Friday 18 January 2013

Lunula

Title: Lunula
Author: Alyssa Auch
Pages: ? (ebook)
Published: October 8th 2012
Published by: Malachite Quills Publishing


The witch knows he will hunt her.


If history repeats itself, as it always does, Wynn will have no choice but to cross paths with her feared counterpart, the warlock. If given the chance, he would kill Wynn, absorbing her aura and obtaining ultimate power. In a desperate attempt to outrun destiny, Wynn moves from place to place, hoping to stray from the map laid out by the Fates. But by chance, on an urgent errand for Queen Alexandria herself, Wynn finds she has fallen into the hands of the one man she so hopelessly fled from. Now his captive, Wynn must guard her secret and that of her kingdom, or risk bringing forth a dark age not seen in hundreds of years.

Every hundred years or so, and witch and warlock are born, opposites destined to be at odds. Every witch is hunted down by their warlock who tries to kill them for their power. Every time, they have failed to get there before the witch sacrificed herself. Wynn is a witch, trying to make her own way in the world while protecting her secret. When asked by her Queen to deliver a message to the Elves in the north, she gladly accepts.

I started off reading this book in dribs and drabs, when I was travelling or waiting for people to arrive places and whatnot. Its start was intriguing (and well written) enough to keep me reading, but not to hook me. There's enough mystery to keep you reading without you feeling completely lost, helped by the fact that the world isn't too different from our own. The magic system isn't too complex in that there are really one two people who can use it, and it seems to work mainly off will rather than any real degree of learning. How could it, with 100 years between each appearance of witch and warlock? It's not like anyone's still going to be alive to teach them.

So I was kinda making bits and pieces of progress, reading a chapter here and there but not particularly attached to the story. Then it really hit its stride about a quarter of the way through, and it was the introduction of Gethin that did it for me. I love the interactions between him and Wynn, especially that she just doesn't lie down and go with what he wants and tried to tell her to do. She's defiant and sticks up for herself and what she wants. Not always incredibly successfully, but that's no bad thing.

Wynn is strong-minded and a deeply caring person, somewhat surprising given her own personal history and the history of witches in general. Gethin is surly and strict, but also someone who cares deeply for people, even if he doesn't always show it. And I like that you got to see different sides to them, Gethin especially. He's strict commander, caring leader and rather sweet man all rolled into one.

Of course, the story is a little predictable and you can see most of it coming from miles away but I like that in a book sometimes. I spent a fair portion of the last few months reading Dickens and you really have to pay attention to him - it was nice to escape into a book which was easy. And once it got going, I found it rather hard to put down. I was all like, 'Yeah, I'll just read a chapter then go to bed.' Next thing I know it's 2:15am...

For all that it was an easy book to read it wasn't full of clichés, and the story and writing was generally good. The descriptions in places were wonderful, but in other places were clumsily done and confused me rather than enlightening me about things. But this was the minority of the time, so it's not the end of the world. There were some gaps and inconsistencies and things that didn't quite make sense but you'll find these in most books and none of them were that major. Except the phrase 'very silent', which appeared a couple of times. This annoyed me somewhat, as you are either silent or you aren't. I don't think you can be very silent. Especially as we are told people are talking quietly among themselves soon after one of its usages. And someone managed to have a 'round, heart-shaped face' at one point too.

But then the ending...I really didn't like the ending. I like happy endings, where everything works out. Not so in this case. On top of this, it was one of those 'blink and you miss it' endings - over in a matter of paragraphs. I prefer there to be a little more to them, and a little less ambiguity. It seems like there's going to be a sequel, but I can't find anything about one.

This book was so close to being 5*, but it just wasn't quite there. Still, overall it was a good book and one I'd easily recommend.


No comments:

Post a Comment