Twilight's Kingdoms

Twilight's Kingdom #1

by Nancy Asire

For centuries, two nearly-immortal races-the Krotanya, followers of Light, and the Leishoranya, servants of Darkness -- have been at war. Both races use mental powers in addition to the sword and bow. But because of their moral scruples--the Krotanya use their powers only to defend, not to attack -- they have suffered defeat after defeat and been driven deep into their ancestral lands.

Now the Leishorznya prepare a final blow under the leadership of the dread warlord SSenkahdavi, most skilled of all in the powers of Dark. Against him stand the brothers Kahsir, Alaric and Haskon, and their father and grandfather, last living leaders of the Krotanya. The Light's only hope is th appearance of the rumored savior Hjshraiel...but will he arrive in time.

Genres: Fantasy

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Nancy Asire (born 1945) is an American fantasy and science fiction author, best known for her Twilight's Kingdoms fantasy trilogy and her contributions to the shared universe series Heroes in Hell, Sword of Knowledge and Merovingen Nights.

Reviews

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It takes a very basic fantasy concept - forces of Darkness (Leishoranya) versus forces of Light (Krotanya) - and runs with it. What's especially interesting to me is that mostly this is a book about warfare and running away. They have been fighting this war for over 1500 years and the Krotanya have been steadily losing ground the entire time. The Krotanya started with 12 kingdoms and now they're down to the very last. Though each side uses mind-magic, the Leishoranya to attack and the Krotanya to defend, those powers usually cancel each other out and they're left fighting with swords and bows.

The Krotanya leadership is getting tired of always running. More and more each general is questioning what good it is for their whole race to die in order to keep their souls in the Light. But for this first book, barring one incident at the beginning, they stick to their rules: they use the mind-magic only to defend and to escape, never to attack. Their Mind-Born, the main magic users, keep advising them to wait, promising over and over that their prophesied king will appear, the only Krotanya who will be able to use mind-magic to attack and not lose his soul to the Darkness.

How much good one guy versus 11 kingdoms worth of bad guys is gonna be is anyone's guess.

This book also follows one of the soldiers of the Dark. For a while, I thought he was a spy for the Krotanya but I think he's there to show us what it's like on the other side. Plus it works better for the reader to know what's happening on both sides.

In the midst of all this you get a glimpse of what life is like for races of people who live for thousands of years. Kahsir, our main Krotanya, has been engaged to Eltarim for 70 years - the time has just never seemed right to get married. When he has to escape from a fallen city, he can't take the mind-road to escape because he doesn't know what the land around him is like, since he hasn't been there in 200 years. Overpopulation is not a problem, because they've been at war for 1500 years.

Honorable mention to our girl Iowyn, who is mentioned but doesn't show up in the first book. Going off of her name, you already know exactly what she's like. (Ready to throwdown at any time, kinda mad they won't let her lead an army)

I'm definitely reading the rest of these. I've had them for years and it seems like it's finally time.

Overall, it's a good book on warfare and tactics (as far as I can tell? I'm not a general). Light on magic and the character development is slow, due to them being very old and set in their ways. I'm having a blast reading them, which is really all I care about.

[Otto]

A

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent Fantasy novel

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was interesting, but there was very little character development beyond good and evil.