Monday, February 21, 2011

The Sentinel Mage - Review


Title: The Sentinel Mage
Author: Emily Gee
Series: The Cursed Kingdoms Trilogy #1

Synopsis: “In a distant corner of the Seven Kingdoms, an ancient curse festers and grows, consuming everything in its path. Only one man can break it: Harkeld od Osgaard, a prince with mage’s blood in his veins. But Prince Harkeld has a bounty on his head – and assassins at his heels.
“Innis is a gifted shapeshifter. Now she must do the forbidden: become a man. She must stand at Prince Harkeld’s side as his armsman, protecting and deceiving him. But the deserts of Masse are more dangerous than the assassins hunting the prince. The curse has woken deadly creatures, and the magic Prince Harkeld loathes may be the only thing standing between him and death.”

Review: My first thought as I was reading The Sentinel Mage was, “I’ve been blessed with good books lately.” This book was wonderful. I got so involved in it that I couldn’t do any homework or anything else until I finished it. And then I wanted more.
Sometimes I have trouble with novels that skip around from character to character. I get confused, or I end up liking one character’s story much more than the rest and so I skim through the bits about the characters that I don’t like. This novel was not like that. Gee starts with Jaumé’s story. A young boy watching the world go mad around him. Then she switches to Innis’s story. Innis is a shapeshifting mage, and not just any mage. She’s a sentinel mage, who enforces the laws of the mages. After meeting Innis we get to see Harkeld’s story. Harkeld is a prince who is disowned by his family when it is revealed that he has witch (mage) blood. Later we get to experience the story of Harkeld’s half sister Princess Brigitta, who discovers a sinister plot within the castle.
This novel has it all. Zombies, magic, shapeshifters, adventure, romance… I could go on. I loved all of the characters and got very involved in all of their parts of the story. I didn’t experience my normal resigned sigh when the story switched from the character I liked to one I didn’t care about as much. They were all fascinating and interwoven. My only complaint is that Gee’s books tend to come out several years apart. I want the next book in this series now!

Publisher: Solaris
ISBN: 978-1907519505

If you like this book you may want to read:



Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee (ISBN: 978-1844164691)



The Summoner (Chronicles of the Necromancer #1) by Gail Martin (ISBN: 978-1844164684)

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