Flamesong

This book is a great one you'll want to pull off your shelf and re-read every year or two. In the same style as CJ Cherryh and the Morgaine/Gate of Ivrel as well as the Tolkien series, this book magically absorbs you into a detailed world filled with lush history and truly believable characters. Sincerely a good book, although out of print now. My advice is to hunt it down, you won't regret it.

Barker's story takes place in the most richly textured fantasy world every created. It is a shame it is out of print and no longer available to beguile readers. As you read, you become immersed in this world, drawn into a culture that while foreign, is every bit as believable as our own. It is a world without iron, without horses, but where the gods are powerful interdimensional beings (and VERY real). You won't find taverns, but clan houses which specialize in winemaking. There is good and evil in abundance and a rousing good time in a world filled with layers of intrigue. Trinesh is a worthy hero.

I cannot recommend this book enough. The world is so rich and so different from what we always see in fantasy books. I am not even a real fantasy genre fan. I start to read them then throw them across the room because the plot and characters are as predictable as those in a romance novel. Not so with this book.

M.A.R. Barker, like J.R.R. Tolkein, was a Professor of Languages. In this book, he takes the reader through a portion of the war between the empires of Tsolyanu and Yan Kor, throws in a couple of love interests, a forgotten civilization, and a mysterious race of time/space travellers who don't need a TARDIS.Recommended for older teens and adults, this story, like most modern science fiction, does contain some topics and descriptions that might be disturbing to younger children.