To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts
Posted on January 23rd, 2010
To Ride Hell’s Chasm – Janny Wurts
Summary:
There is foul play running amok in the court of Sessalie and the Princess suddenly goes missing. Mykkael, the Captain of the Garrison, a war-hardened foreigner held in contempt by the court for the little understood shamanic practices of his desert tribe origins, gets begrudgingly caught up in the investigations as he finds himself a suspect. He works together with the uptight and nobel Commander of the Royal Guard, Taskin, who cannot deny the Garrison Captain’s skills. However, Taskin is hardpressed to believe Mykkael’s theory that the Princess was not actually kidnapped but was actually fleeing from an evil power, the same dark force that is slowly taking over the court members one by one.
Thoughts:
A very action-packed book from the start, things are always happening, though I wouldn’t say it was particularly fast paced because the book just shy of 700 pages. I haven’t read alot of fantasy and this is part of my efforts to read more of the genre, although I can probably say that it’s not going to be at the top of my list, but nice to dip into now and again. I enjoyed the book overall as I get bored with lengthy descriptions of world building and history (I like learning about the world as the characters interact with it) and also huge chunks dialogues and internal monologues. The writing style was fluid and descriptions vivid (very heart pumping action scenes). It had alot of character focus, which is something I love in stories. The three main characters, Mykkael, Taskin and Anja were quite likeable despite their little quirks and attitudes, and different from the usual cookie cutter fantasy characters. Mykkael I felt was a bit of the unconventional hero/anti-hero because he’s not really attractive in looks but you can’t help but feel for his suffering, which he takes into stride well. I enjoyed the scenes where he interacted with other characters because there was so much depth to him. Jussoud the healer is one of the best secondary characters I’ve come across. It was also interesting to see Mykkael working by himself and Taskin from inside the palace. It’d be too cliche if both of them journeyed out together because nearly every fantasy story has a trio/group on a quest. And Anja who I thought would be a little annoying to bear with at first became very sympathetic especially her relationship with the horses, you just want cry with her each time. She’s a strong girl but not overbearingly promoting modern female ideas, she understands her position as princess and the ways in which she can help her kingdom. I wouldn’t really classify this as a fantasy adventure but more as a fantasy mystery, because the focus was on finding out what was going on in the court. The only thing was that Myakkael’s ending was rather random, I was hoping he’d go back to his Garrison post because he’s perfect for it, and thought he’d be pretty upset when he woke up to find himself back in a place he had believed all his life outcasted him. But overall, this book is a good example of how a fantasy can be a standalone with meet without having to resort to a series with xx number of books (thick ones too).
Filed under: ** books, fantasy