Savage Messiah
The Destinies of Blood and Stone
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Robert Newcomb’s dazzling debut trilogy, The Chronicles of Blood and Stone, introduced readers to the strange and wondrous land of Eutracia. Now, in Savage Messiah, the first volume in a sweeping new trilogy of magic, romance, and adventure, Newcomb returns to the world of his epic saga, unlocking fresh secrets and startling surprises.
With the demise of his evil half brother, Wulfgar, Prince Tristan restored peace to Eutracia . . . or so he thought. But the Orb of the Vigors was damaged in the climactic battle, and now the powerful artifact is bleeding magical energy and cutting a swath of death and destruction across the kingdom. Tristan can heal the wounded Orb, but not until his enchanted blood is returned to normal. Only then will the powers of the Vigors be his to command. Unfortunately, the secret of reversing the enchantment is lost.
Even worse, Wulfgar is neither dead nor defeated. Ensconced in his fortress across the Sea of Whispers, Tristan’s hideously scarred half brother plots with the Heretics, the otherworldly masters of the Vagaries. With their aid, Wulfgar has grown even stronger in the dark arts. Now, with powerful demonic servants and weapons of dire potency, Wulfgar sets forth to complete the destruction of the Orb . . . and to avenge himself on the Chosen Ones. Preceding him, he sends a brotherly greeting: a cunning assassin with orders to dispatch Eutracia’s ruling council.
Tristan and his trusted allies—the wise wizards Wigg and Faegan, the beautiful pirate Tyranny, and, dearest of all, his beloved Celeste—embark on a desperate quest to cleanse his blood. It is a journey that will lead from the Sea of Whispers to distant Parthalon to the mysterious Well of Forestallments, and it will change everything the Chosen Ones think they know about themselves and their destiny. If they should fail, the Orb will perish, and with it, the Vigors.
As for success, it may prove more costly still. . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the world of Eutracia, Newcomb's repetitive first volume in a new fantasy trilogy relies on the same gimmick as The Scrolls of the Ancients (2004), the final book in his Chronicles of Blood and Stone series. Once again a villain returns from the dead; Wulfgar, whom the heroic Tristan "killed" in The Scrolls of the Ancients, is now the all-powerful Enseterat, whose mastery of the dark magic of the Vagaries is enhanced by his direct contact with the ancient Heretics of the Guild. A more serious flaw is the book's system of magic. People are drawn toward the evil Vagaries or the good Vigors by the "lean" of their blood signatures. Magic can change this natural lean, but since characters gain their magical abilities not by study or practice or experimentation but by "forestallments" imbued into their blood, they lack free will. Newcomb's prose isn't strong enough to compensate for an uninspired adventure whose protagonists amount to mere automatons.