The Riddler's Gift: First Tale of the Lifesong (The Tale of the Lifesong) [Kindle Edition]

Greg Hamerton (Author)

Book Description

A shadow steals across Eyri. One by one, the Lightgifters are snuffed out. When darkness strikes her family, Tabitha receives a dangerous legacy. Soon the Riddler walks beside her, but is he on her side?

The more she searches for answers, the further into treachery she is led. The more she tries to flee, the harder she is hunted. And the more she sings the ancient Lifesong, the more the world begins to change.

Can she grasp her gift before the darkness captures the last of the light?

"In a darkening realm, which is better: the power to save your love, or to save your love from power?"

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When you reach the end of The Riddler's Gift, you're left wanting more. Highly, highly recommended." --FANTASY BOOK CRITIC

"There are moments in this novel that are sheer magic..." --SFBOOK.com

"Utterly compelling ... with a blistering climax." --TERRY GRIMWOOD

"A highly recommended fantasy novel - enormous fun to read and extremely easy to lose yourself within." --FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

About the Author

Greg Hamerton is a high fantasy writer: most of his stories come to him whilst flying over mountains in a T-shirt. It's hard to balance a manuscript and steer a paraglider at the same time, but he keeps trying to share his stories, because levitation is close to magic, and magic can be shared when you know how to spell.

His writing tends to include danger, epic journeys and sorcery. The Riddler's Gift is the first novel in the Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series, followed by Second Sight. A prequel is currently in development.

He enjoys a range of fantasy authors from classic world-building masters like Tolkien and Jordan to the magical realism of Charles de Lint and Richard Bach. He has also been influenced by the character driven fantasies of Robin Hobb, the wry modern fantasy of Joe Abercrombie and the sharp wit of Terry Pratchett.

He lives in the south of England, where he spends his weekends looking for the Lost Mountains, or the Prodigal Sun. To join him aloft, visit Greg Hamerton dot com.

Product Details

• File Size: 1116 KB
• Print Length: 656 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Eternity Press (January 1, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003AILORM
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,255 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars impressive debut October 12, 2010

By Liviu C. Suciu VINE™ VOICE

Format: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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

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

By AshleyMarie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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!

9 of 9 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

Format: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.

More About the Author

Greg Hamerton is a high fantasy writer: most of his stories come to him whilst flying over mountains in a T-shirt. It's hard to balance a manuscript and steer a paraglider at the same time, but he keeps trying to share his stories, because levitation is close to magic, and magic can be shared when you know how to spell.

His writing tends to include danger, epic journeys and sorcery.

He enjoys a range of fantasy authors from classic world-building masters like Tolkien and Jordan to the magical realism of Charles de Lint and Richard Bach. He has also been influenced by the character driven fantasies of Robin Hobb, the wry modern fantasy of Joe Abercrombie and the sharp wit of Terry Pratchett.

He lives in the south of England, where he spends his weekends looking for the Lost Mountains, or the Prodigal Sun. The Riddler's Gift is the first novel in the Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series, followed by Second Sight. A prequel is currently in development.

To join him aloft, visit Greg Hamerton dot com.