Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jennifer Fallon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hythrun Chronicles | Publication Date: May 31, 2005

In Medalon, Book One of the Hythrun Chronicles, Tarja Tenragen and his half-sister R'shiel were forced to lead a rebellion against their power hungry mother, who ruled Medalon as the First Sister of the Blade. But their mother's defeat came at great cost: not only does it leave Medalon vulnerable to invasion, R'shiel is mortally wounded.

As Treason Keep begins, R'shiel is on the brink of death. Her only hope is the healing powers of the Harshini--magical beings long thought extinct. Even they will be hard-pressed to save the Demon Child of prophecy . . .

On Medalon's northern border, Tarja and the Defenders are far too few to stand against the invaders from Karien, even with the new fortifications built onto Treason Keep. The only thing that can save them is an alliance with Hythria, with whom the Medalon have been skirmishing for generations. But can Tarja trust Damin Wolflblade, warlord and heir to the throne of Hytrhia, with whom Tarja has personally crossed blades upon the field of battle?

Meanwhile, King Hablet of Fardohnya weds his eldest daughter, the stunningly beautiful but shrewish Princess Adrina, to the Karien Heir. Hablet hopes to place his grandchild on the Karien throne. But the wayward and rebellious Adrina has her own plans, and the fate of three nations dangle upon her insolent whim.

Featuring a heady blend of political intrigue, war, and one of the great love-hate relationships in fantasy fiction, Treason Keep is sure to please the many fans of epic fantasy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Praise for Treason Keep:
"A well-executed fantasy with complex characters and entertaining style."--Kirkus Reviews

"Intrigues, rivalries and romance provide an entertaining tangle in the second book in Australian fantasy author Fallon's Hythrun Chronicles (after Medalon). Accompanied by a large cast of compelling characters . . . new readers will be well rewarded; fans arriving straight from book one can dive right in."--Publishers Weekly, Sep 6, 2004

"Jennifer Fallon structures her novels to capture the reader from the opening paragraph and you can only break from her grasp when you reach the final page."--Altair

"Following up on the success of her debut novel Medalon, Australian author Jennifer Fallon is back with the second installment of her rousing Demon Child Trilogy. There's more action and a rash of political shenanigans in Treason Keep, but it's the warmth and humanity of her characters that will keep you reading."--TV Week (Australia)

Praise for Medalon:
"The fantasy genre has its baggage--Renaissance fairs, role-playing games, Christopher Lambert. So credit Fallon for exploring themes like dirty politics and religious tolerance for the launch of her Hythrun Chronicles series, a bestseller in her native Australia . . . an intriguing soap opera of espionage and family revelations."--Entertainment Weekly, 4/30/04, Nisha Gopalan

"A sparkling high fantasy debut. Fallon ponders all these possibilities and more in this satisfying melodrama, stocked with well-developed characters with clear motivations that carry them through a series of byzantine plots and counterplots, a mini-rebellion and even face-to-face contact with a variety of gods."--chPublishers Weekly

"Fallon brings a fair quota of wit and a healthy dose of realism . . . engaging."--Kirkus Reviews

"Medalon starts with a bang and just keeps on going with very few places to take a breath."--SFRevu

"A warm and intriguing book with all-too-human characters who draw you in more deeply with each page."--L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

"Medalon is an intriguing, intelligent and fun read with a refreshing take on female characters so often not seen in the genre."--Elizabeth Haydon

"A gripping tale of warring ambitions, politics, and real people. The characters (and even the gods!) spring to vivid, believable life, making Medalon a great read. More, please!"--Ed Greenwood

"I read Medalon by Jennifer Fallon and am impressed. This is a powerful, solid, imaginative, sometimes brutal fantasy novel with a splendidly worked out cast of characters. I like the way the gods are less than omnipotent, and dragons are magical constructs; this seems realistic in terms of magic, no oxymoron intended."--Piers Anthony

About the Author

The ninth child in a family of 13 girls, Jennifer Fallon was born in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. After living in various areas of Australia, including Canberra, Darwin, and a remote mining settlement, Fallon settled in the Northern Territory in 1980. She has two daughters and a son. She has had 32 foster children and friends refer to her home as "the ashram" due to the large number of stray teenagers that still inhabit her house at irregular intervals.

