Riddler's Gift, The: First Tale of the Lifesong [Import] [Paperback]

Greg Hamerton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Eternity Press (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0958511845
• ISBN-13: 978-0958511841
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,027,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Hamerton is convinced that writers have the best chance of learning magic, because they know how to spell. He lives near London, close to the airport so he can escape should the island go under due to global climate change. He is an outdoors enthusiast and enjoys soaring over clouds and getting lost on his paraglider and then trying to find his way back.

"My primary-school was artistic. We made up stories. We painted things. We acted out Norse Mythology. It was great, and it's probably the reason I'm a writer. I graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1994 with a Bachelor of Commerce but was bored to death by my first accounting job. I worked in the film industry, as a paragliding instructor, and as a photographer. I began writing, and found that I loved it. I am a dedicated reader of fantasy, and respect the works of Charles de Lint, Robin Hobb, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Jordan and Terry Pratchett."

The Riddler's Gift is the first novel in the Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series, followed by Second Sight. More on Greg Hamerton dot com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars impressive debut, October 12, 2010

By 

Liviu C. Suciu (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Riddler's Gift: First Tale of the Lifesong (The Tale of the Lifesong) (Kindle Edition)

Excellent fantasy debut set in an alternate Earthlike domain called Eyri which was isolated and hidden with strong magic from the rest of the planet by a cabal of 8 wizards called the Gyre.

The Gyre is facing the most powerful Chaos wizard ever Ametheus who brought destruction and misery to the rest of the planet, but they are not strong enough to fight him directly.

Setting up Eyri and introducing a magical artifact and an wizard observer/adviser, they hope to nurture new wizard blood away from Ametheus' interference, so while Eyri is a relatively peaceful medieval like land with an order of magicians of light - lightgifters, there is also a hidden counterpart of the magicians of dark - shadowcasters to ensure conflict.

A new wizard will emerge only when a person can master both the dark essence and the light essence and across several hundred years, nobody has succeeded yet.

Tabitha Serannon is a talented singer daughter of a lightgifter mother and while working at an inn and entering in a local contest to represent her local town to a singing festival in the capital of Eyri in front of the king, she attracts the wrong attention from a shadowcaster Kirjath Arkell who has his own plans of accumulating power and independence from the ubber-shadowcaster Cabal, the dark master of the forces of the night.

Luckily the Eyri sword master Glavenor - a sort of chief constable of the kingdom with a magic sword - is at hand to save the day, but Arkell escapes and is set on revenge.

When tragedy strikes, Tabitha escapes with a strange ring and with help from the funny looking "Riddler" Twardy Zarost, she decides to become a lightgifter like her mother and find the powerful wizard the ring is destined for and give it to him/her so protecting it from the shadowcasters.

Of course things are not so simple and Tabitha is soon involved in intrigue, the struggle between the forces of light and dark and of course the big picture hangs over the whole of Eyri.

While The Riddler's Gift starts as a reasonably standard epic fantasy, it is a novel with a lot of energy that makes you keep turning page after page to see what happens. Slowly the characters start growing on you and you do not want to put the book down until done.

The ending is excellent wrapping up all the threads of the novel, though as usual with the first book in a series the big picture is only now start to impinge on our characters.

Though longish at about 640 pages, the book reads very fast and I finished it in two sittings since I was really absorbed by it after I got into its flow.

Highly, highly recommended.

Published originally in South Africa in 2007 and recently in the UK, this novel deserves a wide audience in the epic fantasy world.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved This!, January 17, 2012

By 

AshleyMarie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Riddler's Gift: First Tale of the Lifesong (The Tale of the Lifesong) (Kindle Edition)

I'm not sure how I came upon this book, but once I started reading it I couldn't put it down! The story line is gripping! For me, it was a fascinating mixture of magic the gathering, harry potter, lord of the rings, and a little bit of the cliche love story (not overbearing though). This book is fantasy at its finest!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the magical world of Eyri, October 18, 2011

By 

The Slowest Bookworm (Stockport, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Riddler's Gift: First Tale of the Lifesong (The Tale of the Lifesong) (Kindle Edition)

Wow, what a plot! The main character, Tabitha Serannon is a charming young girl, a Truthsayer with aspirations of becoming a Lightgifter and healer like her mother, but then she hears the Lifesong and her whole life changes. Suddenly we are thrown into this magical world of Dark and Light fighting to rule the Kingdom of Eyri. Tabitha is helped (or is she?) on her journey by the Riddler, Twardy Zarost, who was hilarious. I laughed many, many times at his great sense of humour. There were riddles to solve, evil demon beasts to fight, Light to save, characters to hate, characters to adore and of course there was love ... and who couldn't love the gorgeous male lead in this book, the Swordmaster Garyll Glavenor. A true gentleman and leader of the Swords who has a soft spot for Tabitha, and she for him.

Although this book is very long with 643 pages of small print (although if you find small print hard to read, there is also a Kindle edition), it is well worth reading. I found that I couldn't even begin to second guess where this plot was going. Fast moving storyline which becomes deeper and thicker the more into the book you move. The characters are well rounded and arouse an array of emotion. Hate, love, fear, hopelessness, happiness, thrills and exhaustion. You name it and I felt it for these characters. The ending is nicely rounded up with no loose ends, but I've come to love Eyri and it's wonderful characters and am looking forward to reading the second book in The Tale of the Lifesong.

Magical! That's how I would describe it. I was hooked from the very first page and I could tell I was in for a fabulous reading journey. Greg Hamerton did not let me down. If you love fantasy, go and lose yourself in The Riddler's Gift.