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The Rise of the Phoenix

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The Rise of the Phoenix
By Dawn Rivers Baker

Fine can describe a number of things. There are fine wines, fine chocolates and fine china, all treasures characterized by elegance and refinement. Fine constitutes a work of superior quality and skill: something free from impurities. An article of fine craftsmanship, then, is one exhibiting a careful and delicate artistry: an end product rendered with both subtlety and precision.

Before I read Rise of the Phoenix by Dawn Rivers Baker, fine would not have been a term I readily assigned to literature. Oh, yes, indeed to Shakespeare, to Kahlil Gibran, but never before to a modern work of fantasy.

To my mind, rising to the level of fine requires a work of literature to be a luxury: a work so delicious that I want to savor it alone in the quiet evening hours after the children have gone to bed. I crave the time, the space, the privacy to leisurely float through it as though swimming in a sea of liquid pearls ... naked. A fine work is one I could never settle for reading once. What's more, it is one that begs to be read aloud at times, just for the sheer pleasure of tasting the well-turned phrase as it lolls across the palate.

In this, and more, Rise of the Phoenix delivers.

But the satisfaction of Phoenix runs far deeper than its poetic constructs. It is an engaging tale of memorable characters struggling against the ultimate dark force of their world, an evil powerful enough to blind the mind and impel good people to heinous acts and indifference. In that, the dark force of Baker's universe is frighteningly real.

Meet Lady Dia of Shae, a young noble of intelligence, independence, culture and subtle rebel leanings, who embarks on her first journey to Ormaerand, seat of the Imperial Palace, in an attempt to re-establish her mind link with her twin brother, Daerus. It would seem, since Daerus's own departure for the Imperial Palace, the link that Dia had enjoyed with him since birth has been inexplicably dimmed, shadowed over by something she cannot comprehend. He has called to her, and only by seeking him out and discerning his situation can she hope to set aright whatever it is that has come between her and her beloved twin.

It is a dangerous and vulnerable time in which Dia travels, a time between ages in a world where ages are marked by the rise and fall of the Phoenix. He is the keeper of time and central to a religion that has fallen from favor with most of the other Houses, save that of Shae. Until the Phoenix rises once again, time is practically at a stand still. Days have become years. A year of frigid darkness has ended as Dia makes her way through a new dawn toward Ormaerand. It is a dawn that will slowly yield to months of relentless sun that will bake the earth dry.

At the Palace, Dia encounters pivotal characters in the persons of Caelon of Aerandos and his parents, whose warm relationships and interplay are delightfully penned by Baker. But almost as soon as she arrives, Dia is besieged by the same darkness threatening to sweep her brother from reach. She discovers that only one grace tethers her to the ability to remain self-possessed: the touch of Caelon's hand.

Without understanding, Dia nevertheless clings to this realization and quickly forges a courtly arrangement with Caelon (replete with playful underpinnings) wherein he is to take her hand in greeting whenever they should meet. His comprehension no clearer than hers, he happily obliges. She does not immediately confide in him that, for some reason, his touch is imbued with the power to clear her mind of the evil fog that threatens to overtake her daily, and the more insistently so the longer she remains in the Palace.

The Rise of the Phoenix is the tale of this couple's coming to understand the roles they are playing in a larger arena: the stage upon which good and evil do ultimate battle. It is at once an adventure, a romance, and a work of high fantasy peopled with richly drawn characters and neatly packaged in the flourish of Dawn Rivers Baker's riveting voice.

The Rise of the Phoenix is a rare find, a work too good to place upon a shelf. Now that I have relished it, it remains by my desk where I sneak a tidbit whenever I hunger for something beyond the meat-and-potato realm of most reading. After all, Hershey's chocolate bars are unstintingly shared with the masses, but a Godiva Chocolate is a jealously guarded treat. So go ahead. Indulge yourself. Read The Rise of the Phoenix and taste the difference.

The Rise Of The Phoenix is an impressive and engaging debut novel by Dawn Rivers Baker about the impending fate of an Empire, the dark force that menaces it, and the Prophecy surrounding two fraternal twins caught in the twists and machinations of grand schemes. A transcendent and splendor-filled work of high fantasy, The Rise Of The Phoenix is vividly descriptive and complexly woven, filled with intrigue throughout, and enthusiastically recommended reading.