The Garden of Stones
The Garden of Stones, first book of the Echoes of Empire was written by Mark T. Barnes and published in April 9th 2013 by 47 North.
I’ve started to read this book as an epic fantasy but in the first chapters it sounds like a science-fiction. There is odd terms and some earth-like cultures. Then I guess, this book is set in the future in which there are different nations and races. But after reading 100-200 pages I notice that Mark T. Barnes did a great job and create an entire world system with many races, cultures, and creatures and to some degree language mostly used as terms.
There are some interesting races, most interesting one is the Avān. They were created using the humans and slightly more powerful than humans and live much longer. Humans are called star-born, probably in future books there will be some reference to the stars, and maybe the start is named as Earth. There are also nomads who are actually the undead.
The term awaking and the creation process of the races is the most original part of the story. There can be future series which take place in the previous empires.
I got this book from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley.
The Garden of Stones Cover
We found ourselves in the middle of a political controversy. Shrīanese Federation was ruled by some Great Houses and hundred families, but one of the families’ head decide to rule hem all.
Corajidin of the House Erebus wants to eliminate all his rivals, but warrior-mage Indris of the House Näsarat stands against Corajidin.
The Garden of Stones
I like the characters, they have motivations and I can understand why they are acting. In most of the recent books I’ve read I’ve difficulties to see the main motivations.
The name of the characters makes it difficult to read the book and follow the story. Also there are many variations of the character names. Actually this was one the books strengths to have this detail but also makes it difficult to follow.
Indris and Corajidin are the two main characters and rivals in the book. Indris draws a low profile and he is absolutely the main cool characters.
If I’ve a chance I want to ask the author, where did he find the names of the characters? Most of the names sounds like; Turkic, Arabic, Persian, Egyptian and Indian. At first I’ve thought I’m reading a book which was set in the future India.
The author uses many point of views to tell the story which I liked. Also like his style of writing.
Main theme is on hunger for the power and to rule. Corajidin wants so bad to rule the federation that his own girl did not support him at some point. Despite Corajidin, Indris do not want the power.
Despite my difficulties on complex character names and titles. I’ve read this book very quickly. The story is really fast paces, you cannot stop yourself to give-up the book. The world is interesting and original.
I’ve read this book with complicated feelings, as I’ve said in my previous comments the names make it difficult. I try to rate plot, characterization, style, setting and entertainment separately and take the average of these for overall rating. The overall rating is 3.5 which translates, it is between “liked it” and “really liked it”
I’ve received this book via NetGalley, also NetGalley has approved my request for the second book, The Obsidian Heart. But unfortunately I’ve missed the time to get it.