Review: Strong characters, compelling plot: Crown Service begins
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
This is the third series of Edun that I have read, and this is my favorite book of hers so far (three of the Courtlight series, one of Algardis, and this, the first book, of Crown Service).This novel's central character is Sara Fairchild, a young female warrior, trained since her youth by her father, an army commander. When her father is accused of deserting and summarily executed, she and her mother lose everything and become part of the poor citizens scraping by in the city. She is driven, finally, to find work on the fish docks, but surprisingly ends up as a guard for a warehouse of "pirated" goods. Here she meets Ezekiel, the curator of the collection. After a couple of days, they form a tentative bond and he helps her steal her father's records so she can learn why her father was killed. Sara has to fight their way out of the mercenary hall and almost falls into the berserker stage that captures Battle Mages if they rely on their magic for too long. Ezekiel helps her return to normal and they begin a journey to learn the truth about her father.The characters in this book are very satisfying: Sara, the war mage with a vendetta, is a driven, focused investigator; Ezekiel is a scholar of early times with a mysterious past and an interest in keeping Sara alive. Their friendship develops naturally through the book, and they do not exhibit the odd "on again, off again" swings that dominate the Courtlight series. And the plot is nicely constructed, and the pacing is lively and contains effective descriptions of this world.I recommend this book to readers who like strong female characters; it was thoroughly enjoyable. (I am actually impressed by how much I like it, and confused a bit by the difference between this book and the Courtlight novels. I gave up on them because the characters' actions seemed so odd: solid and empowered, and then confused and naive, and then powerful and focused, and then bewildered. Sara and Ezekiel were much more solid, at least for me.)