Customer Reviews

Riddler's Gift, The: First Tale of the Lifesong

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

Love, love, love this book. Wish I had part two to dive right into. Luckily, its on its way. Full of everything you want in a book. Perfect!

Greg - thank you for an enjoyable, well written and thoughtful read. The characters are solid and compelling, the pace was a bit slow at points, but overall progression created a terrific book. I'll buy your next one now.

"The pace was great, and the descriptions were very real. The dark, evil stuff was the most powerful. I got into it, I got pretty tense at times. I really enjoyed the whole concept of dark and light. It definitely left me with a feeling of wanting to read more. Well done! An excellent book; well-written characters, interesting world..."

I enjoyed every word of it and will recommend it to all. It takes you on a flight of fantasy, bending, twisting and turning the plotline. Gregs description of the darkside takes it to a new level and he lifts it all up again with the light, but confuses your brain by twisting light and dark so you are never sure whose side you are on. It is a very alluring book that you just can not put down and when it ends it leaves you wanting so much more...so I purchased the Second Sight.

I read this some time ago and was totally hooked - even though I am not normally a fantasy novel fan. I had little sleep from reading late every night. I enjoyed it tremendously!

Won this in the GR giveaways and my god I'm glad I did. Hamerton is well on his way to creating a fantasy series that could very well rival Tolkien in it's skill and imagination (and I don't make that comparison lightly, I can tell you).

The story starts in Oldenworld, which is being ravaged by Chaos and the Sorcerer Ametheus. The Gyre, a group of seven wizards, create the olde worlde domain of Eyri protected by a very strong shield of magic which keeps Chaos out. Within this protected land a slow simmering battle between the King and the Lightgifters on one side and Cabal the Darkmaster and his Shadowcasters on the other begins to take hold. In doing so a young Truthsayer and Singer, Tabitha Serannon, is caught up when she stands up to a Shadowcaster intent on kidnapping a local child.

As the story continues Tabitha finds herself on the path to the Wizard and she must follow the path of both the Dark and the Light to obtain her goal. Helping in this task is the Riddler, an enigmatic and delightful character who can only speak the truth, but only in rhyme. Tabitha is also aided by Glavenor, the King's Swordmaster (head of the Swords, Eyri's Army), who saves her from the Shadowcaster and she in turn saves him from something worse.

This is an absolute epic fantasy story but once it grabs you, it is impossible to put down. Hamerton develops each of his characters perfectly and really makes you feel for them and get involved in the story whole-heartedly. At one point I was that engrossed I was muttering rather loudly that Tabitha couldn't see what was right in front of her (it was very frustrating I must say, but a huge relief when she finally got it). The story does develop at a slower pace than usual but this fits the tale perfectly and unknown to you drags you deeper and deeper into the story (hence my comparison to Tolkien, very much of a similar style).

The detail Hamerton puts into his writing is fantastic, throughout the book you feel like you are there in Eyri and beyond, watching events unfold and feeling everything the characters do. You feel love and hate, joy and despair, victory and defeat and everything in between. A brilliant start to what is bound to be a brilliant series, I cannot wait until the second installment is out...in fact I'm really not sure if I can wait to find out where Tabitha, Glavenor and Eyri itself goes next...I need to know now!

The people and the world felt very real and I felt myself caring for the characters and wanting to find out more about them. Tabitha is a young girl leading a simple life, good, curious, with a life that should follow an expected path but life is not always as we expect! Twardy is more difficult to judge and frustrating for Tabitha with his Zarostisms; good, bad or indifferent only time will tell? Fast paced. Good twists. Magically woven! A great read!!