Review: The Song of the Aura has begun
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2012
Brother Thief by Gregory Downs start of in the city of Ymeer deep in the heart of the Blast Desert.  The main character is a thief named Gribly who is currently trying to steal a very expensive medical lotion for his adopted mother.  When during the theft he is attacked by a man with some crazy sorcerous powers, his life changes forever.  Gribly himself has a secret power that not even the woman that has raised him knows about.  He has a strange affinity for sand and anything made of the stuff.  Discovering that he is being hunted and that his life may have a much larger impact on the world than he ever thought he gets a group of people to travel with him to find someone with answers.This book has some fairly standard fantasy aspects with the group quest, one person's life having far reaching consequences, and even how Gribly came to be in Ymeer is a bit of a familiar story.  The special talents that some people have, "striding", are a very interesting way to set the story apart.  Gribly is a sand strider the book also reveals pit striders (bad guys), air striders, and water striders with more almost assuredly to come in the later volumes.There is a lot of potential in this series and I believe it will be 7 or 8 books when it reaches the planned conclusion.  The story arc being that massive leads me to hope for some great twists and turns to really set the series apart from all the other epic fantasy out there.  I am definitely invested enough to want to check out the second book in the series and can easily see myself following it all the way to the end.Review copy provided by the author.