Tananen er magisk og fantasifullt land med en magiker man blir glad i. ( )

{Standalone, fantasy}

Magic has been lost to the world except in the carefully isolated land of Tananen which is guarded by an entity her people call the Deathless Goddess or the Lady. Only some women can hear the Lady and speak Her Words and they safeguard them for the mages in case they are lost. Only some men can write those words with intent and create magic but the Deathless Goddess exacts a price with each creation and mages age a little each time. Maleonarial, the foremost amongst them, does not enjoy seeing loved friends and young students age and die before their times and, twelve years before the beginning of the book, left the mage school at Alden to wander Tananen and find a way to avoid that cost.

Now there is a magic that works in a different way, creating abominations and the hermit mage must be found in time to stop it doing more harm.

Czernada has created a cohesive world with hold lords in charge of holds with other towns and villages under them. Hold Daughters are the representatives of the Lady; there is one Daughter to each hold but she has many other ladies in the hold who can also hear the Lady. Similarly, each town and village has their own daughters who report back to their own Hold Daughter as necessary.

This one made me cry; she writes the mother-child bond beautifully, not with sentimentality but with a no-nonsense love. Absolutely spot on.

Leksand ducked his head, giving his mother a worried glance. Kait carefully didn’t smile. “Go on, then,” she advised her son. “It’ll be a longer trip if you don’t talk.”

Some issues with half sentences, but I can live with that. And while I love the tattoo-like curlicues they unfortunately obscure several of the words in my library e-book.

5***** ( )

A fascinating magic system is breaking down, as detected by a few of it's practitioners. This is much more of a plot driven book than character involved, and the rapidly altering viewpoints continually scattered my connection to the story. It still has much to recommend it, but wasn't an absorbing read. ( )

Read. Provided a blurb. Absolutely adored this book. ( )