands, who bears a dark message.

Instead of a celebration, Luthiel is given a terrible choice: if she does nothing, someone she loves deeply will die. Or, to save a life, she can break the most perilous law of the Faelands, and venture alone to the Vale of Mists.

If she chooses the journey, she must race Othalas— eldest and most feared of all the werewolves—past great black spiders who weave webs out of nightmares, through glittering mists with the power to reshape flesh, and at last into death by the teeth of the dark and ancient Vyrl, who feed on the blood of elves.

Either choice will bring death—unless Luthiel can find the secret in her remarkable Stone, a secret that even the nightmares fear.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

To be me is to be different, she thought as she watched them, from her place apart from them, upon the hillside.

And there was much to watch. For everywhere across the Minonowe, and where she lived in Flir Light Hollow, elves were preparing for celebration.

They were festooning trees with glowing flir-bug bulbs, baking delicious almorah cakes and rolling out giant gourds filled with the best summer's wine. Master Alderdalf's pixies were hard at work under the woven canopy of his voluminous fae holme turning out specially prepared fireworks. Loud popping tindersnaps, eek-eeking neekerbeeks, bright flaring fizzleflashes, and the scaly Romas Dragons lay in red, green, orange and silver stacks outside. Lady Lutendrah was busy tying ribbons to her famous pandur's boxes (you never knew what would pop out). Even the otherwise grim-faced elves of the Dark Forest seemed to brighten as they drank toasts to the day - First Summer's Eve.

As she watched them, a lively wind rose up, dancing through the trees, swatting gold and silver ripples across the lake shore, before riding up the hill on which she stood. The breeze played in the branches about her, but the swaying of her arms and the gentle curves of her neck were just as graceful. From her head flowed hair the color of moonlight. It spilled over leaf-shaped ears before falling down shoulders so supple they belied the gentle strength that lay beneath. Clothes of forest green embroidered with silver lay across skin as fair as a cloud. Eyes, which shone like green-blue stars, rested beneath softly sloping brows.

Even elves thought of her as beautiful - if a little strange. And sometimes she would hear them teasing that she'd arisen from the wyrd of sea foam or was born to earth in the cradle of a crescent moon floating down upon the gloaming. For she was an orphan and no one knew her parents.

Though the elves welcomed her, accepting her as one of their own, she could always sense that they held her apart. She bore it with a kind of sad resignation. But she always wondered:

Why do they treat me this way?

Am I not an elf like them? she would think. Why can't they see me as Leowin does?

For her foster sister Leowin was the only one who treated her as though she were no different.

Luthiel smiled at the thought and sniffed the air. She sighed and let all the happy sounds, all the various smells wash over her. It was going to be quite a party. Fitting, because this was the day she turned fifteen, or near enough as her foster parents Glendoras and Winowe could reckon. Some asked her if she cared that her birthday also fell on the night of First Summer's eve. But she only laughed.

"Can you think of a better day?" she would ask them in return. And what better day to be born than on the day that the world shook off the darkness? What happier time to celebrate than when everyone else was celebrating?

She secretly fantasized that the reason for all the hubbub, that the cause for all this happy commotion was her birthday. And she smiled to herself when the first thing they said to her was - "Happy Birthday, Luthiel!" followed by "Happy First Summer's Eve!"

Product Details

• File Size: 1031 KB
• Print Length: 328 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Dark Forest Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2005)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002E19K9A
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,737 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that Deserves to be Read January 25, 2007

By Lee Stephen

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A little over a year ago, I set out to find a solid, female-led novel. I'd gotten my fill of fist-pumping testosterone action, and I was looking for a little bit of girl power to serve as a change of pace. I excitedly ventured into Barnes and Noble, to find the book that would satisfy this desire.

I won't name the first book I bought. In fact, I won't even name the second book that I bought several weeks later. I won't name them, because I didn't finish either of them. I couldn't finish either of them. They went on my shelf, never to be read (or cared about) again.

They were terrible. So much for girl power.

Or so I thought...

I recently stumbled upon Luthiel's Song: Dreams of Ringed Vale. In short, it is the story of a young elf named Luthiel, a girl who is given the opportunity to essentially sacrifice herself to save the life of her sister. How? By replacing her sister as a sacrifice, to be handed over to the bloodthirsty monsters known as the Vyrl. You see, the Vyrl demand these sacrifices. If these demands are not met...let's just say bad things tend to happen to the general populace.

I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to pick up a novel, start reading it, and by the fifth page have decided that only the slow and painful death of the main character will make the book worthwhile. Some authors simply don't get it. No one wants to empathize with a character that begs to be hated. Do we love cruel characters? Of course. They add so much to the story. But you see, that's the whole point. They add to the story. They aren't the story. Being in the thoughts of a main character that you utterly despise is one of the most irritating aspects of literature. That's not a problem in Dreams of the Ringed Vale (hereby shortened to DotRV).

Luthiel, as a protagonist, is immediately likeable. She's good-natured, she's loyal, and she's flawed. Without flaws, a character isn't real. Luthiel has just enough to make her the perfect underdog girl to root for. You want to read on, because you want to see her succeed. You want to see her victorious. You want to see things work out for her in the end.

