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Lord of Silence

by Mark Chadbourn

Reviewed by Coral


The city of Idriss has always stood tall, its walls protecting them from the horrors that lurk in the forest beyond and withstanding enemy armies lucky to survive the forest. It is a sanctuary for many people, who wandered lost, terrified and near death from the forest. But now Idriss faces its biggest challenge.

Mellias, the leader of the Crimson Hunt (the army that defends the wall) is found murdered and ritualistically displayed. Other deaths soon follow, throwing the population into a panic. Never before has a killer roamed the streets.

Without a son of his own, Idriss’ King Lud had planned to leave his crown to Mellias, but now the ailing king has no one to name his heir. And there are those who would do anything to see themselves named Lud’s heir.

Rhiannon is an Inquisitor, charged with brining Mellias’ killer to justice. Failure would see her branded a traitor to the city. Vidar has not lived long in Idriss. He emerged from the forest, wild and without memories of his life before, a gemstone embedded in his chest. Unless he feeds the gem life as a sacrifice, the gem slowly drains his own life. Now Rhiannon and Vidar are the only hope Idriss has of surviving enemies outside and inside their city.

This was an interesting book, with an interesting concept and some interesting twists, but it left me wanting more.

I am a little confused as to how no own seemed to have a map in Idriss. So the forest that surrounds the city is full of beasts and most people who enter the forest end up dead. But enough people seemed to have survived to make it to Idriss that you would think they have some idea of what the larger world around them looked like. And there were some caravans of traders who made it to the city, so I just don’t understand this whole “no map” concept. How did the caravans know there was a city in the middle of the forest without one?

The dialogue had a very clunky feel to it.

The “people of the forest” didn’t really have much of a point to them, except to be a deus ex machina at the end of the story. Considering how much the book was trying to tell in 600 pages, I think they could have been left out. Of course, they served as an easy solution to fall back on near the end.

I didn’t really like the answer to Vidar’s past, but I was surprised by some of the twists that came out of it. Although at least one of them didn’t make any sense to me (mostly about the connection between the place of Vidar’s birth and Idriss, but I don’t want to give too much away).

While I can appreciate book’s that have an ambiguous ending, I thought there were just too many things I was left wanting the answer too. And since it seems like this book isn’t going to have a sequel, I don’t think I will be getting those answers any time soon.

Grade: B