Luthiel's Song

Finally finished a book that I have been reading off and on for a couple of months now, I started it right before the Christmas season and got distracted, but all done now. 
The book is Luthiel's Song: Dreams of the Ringed Vale by Robert Marston Fanney.
I am still trying to decide how much I like this book, it is the start of a series which always makes for an incomplete story, but I can live with that.  The writer came up with the idea along with the help of his role-playing game friends and that vibe definitely comes through in the book.  I'm not going to go into to much plot detail 'cause I would have to rewrite the book to make sure I got all the important points but I will go into a few things I liked and didn't like (caution spoilers ahead).

Let's start with the main character Luthiel, she is an orphan who has been lovingly raised by and elven couple along with there daughter Leowin who is approximately the same age.  Luthiel loves her foster sister very much and it is this love that sets here on this quest.  The character of Luthiel is okay, she is a little bland for me, but I like that her motivations so far seem to be love of her sister and not mooning after some guy, in fact in the first book at least there really is no romance among the main characters, which is thoroughly refreshing for a YA book.  Luthiel seems capable, not to angsty, willing to put herself in danger but not unessicarly, again not your typical lovelorn waif or your over the top GIRL POWER heroine.  I wanted to like her more...but I don't know...I found her a little eh.

One thing she does really well, and to me one of my favorite parts of this book, is ask practical challenging questions having to do with everything from how are going to actually accomplish this, to questions of morality and ethics.  This brings me to probably my favorite aspect of the book, the Vyrl.  The Vyrl are probably the authors most non-typical creative characters.  They are a corrupted and fallen race formally akin to angels.  They once numbered in the thousands and now are reduced to three, hunger driven, mad beings.  Essentially they have a never ending thirst for the blood of the elves, a thirst brought about by a curse after they were corrupted.  To save there world from being devoured by these insatiable creatures, a god/hero figure named Vlad Valkyrie allowed them to feed from his blood, holding the maddening hunger at bay.  Unfortunately Vlad is killed and in a desperate attempt to save his world he makes a pact with the Vyrl that the elves will send one child (known as the Chosen) every year to feed them, in return they will stay in there kingdom and not venture out to feed and create chaos.

 Luthiels blood turns out to carry the same properties of Vlad and returns (at least temporarily) the Vyrl to a sane state.  After this occurs Luthiel asks how the Vyrl can feed on the elves, if they feel it is evil.  The Vyrl ask her if she is evil for hunting a rabbit for her food, she replies no, she needs to eat and that's what rabbits are there for, that they are mere animals.  The Vyrl say that this is how they think of elves, as an animal to be hunted for food, and that the rabbits may hate the elves for consuming them as much as the elves hate the Vyrl.  I thought this was a pretty interesting take on the whole issue, who is "evil"  is it evil to try and survive?  What is the limit you should place on yourself when the survival of your very race is at stake?  Are the rabbits going to lead there own revolt?  After pondering this answer poor Luthiel is just more confused.  I love that the author really mixes up who is "bad" and who is "good"  and what makes somebody or somebodies good or bad, how choice plays into the whole thing, how an earlier decision may make it hard or even impossible to do the right thing later.  Anyways like I said I really like the questions he poses in this area.

One of the things that got a tad tedious is the whole quest/convenient item/help aspect to the plot.  When your just looking at the current "quest" it follows a pattern similar to gaming, complete with the oh so convenient weapon/jewel/cape of untold power that just happens to be exactly what you need at that exact moment to defeat the bad guy/escape the dungeon/find a better item.  To me it takes away some of the realism and self sufficiency of the characters. Also his stock character races (elves, humans, dwarfs, trolls) are pretty stereo-typical teenage girl/gamer boy run of the mill races.  It also gets a bit predictable, though one can always argue that J.R.R. Tolkien was the original quest/item/race creator :-)
I think Mr. Fanneys main strength is when he gives himself license to use his own creativity to it's fullest.  The world building, history and myth/legend framework he has laid down is amazing (makes me want to go visit this world) The characters he seems to create aside from the typical cliche fantasy characters and the stories behind them are really cool.  They are still derived from other stories and histories but he seems to have made them his own.
On the whole, it was a decent read, I will probably finish the series, but I won't be waiting at the edge of my seat for the next one, I give this 3 out of 5 zombies. If you want more info and some art and music go to the
Luthiels Song website, it's kinda cool. It's where I got all of the artwork on todays post

What do you like in your fantasy books?  Do you like the traditional characters or do you prefer a more out there creature?  Do you think all heroines need to be lovelorn waifs or SUPER GIRL POWER, or is something in between ok?