That's one of the great things about this story. It's a good story. It's genuine, and it's the kind of thing you can get behind. It's the story of a girl who--whether she realizes it or not--is trying to be her sister's hero. That's unconditional love, and that's a very refreshing thing to read about. In a literary world full of gimmicks, grandeur, and garbage, DotRV stands out in the crowd as decidedly straightforward and pure. Not many authors have the self-confidence (or morality) to write something like that. Fannéy pulls it off like a pro.

I won't talk much about secondary characters, as to not inadvertently give anything away, but I will say this: they're diverse and they're excellent. Make no mistake...you're going to get attached to someone other than Luthiel. It's going to happen.

There is one thing I'll caution you about, though. If you're looking for a book that's going to wrap itself up by the last page, by design DotRV isn't for you. This is the first book in a series, and it's obvious that in order for this story to be told, it's going to take more than one book. Since I'm a fan of series literature, I find this perfect. If you're a fan of the whole "all TV dramas must fix themselves in 30 minutes" thing, this book won't satisfy you. It'll leave you thirty for more, which is the point.

The story is heartfelt, the progression isn't cookie-cutter predictable, and the characters are memorable. The bottom line?

This is a very good book.

For parental references, this book is perfectly safe for a child to read. There's not a lick of profanity or sexuality. You may purchase it without a weight on your conscience.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ordinary Lives; Extraordinary Adventures August 27, 2005

By giniajim

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This story centers on a young girl, Luthiel, and her adventures in a mystical land. Luthiel is an orphan with an uncertain past who was adopted by a loving family. The family has a younger daughter and the two are lovingly devoted to each other; the book opens with a scene of them playing in the friendly woods around their village. Their life, briefly described, is very ordinary in a small and intimate village in the middle of a big and mostly unknown world. The village is beset by evil that appears during their woodland play; Luthiel is drawn into it. Luthiel starts on a frightning and lonely journey to try to save her sister and her village. Her adventures reach a temporary conclusion as this first volume ends. A very satisfying read. Even in my busy life, I had to read a chapter a day, and I didn't want to read faster so as to make it last longer. Highly recommended and waiting anxiously for the second volume.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An beautiful tale about a lady hero and the magic of dreams March 10, 2005

By Catherine C. Lynch

Format:Paperback

This is a book you'll love to curl up with when the storm winds howl... The author dedicates this book to 'all those women strong enough to be heroes, fair enough to be ladies.' I think this is an apt description of the character Luthiel. She is both deep and fair in her emotions, but strong and direct in her actions. To me, as a woman, the character of Luthiel was very captivating and drew me in immediately. But what kept me was the amazing scope of this tale. There is beauty and comfort, darkness and danger, expressions of deep love and a very profound lesson -- 'sometimes it takes more courage to forgive than to fight.'

More About the Author

Robert Fannéy was born on November 4, 1972 in Southeastern Virginia. He lived in Virginia Beach, VA for much of his younger life and currently resides in Washington Grove, MD with his wife, Catherine, and two talkative Maine Coon cats.

The scenic Seashore State Park and the frothy Atlantic Ocean bordered Robert's world as a child. Ever changing and full of mystery, both were an inspiration to Robert as he set out to create the fantastic settings of Oesha and the Vale of Mists. A surfer since a very young age, Robert has felt a deep connection with nature and finds that his most spiritual times are while sitting on a tiny surfboard upon a vast ocean or laying on the sand beneath an even vaster sea of stars.

As a teen, Robert often wrote short stories and poems about his adventures. He made frequent trips to the library and book store and read widely. Some of his favorite books were Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, Roger Zelazney's Chronicles of Amber, and Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain.

Robert was also inspired by the strong women in his life and, while attending the gothic Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL, (1991-1995) he began writing a female epic fantasy which he later named Luthiel's Song. Despite numerous hardships, Robert continued to write throughout much of his adult life. He worked at a number of different jobs -- waiting tables, serving as a police officer, and even working as a coordinating editor and author for a well known niche publisher -- Jane's Information Group. During his time at Jane's Robert edited and contributed to over 15 books and magazines and co-authored Jane's Citizen Safety Guide.

Robert was able to put his experience -- both in writing and in life -- to good use and finally, after nine years, Robert had a completed first novel. With the help of his friend Matthew Friedman, an amazing artist by the name of Siya Oum, and his wife Catherine, Robert decided to publish independently. He started a boutique publishing house named Dark Forest Press and in six months produced a professional quality fantasy novel (2005).

Robert then set out to promote the book himself, beginning with online promotion and talks at local venues. By 2011, Robert had given over 300 presentations at libraries, schools, and bookstores, appeared on local and national television including CSPAN's BookTV and independently sold over 32,000 copies.

Robert has also recently completed book 2 in the Luthiel's Song series -- The War of Mists -- and is now working on book 3 -- The Nightmares of Winter.

If you'd like to find out more about Luthiel's Song, you may do so by visiting these websites:

www.luthielssong.com
www.facebook.com/luthielssong
www.myspace.com/luthielssong