Son of Avonar by Carol Berg

[meganbmoore]

Fourteen years ago Serianna, younger sister to the King's Champion, Tomas, was supposed to marry the newly crowned King Evard.  Instead, she married Karon, a humble antiquities dealer.  Except that Karon was secretly a survivor of Avonar, a land whose people were all but exterminated for sorcery.  In Leire, sorcerers are regarded as devils, and

Comments

[fire_snake]

I remember flipping through it in the bookstore. I don't remember what struck me wrong, either the writing style or the gratuitous violence of having the main female character's whole family killed, or it being a tale of revenge. For some reason, this kind of books doesn't sit well with me. I didn't even like "Count Monte Cristo" as a child. I think I just don't like cold and disillusioned characters in the center or narration, no matter what happened to them and theirs.

[meganbmoore]

The revenge isn't really a major theme. She has a lot of understandable hatred, but a major theme of the book is her realizing that she's let that blind her, and getting past it. The revenge only really plays in when she gives D'Nathiel shelter after learning Darzid is helping him. After that, she just wanted to send D'Nathiel on his way, until she learned there was a connection with her husband. The fate of Seri's family was gruesome but, sadly, fitting with some historical attitudes, and could have been a lot more so.

It has it's share of flaws, but I think it did a good job in dealing with the revenge/disillusioned theme, especially as a lot of it was looking past that.