Seigneur Neiges Ombres T01 Larmes Artamon (Ldp Fantasy)

Ash, Sarah

ISBN 10: 2253087890 ISBN 13: 9782253087892

Publisher: LGF, 2008

Synopsis

731pages. poche. Broché. Trois royaumes. Un homme. Une destinée écrite en lettres de sang. Gavril Andar mène dans le Sud une vie paisible. jusqu'au jour où de féroces guerriers viennent bouleverser cette sérénité Ramené de force dans le royaume hivernal d'Azhkendir, il apprend que le roi, son père qu'il n'a jamais connu, a été assassiné, et que dans ses veines coule le sang brûlant du Drakhaoul. Dès lors, le destin du jeune Gavril est scellé. Prisonnier de Kastel Drakhaon, cerné par les glaces, il est censé venger la mort de son père. Mais le jeune homme doit lutte pour garder son âme humaine et retenir les sombres instincts qui menacent de s'emparer de lui. Car être Drakhaon ne signifie pas seulement accéder au trône d'Azhkendir: cela implique aussi de devenir un guerrier-dragon, d'une puissance extraordinaire. et de puiser dans le sang d'innocents pour survivre!

About this title

Review

Sarah Ash earned critical acclaim for three 1990s fantasies and now opens a more ambitious fantasy sequence with Lord of Snow and Shadows, book one of "The Tears of Artamon".

Young hero Gavril is working as portrait-painter to the lords and ladies of Muscobar, a dukedom with a Renaissance flavour. Little does he know that his true father is Lord Volkh, the "Drakhaon" of a far more grim realm in wintry Azhkendir. Volkh's murder brings Gavril not only the throne--forced on him by dourly loyal henchmen--but demonic powers which exact a terrible price. Physical transformation is only the beginning. Yet it seems these powers must be used, because Ashkendir is threatened by spies, traitors, the vengeful spirit of Volkh himself, and external invasion.

High magic mixes with devious politics in Tielen, a princedom whose dreams of empire are supported by technomagical weaponry, "shadowsilk" invisibility cloaks for commandos, and men debased into werewolves. The southern mountains of Ashkendir lie between Tielen and its next goal Muscobar: too bad for Gavril's people. Except that Gavril himself is becoming something close to a nuclear deterrent--dangerous not only to foes.

Further complications involve blood feuds within Ashkendir, and Gavril's unwilling friendship with the man he's fated to kill; a servant girl who has unknowingly inherited the talent of Ghost Singer, able to sing the dead back from the afterworld; Gavril's mother, who becomes a political pawn; and a curse that "crops will fail, winters never end" until Volkh's raging ghost is satisfied.

Well written and smoothly readable, The Lord of Snow and Shadows offers an original flavour of fantasy that will have readers holding their breath for the sequels. Book one ends satisfyingly, but this respite is only a pause in the war, which will soon enter a new phase. --David Langford

Review

"'Overflowing with page-turning surprises and plot twists...a promising start to a clearly ambitious series'" (SFX)

"'Ash does it in style...she has given us a superb interweaving of character and context, seamless enough to carry us past the threshold of disbelief into a world both magical and firmly, unwaveringly human'" (Tom Holt)

About this edition

• Publisher: LGF
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 2253087890
• ISBN 13: 9782253087892
• Binding: Pocket Book
• Number of pages: 736