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The Hythrun Chronicles is Jennifer Fallon’s first trilogy, but it is being published here in the US after her second trilogy, The Second Sons, which arrived stateside last spring.
The first three books in the Hythrun Chronicles were actually known in Australia as The Demon Child Trilogy, and were bestsellers as well as finalists in Australia’s Aurealis Awards back in 2000. Here in the US, that trilogy is being combined with the books known as The Hythrun Chronicles Down Under to make it a 6-book series here. Details about the publishing history of the trilogies can be found at her website.
Medalon is a country whose leaders, the Sisters of the Blade, zealously set the rules and policies implemented as the state mandate that no one believe in any god or practice any religion, believing that such devotions affect and undermine systems built on the rule of law. Anyone discovered to be “heathen worshippers” of the old gods or believers in the legendary yet believed to be extinct race of demigods called the Harshini, is swiftly punished by having their lands and assets seized, or worse, sent to Grimfield prison. The Defenders are the disciplined and highly trained military arm that enforce the rules set down by the Sisters, and are sworn by oath to follow and enforce the laws of the land, as well as defend all Sisters from harm.
R’Shiel Tenragan is a novice Sister, and daughter of Joyhinia, a member of the circle of councillors to the First Sister, the recognized leader of Medalon. Her half-brother Tarjarian is a Captain in the Defenders, and an outstanding fighter and tactician. When a power struggle ensues after a more moderate Sister is voted in as First Sister, R’Shiel and Tarja are swept up in their mother’s scheming quest for power, and end up fleeing the Citadel for their lives.
After new First Sister Joyhinia reinstitutes The Purge, a systematic eradication of all who are accused of worshipping the old gods, both R’Shiel and Tarja end up joining the peasants who’ve loosely formed a rebellion against the Sisters. In time, they become important leaders and strategists for the rebels, and are thought of by the Sisters and the Defenders to be the most dangerous people in Medalon.
But none of them are prepared for the airing of long-kept secrets… secrets that not only reveal that the Harshini still exist and are thriving, but that R’Shiel herself is Harshini. It’s also revealed that she had secretly been taken by Joyhinia as a newborn, and may even be the long-prophesied Demon Child, an avatar that the Harshini and the people of the neighboring countries of Hythria and Fardohnya have waited centuries for, who’s existence is problematic for the governors of Medalon, and who’s arrival the people and god of Medalon’s northern neighbor Karien have long feared.
The non-believers and atheists of Medalon are about to be reintroduced to the old gods still walking the world.
Medalon is an enjoyable fantasy, a detailed world with several theological systems in play. The characters are crafted so that you like the heroes, despise the villains and traitors, and wonder who will betray whom next. This story suffers from one minor yet annoying feature; that fortunes turn on the whims of the gods, including lucky timings of meeting the right people at the right times, and of miraculous delays of enemies and rescues and diversions. It’s almost as if once the gods are physically introduced to the story, they seem to interfere with the fates and decisions of many of the characters.
While it’s more understandable that it would happen in a trilogy that’s about reintroducing forgotten gods to a land that’s ignored them for 200 years, I guess I’m a little more sensitive to it because of how passively manipulative it was in the Second Sons trilogy that I read and reviewed last year. But the fact that it’s easier for me to spot in this earlier work of Fallon’s doesn’t detract enough from the story to make me not want to read the rest of the series.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Medalon by Jennifer Fallon
Book One of the Hythrun Chronicles
Published by: Tor Books
ISBN: 0-765-30986-6
Genre: Fantasy
