Customer Reviews

Treason Keep (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

Treason Keep by Jennifer Fallon is the second novel in the Hythrun Chronicles. The first novel is Medalon (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 1) and the third is titled Harshini (The Hythrun Chronicles: Demon Child Trilogy, Book 3). For American readers, there may be some confusion surrounding this series. It was first published in Australia as The Demon Child trilogy and another trilogy titled The Wolfblade Trilogy; Wolfblade, Warrior, and Warlord. However, when these books migrated to America they were combined to create the Hythrun Chronicles. So, if you see this myriad of names and titles, they are all talking about the same novels.

The plot of this novel carries over from the first novel. The Demon Child has been revealed and there are various deities and factions trying to influence the Demon Child's choices and destiny. That is the main solidifying plot point of this novel; however there are a variety of sub plots mixed in as well. There are several multi-layered political sub plots, involving the Sisterhood, the Defenders, and the King of Fardohnya. The Demon Child's story, and purpose, is further explained with just the right amount of detail as to explain some questions from the first book, but also to add a few questions for the next novel as well. There are a couple minor plot elements that I am hesitant to discuss due to potential spoiler material. When all is said and done, this novel is packed full of large scale plot items, as well as smaller more intimate plot points and the balance is near perfect. It really leaves me wanting to read the next book and find out what happens.

The characters in his novel are largely the same ones that appear in the first novel. The main two make, as expected, return appearances. Tarja and R'shiel are the two who the novel focuses on. Readers are also drawn into a couple other character's stories; Princess Adrina, and Damin Wolfblade. The addition of more characters takes away from some of the limelight the `main' characters, but that may be a good thing with this book. At the start of the novel I felt myself becoming somewhat disinterested in the two main characters after they somewhat dominated the first book. With the addition of the new characters in relation to the central characters, Ms. Fallon takes some of the pressure away from the main characters while fleshing them out at the same time. R'shiel's character is really developed in his novel, as is Adrina's. However, once I finished the novel I felt myself being underwhelmed by the cast of characters. This could very well be a matter of the first book being so good that this one had unfair expectations to live up to. Simply put, aside from a minor character in this book, Mikel, the rest of the characters just didn't do overly much for me. They were well written, I just had difficulty really connecting with them and thereby by not really caring about them. Like I said, maybe I was hoping for too much.

A couple criticisms about this novel:

1 - Some of the dialogue seems really out of place. There are a couple of passages in particular where once I read them they simply did not seem like they belonged in the book. Nor did they feel like they came from the characters they were supposed to come from.

2 - Much like the first book, some parts of this book felt entirely too predictable for me. I would have liked to seen the classic archetypes/clichés changed up a little to feel fresh and new. Instead, more often than not my assumptions of what was going to happen proved true.

Some positives about this novel:

1 - Ms. Fallon's prose is very good. It's tight, crisp, and flows easily. I don't believe there was ever a time while reading this book that I stumbled over the prose and had to reread a sentence or section. Being that this is only her second novel, I am looking forward to seeing how she refines her prose further.

2 - I appreciated the changes in point of view during the story. They were almost always placed exactly where they should be. Meaning that once a section had served it's purpose, Ms. Fallon had no qualms about switching to another part of the story. I have read a few authors that seem to become infatuated with a certain point of view and have it run too long. That's not the case with this novel.

Overall, when all is said and done this is certainly a very good addition to the Hythrun Chronicles. It's a solid story, with solid characters. I do not thin it reaches the greatness that I felt with Medalon, it just misses on that account. But, this is certainly a book, and series I will be recommending to others. I am looking forward to the last book in this trilogy to see how it all plays out. Hopefully, there are some surprises in store.

Jennifer Fallon continues to provide a robust and entertaining world. Each book in the series simply wets the appetite for MORE! I'll be sad when I read the last book, because there isn't another after :(
Sam

In the second of her "Demon Child" Trilogy, Fallon has once again delivered. For the fans of the first book, this book has everything you loved about Medalon and more.

Tension has reached a fever pitch in the northern borders of Medalon, and now the reader will see some real action. In the middle of the conflict, a new character is thrown in, Princess Adrina. At first glance she sounds like a snobby princess (well, she really is), but as the story goes on she becomes much more complex. Adrina is one of those ruthless politicians you'll absolutely love.

R'shiel is growing too, learning to accept her destiny and gaining more of the calmer Harshini attributes as well. And naturally, the gods are still around and meddling so well they give the Greek gods a run for their money.

The pace is once again well set, one of this series finest attributes. "Treason Keep" was utterly engaging, and now I can't wait to read "Harshini." I'm sure it will be just as good as the last two.

It seemed to lag at times and the characters didn't seem to flow as well the whole time. On the whole this is still a very good installment in the series and the authors ability to paint her picture in your mind is quite good. I enjoy the fact that the bad guys are not just warped and twisted, but at times just so caught up in their beliefs that they go too far. That is a nice use of real problems with humanity.

So Jennifer Fallon proved she could write well with "Medalon." It was an OK book. But could she do it again? Yes. And she improves. Vastly. "Treason Keep" is far, far better.

She expands characters only briefly mentioned in her previous book, and already used characters are made multi-dimensional. And gasp! The characters also have faults! Not only are these characters (mostly) likable, and pretty much realistic, but the variety of the characters is refreshing. It's a new take to the whole magic idea, plus the whole fanstasy genre. Also, it features strong female characters with a pick of different types of males. Strong, sarcastic, sadistic, you name it.

On to the plot. It's very good. Complicated but explained. Different but not too 'whoa! What on Earth just happened?' I guess that's the best way to put it.

Besides, I read this whole series out of order and I still understood everything that had happened. Either way, Jennifer Fallon has done a wonderful job with this book and I applaud her. Get the book.

The Demon Child Trilogy is a bright spot in what I thought of as a fairly lackluster series (Hythrun Chroinicles). The demon child of legend, comes to be, although of course her reception is viewed with great mistrust because she is supposedly the daughter of a woman who is the chief Prosecutor of all things Godly.The reason is that the name Demon Child is used by the persecutors so as to put a negative label on what legend describes as a saviour of the people. (Sound Familiar) The Characters are easy to like (Or Hate) as the case may be and the story has enough colorfull characters in it to make for an enjoyable read but do so when you have the complete trilogy.
There is nothing worse than to attempt at at least some coniguituity and wind up reading book number 2 of a series which is part of a larger main series. You still have to read through the catch-up familiarization in each book but you will soon recognize the evnt and skip through it.
To conclude, first make sure you have all three of this series and then find a beach chair for a few hours. Light but enjoyable reading.

I loved Treason Keep just as much as I did Medalon. I can't wait to get Harshini so I can finish the trilogy. I am excited to start reading Fallon's many other trilogies.