Obsidian: Awakening (Book one of Obsidian Series)

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Nonetheless, it’s extremely entertaining, with many tense situations and action scenes often involving manly characters being exceptionally manly (although Djari does get to be badass riding bareback on a horse). Raised from birth as the chosen one to end the conflict, Djari drags him screaming into the blood sport of war and politics, guided by the schemes of her oracle brother who continues to withhold the most important part of his vision.

I’m probably being more critical with Obsidian:Awakening than I would be with a book I liked less, purely because I did enjoy that first chapter so much. But there are circles within circles at play and not everything in this world – like the characters - is black and white. Their beginning descriptions were pretty similar: full of pride and absolute conviction in what they believe, refusing to accept the trauma of their life and everyone else sucks if they do. The prince demands the woman, named Zahara, a proud tribal member of the fierce and nomadic Kha’gans, reveal the well-guarded secret location of Citara, a coveted stronghold, and threatens that he will give her over to all of his soldiers to be brutally raped and killed if she does not comply.However, she has a lot of universes and while not all of them have giant balls floating in space, most of them have dragons of one sort or another! An award winning epic fantasy inspired by the nomadic cultures of Mongolia and the Middle East, the rich traditions of Asia and Africa, strung together by intense Thai flavors that will stay with you for life. It's established pretty quickly that anything can and will happen, nobody is safe and the characters you begin to latch onto won't be spared. Despite the white and black of its deserts setting, it is all about shades of grey and the perspectives of different cultures.

I lapped up the multiple push and pull, cause and effect connections between all the personal and political factors and motivations at play. The opening chapter features warlord/conqueror/heir to the Salasar Empire, prince Muradi, who has just slaughtered a tonne of Shakshi on a campaign in the White Desert. When Fate offers seven heroes a chance to bring peace to the peninsula, she finds out none of them are interested. Speaking of which, I love the duality of the Black and White Deserts and the Black and White Towers which rule them. That said, love, self-sacrifice, devotion, bravery, family, honour are also to be found within “Obsidian: Awakening”, and the book is not completely devoid of hope.I know Sienna is capable of writing deep philosophical conflicts, not just personal ones, and, thus, when I sensed that gap in the worldbuilding, I craved to experience… more. But these characters are in their forties, they fancy each other, and their worldviews would have been constantly evolving during the decades since their first meeting.

If you didn’t like the cold reality that Game of Thrones explored then you won’t want to touch this either. As a book the story is interesting, encourages you to read from cover to cover and the characters are well formed and relatable.

Living, no matter how painful, was the embodiment of hope, and hope was what they needed to end the war, to carry on traditions, to offer peace to the next generations.