"Caught in endless cycles."

Although set many millenia in the futue, this novel and first of series is peopled with old fashioned clans, 'dirty cheeks and homespun clothes', the transport is 'wagons and horses', and the weapons arrows, sticks and swords. Yes, fantasy environment at its passionate princesses and heads of family best, with power plays, magic and - no, I don't recall any actual elves, but I could be wrong: I sort of phased out at times. There is a dragon tucked in there, though. A dragon! Wish I'd realized before I started. I really don't like dragons (apart from those on Terry Pratchet's Discworld). Even the language vasilates between current usage and the 'to say nought of the lizards' terminology. Hoeever, there are admittedly, some delicious lines in there, as in the description of bounty hunters: "Rough men as hard as flint, but not as sharp."

Narration was by Jorge Conzalez Paria, who had a massive task given how many individual protagonists appeared, sometimes briefly, only to return far in the future. Not surprisingly, then, it wasn't always clear who was speaking, but most of the main characters were given distinctive voices. His reading speed was also a little slow: increasing playback to 1.25 helped but did slightly distort the quality. Overall, not a bad performance.

My apologies to the rights holder who, at my request freely gifted me with a complimentary copy of Legend of the Storm Hawks, via ABB. And my thanks to you for your generosity. I was fooled by the clever chess references in the synopsis to expect something different i really am not a fantasy fan usually, although occasionally one will stand out and stun me with its brilliance. This is not one such, more a soap opera of pregnancies and power play, with men taking centre stage with their brawling and plotting and, occasionally, actual loving. I'm sure it will appeal to many but, sadly, not this reader.

Beautiful cover, though.

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