Product Review
Flesh and Spirit is the first book of a duology where Valen of Navronne is introduced, the pure-blood scion of a long line of diviners and magical cartographers, who hates his heritage. He ran away as a youth, lived as a rogue, and wound up, badly wounded and owning nothing but a magical atlas, at a monastery.
The rebellious hero, 27-year-old Valen, has been hiding from his pureblood family of sorcerers for 12 years. Valen, who's also struggling with a kind of drug addiction called "doulon sickness," possesses his grandfather's magical book, Maps of the Known World ("Legend said it could lead men to the realm of angels"). The book is Valen's passport to sanctuary with the learned monks of Gillarine Abbey, who believe he can unlock its magic. After his family discovers him, Valen becomes resolved to learn the book's power. At stake is not only the protection of an innocent boy sheltered at the abbey from greedy princes vying for control of their dead father's kingdom but also the entire world's salvation.
In a land divided by tyrants, extremists, war, and a fair bit of insanity, very little is certain. What is certain is that this first half of Valen's duology will delight readers eager for a taste of something darkly different.
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