Seigneur des Neiges et des Ombres (Les Larmes d'Artamon, Tome 1)

Ash, Sarah

ISBN 10: 2253087890 ISBN 13: 9782253087892

Publisher: LGF, 2008

Synopsis

731pages. poche. Broché. Trois royaumes. Un homme. Une destinée écrite en lettres de sang. Gavril Andar mène dans le Sud une vie paisible. jusqu'au jour où de féroces guerriers viennent bouleverser cette sérénité Ramené de force dans le royaume hivernal d'Azhkendir, il apprend que le roi, son père qu'il n'a jamais connu, a été assassiné, et que dans ses veines coule le sang brûlant du Drakhaoul. Dès lors, le destin du jeune Gavril est scellé. Prisonnier de Kastel Drakhaon, cerné par les glaces, il est censé venger la mort de son père. Mais le jeune homme doit lutte pour garder son âme humaine et retenir les sombres instincts qui menacent de s'emparer de lui. Car être Drakhaon ne signifie pas seulement accéder au trône d'Azhkendir: cela implique aussi de devenir un guerrier-dragon, d'une puissance extraordinaire. et de puiser dans le sang d'innocents pour survivre!

About this title

Review

Sara Ash's Lord of Snow and Shadows is the promising opener to the Tears of Artamon series. The novel sets the stage in grand fashion as Ash deftly introduces the principal players in her well-realized fantasy realm. She begins with Gavril, a carefree portrait painter basking in the sunny climes of an irrelevant island republic. He soon discovers he is heir to a great and terrible legacy in the snowy wasteland of Azhkendir. Kidnapped by his murdered father’s personal guard, he is both captive and the Drakhoan--ruler of Azhkendir. His inheritance turns out to be more than just a crown, however. A dark force of immeasurable power is growing inside him while he finds his realm under siege from within and without.

Ash masterfully avoids most of the usual fantasy memes--except, of course, the reluctant hero, Gavril--and imports a vast menagerie of technologies and culturally resonant magics into her world. Her conflicting armies wield magic, muskets, and heavy cannon alongside darker forces that are too delicious to mention here. Apart from a few niggling inconsistencies (Gavril's transformation from foppish artist to deft statesman, for one), Ash's novel is a frosty infusion of new air into a genre overrun with the usual maidens-with-broadswords clichés. –-Jeremy Pugh

From the Inside Flap

Combining the best of fantasy traditions with her own unique vision, Sarah Ash brings to dazzling life a new saga filled with epic adventure and unforgettable characters. Far-reaching in scope and imagination, Lord of Snow and Shadows embarks on a journey like no other--into a shape-shifting world teeming with political intrigue, astonishing magic, and passions both dark and light.

Raised by his protective mother in the sunny clime of the south, Gavril Andar knows nothing of his father--or the ominous legacy that awaits him. But his innocence is about to be shattered. The man who ruled the wintry kingdom of Azhkendir, a man infused with the burning blood of the dragon-warrior known as Drakhaoul, has been murdered by his enemies. It is his fiery, chameleonlike blood that pulses through Gavril?s veins. The news is Gavril?s first taste of death--but it will not be his last. For blood is the liquid that seals his fate.

Expected by clan warriors from the north to avenge his father?s murder--and still his unquiet ghost--Gavril is kidnapped. He soon learns that becoming Drakhaon means not only ascending to the throne of Azhkendir but changing, in subtle ways at first, into a being of extraordinary power and might. A being that must be replenished with the blood of innocentsin order to survive. Ensconced in Kastel Drakhaon with no means of escape from the icebound kingdom, and carefully watched by neighboring rulers waiting to move against him, the untested Gavril must fight to retain his human heart and soul in the face of impending war--and the dark instincts that threaten to overpower him.

Man and beast, spymaster and insurgent, nature and the netherworld--all collide in phenomenal twists and turns. A masterwork of adventure fantasy, Lord of Snow and Shadows will leave you stunned--and longing for more.

About this edition

• Publisher: LGF
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 2253087890
• ISBN 13: 9782253087892
• Binding: Pocket Book
• Number of pages: 736