Fallon has worked as a youth worker, a store detective, shop assistant, an advertising sales rep and executive secretary, among other things. She has managed two hire car companies, an ISP, and a video shop, as well as founding the Anzac Hill Gymnastics Club in 1991. She is a member of the Business & Professional Women's Association and is often in demand as a guest speaker.

Fallon started writing when she was about 14. Her mother, who died when Fallon was 13, was an aspiring children's writer who encouraged her daughter to write. She started writing fantasy in 1990 when she decided she would be better off writing something for herself, rather than trying to please everyone else. In 1995, Jennifer vowed to either get published by the year 2000 or give up writing and get a real job. Her first novel, Medalon, was released in Australia in August 2000 and hit the bestseller list the first week it was released, as well as being shortlisted for the 2000 Aurealis Awards as the best Fantasy novel.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; First Edition edition (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765348675
• ISBN-13: 978-0765348678
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Fallon was born in Melbourne, Australia, and lived in there until she was 11 when her father, a senior public servant, was transferred to the national capital, Canberra. She lived in and around Canberra for about 8 years and went to school at Catholic Girls High School (now Mercy College) in Braddon. She is the ninth child in a family of 13 girls.
The author lived in the Northern Territory from 1980 to 2010.
Jennifer has two daughters and a son. She has had over 50 foster children and friends refer to her home as "the ashram" due to the large number of strays people that still inhabit her house at irregular intervals.
Jennifer has worked as a youth worker, a store detective, shop assistant, an advertising sales rep and executive secretary, among other things. She has managed 2 hire car companies, an ISP, a video shop, been a state manager for an international cosmetics company and worked as a project manager for Territory Health Services. Jennifer is an accredited workplace trainer and has a Masters of Arts in Research and also the regular movie reviewer for ABC Radio in regional Western Australia.
In 1995, after her late husband famously advised her to 'quit writing and be a better housewife, because you're never going to get published', Jennifer decided to either get published by the year 2000 or give up writing and get a real job. Significantly, being a better housewife did not factor into her plans.
Her first series, The Demon Child Trilogy, was released in August 2000 in Australia and hit the bestseller list the first week it was released and was shortlisted for the 2000 Aurealis Awards as the best Fantasy of 2000.
She has since been shortlisted for another Aurealis, the David Gemmell Legends of Fantasy award and the Romantic Times Best Fantasy award.
Her books are released all over the world and translated into a number of different languages.
Jennifer now lives in New Zealand where she writes full time and runs up the Reynox International Writers Centre.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comparable to Eddings at his finest, June 5, 2005

