This review is part of the Readers meet Authors and Bloggers Spotlight group (which is quite a mouthful really). See also http://www.kephrath.com/BookReviewGroup.aspx for some details and a rafflecopter giveaway.

During the month of August we are looking collectively at Marian Allen’s fantasy book Sage I: The Fall of Onagros. Today I am giving a review of the book, and towards the end of next week I will be hosting an interview with Marian. Other people in the group will be posting their own contributions as time goes by. Check out my Spotlight Group page for links to as many such events as I notice.

My review of Sage I: The Fall of Onagros
I finished reading this splendid book a few days ago now, but wanted to wait for a while before writing this review. The book benefits from, and deserves, a period of reflection when you finish it so that the richness of the different layers sinks in.

It is also quite some time since I read any fantasy (though at one time I was very steeped in the genre) and so it took me a little while to get back into the style and form that Marian has chosen. I expect that other readers would be able to jump straight in and appreciate it. Having said that, this is not the kind of fantasy book that leans heavily on sword and sorcery heroes battling mythical beasts in search of vast treasure. There are swords, and there is some sorcery – there are even some mythical beasts – but the world, its characters and the activities that engages in are completely credible. It is a place where ordinary people can live.

Indeed, in many places the book comes over more as history than fantasy, and you might find yourself, like me, trying to puzzle out where and when the story is set. The basic “feel” is, I suppose, European rather than Asian or African, but with its own inventive and unique features. Family lineage, and personal names, are identified through maternal rather than paternal links, a feature that I found particularly interesting because of similar choices I make in my own, explicitly historical writing.

The story is told through multiple viewpoints, some of which are quite ignorant of one another. So from time to time you suddenly realise that you are revisiting a situation that you have seen before, but through a completely different person’s eyes. This takes a certain amount of attention to follow so as not to get confused, but I loved it. Different chapters show you different facets of the world, which is a rich and diverse place, ranging from opulent and expansive to brutal and narrow depending who is the focus of attention. The same geographical place might be familiar and next-door to one person, but far-away and legendary to another. An island in a river might be simply that, but it might also be an eerie and liminal zone that arouses awe, or even a metaphor of an infant in the womb. The imagery is vivid and varied.

There are a few things to be aware of. My kindle copy had a very small font size – easily overcome by expanding it towards the maximum size, but a minor annoyance which then had to be reversed for other books. Switching temporarily to geek mode, I suspect that a fixed point size had been specified in the style declaration, rather than letting the device sort itself out. Whether this is also true of the published version I could not say.

Also, the book is only the first portion of a trilogy. It is not self-contained, and readers will find that the end of this part arrives all too quickly. Of course, this is no secret, and I should have been prepared for this. Inevitably, though, I was hoping that the plotline would get past the problem faced by the characters at the end of this volume. It did not: my kindle progress bar reached 100% and there was no negotiating with that! Only one answer, I suppose… get the next book in the series, Sage II: Bargain with Fate.

Five stars, from me, for imagination, variety, and a fascinating fusion of different points of view.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.