Beasts of the Frozen Sun (Frozen Sun Saga, # 1)
By: Jill Criswell
Publication: August 6th 2019 by Blackstone
368 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--Burn brightly. Love fiercely. For all else is dust.
Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people's souls, to see someone's true essence with only a touch of her hand.
When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland--one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun--Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith. He confides in her that he's been cursed with what his people call battle-madness, forced to fight for the warlord known as the Dragon, a powerful tyrant determined to reignite the ancient war that Aillira started.
As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira's life, for Reyker's soul, and for their peoples' freedom has only just begun.
Sigh. Beasts of the Frozen Sun started out so good. It has a Tristan and Isolde vibe to it. Enemies. One injured and nursed back to help by the other. Time spent together. Feelings develop. Forbidden romance. All good, good things. I was so excited to keep reading this book.
Lira is god gifted. She's able to read people's souls. But Reyker is different. She's never experienced a soul like his before. Lira loves her family. But her father has been using her gift and using her in the process. She's faced with two choices: go to live at the temple or get married. She doesn't feel drawn to either path before her. And when Reyker washes up on her shore, everything changes.
Reyker. He's struggling with himself. Who he was, what he believes in, versus what he's done and allowed himself to do in order to survive have him at war with himself. Darkness and light in a constant battle. Lira can see to the core of who he is. She brings the light forth. From a writing standpoint, I struggled with Reyker's character. He's built up as being super strong. A beast, right? He's the Dragon's Sword. He's a weapon. And at times he describes himself as letting a black river take over--almost like he's given over to battle lust and can't be defeated. Yet time and time again, he's bested by those of Lira's people. This isn't even about Draki at this point.
And that leads me to my next point. I was thoroughly enjoying Beasts of the Frozen Sun until about the 4 or 5th time that Lira and/or Reyker was captured and held hostage. These two could never get ahead. They made the tiniest forward movement in their missions. I truly feel like this was a writing flaw. Too many bad things were happening to the characters that it almost leaves the reader without hope for them. And it creates doubt in their abilities. This means that when they ultimately do end up overcoming their obstacles in order to achieve their happily ever after, it's going to feel unrealistic. That after all of these failed attempts to escape, to make an impact, they all of a sudden succeed at what they've been failing at time and time again. I hope that is remedied in the future of the series.
The world-building for Beasts of the Frozen Sun was almost too complex. There are two nations, each with their own histories and gods. The acknowledgments state that Jill Criswell was inspired by George R R Martin. And I can certainly understand how his vast world-building would inspire her to do something similar. Yet his books were no less than 800 pages long, and after 5 books that's 5200 pages (almost). You can do quite a bit more world-building in that amount of pages than you can in 368 pages.
Beasts of the Frozen Sun started out wonderfully to me. Yet the further I read into the story the most disappointed I became. I do think I'll want to read more and finish the series at this point, but the characters had too many failures and setbacks. And the setbacks were basically the same thing over and over again. The characters get captured before they can accomplish much nearly every time they try to move forward. The characters are built up to be larger than life in how they're described, but when push comes to shove they fail over and over. I wanted to see something that would give me cause for hope. In the end, I think Beasts of the Frozen Sun gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Beasts of the Frozen Sun? What did you think? Let me know!
This review is part of my All Things Halloween event--a month of fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, mystery/thriller, etc reviews and books.