By 

ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Jennifer Fallon's second novel is sparkling and engenders the kind of excitement that Eddings did with the Belgariad. Utterly gripping with the kind of plausible characters that you want to follow avidly, with clean plotlines and plausible action, Treason Keep confirms Fallon's status as a realistic quality fantasy author. Here is none of the disappointment generated by the usual publishing overhype you get on so many second rate fantasy efforts these days.
Treason Keep picks up smoothly from Medalon. R'Shiel, the Demon Child, is in the Sanctuary healing from the stabbing by the now child-like First Sister, Joyhinya. Meanwhile, her one true love, Tarja Tenragan is with the Hythrin Warlord, Damin Wolfblade and the Defenders' Lord Jenga at Treason Keep keeping at bay a Karien army, led by Prince Cratyn and urged on by the Overlord God Xaphista.
In this next installment we are introduced to two new main characters, Princess Adrina of Fardonhyan and Mikel, an overzealous young boy from the Karien army. Fallon's creation of the courtes'a trained Adrina is utterly marvellous. Much like Ce'Nedra, her fiery tempered, politically sharp mind and withering sarcasm in the face of her arranged marriage to Prince Cretin (as she calls him) is endlessly amusing and she literally can be rolled by her author into the midst of any situation to devastating effect. So, she is, firstly with her hated marriage and subsequent escape to Treason Keep and eventual relationship with Damin. It's a major subplot that grips the whole novel. So much so that Tarja and R'Shiel are in danger of fading into character obscurity.
The incredibly naive and zealous Mikel, is a boy captured by the Defenders, unwillingly subverted by Dacendaran and fervent adherent to the tenets of Xaphista. His innocence and blinkered approach to reality means he becomes a pawn for miscommunication by both sides but means he is ever-present. You follow his story with some frustration hoping that eventually the scales will fall from his eyes and he will see the truth.
As in Medalon, Fallon keeps the plot straightforward here. Whilst there is a standoff at the Karien-Medalon border, R'Shiel and Tarja concern themselves with getting the conclave at the Citadel to accept a demon-meld character of Joyhinya who can then transfer power to Mahina. This fails, R'Shiel is captured and she learns to reject the whisperings of Xaphista (very much like Garion and Torak) before striding from her captivity like an avenging angel.
So...a well-crafted, utterly gripping second fantasy novel where the quality of writing legitimately declares Fallon to be as good as the likes of Eddings, Feist and co rather than some wishful thinking quotes on the jacket that inevitably disappoint.
If you're a fantasy fan, this is quality. Buy it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not tight, but fun, June 3, 2008

By 

Kat at Fantasy Literature - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Treason Keep, the sequel to Medalon, is more of the same: a fast pace and fun characters overshadow the not-so-tight plot.

Jennifer Fallon keeps things interesting by expertly developing a couple of characters who were briefly introduced in her first book: Damin Wolfblade, an intelligent barbarian warlord (always a good thing, in my opinion), and Adrina, a spoiled princess whose daddy wants to marry her off because he's tired of paying for her escapades -- she just demolished the city's wharf while trying to dock a nobleman's yacht while she was drunk (the yacht sank). I was impressed with how Ms Fallon gave us very short but meaningful glimpses of Damin and Adrina in the first novel -- their personalities in Treason Keep were completely consistent with what we had previously learned about them, and it was clear that Ms Fallon had consciously prepared that. I noticed this sort of preparation for the future in this novel, too. For example, at one point, Tarja tells Damin that he'll owe him a big favor, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a reminder of this in a later installment.

So Damin and Adrina join Tarja and R'shiel, the established main characters who we already know and love, and several other old and new characters, making this novel both familiar and fresh. Fallon effectively uses different characters' points of view to tell the story (Adrina's point of view is particularly entertaining) and there is enough humor and romance to counterbalance some of the disturbing and violent events.

There were a few things that just didn't make sense to me, however. For example, Joyhinia is now out of commission and a large group of the Defenders have broken off from the Sisterhood and gone north to defend Medalon from the Kariens without permission of the Sisters. There is a lot of fretting about how to trick the quorum into making Mahina First Sister so that she can sanction their plans and send more Defenders. An elaborate and unreliable scheme is contrived when it seems safer, and more likely to work, to just go to the quorum and tell them the truth: "Hey sisters, look at Joyhinia. She's lost her mind and there's a bunch of our enemies massed at the border. Could we appoint a new leader and send some troops to defend the country?"

Also, the religious and magical systems seem arbitrary and convenient. It's not quite clear what gods and demons can do (and when), why R'shiel can call them to help her sometimes but not other times, what kinds of powers she has, and how the magic works. And why does she wear Harshini dragon rider leathers but never rides a dragon?

The plot of Treason Keep is not drum-tight, but the characterization and pleasant writing style make this an enjoyable read nonetheless.
~ FanLit.net

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Treason Keep, by Jennifer Fallon, September 6, 2008

By 

K. R. Sontag "kcrocklein" (Manhasset, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2) (Hardcover)

I'm a big fan of these books, if you liked Medalon, you won't be disappointed by Treason Keep or Harshini. Both an enjoyable read.