The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta

[chtlav361]

Melina Marchetta is well known for her book Jelicoe Road a Michael L. Printz Award winner. However, even though I have yet to read this or Saving Francesca, I have read her Lumatere Chronicles Finnikin of the Rock, Froi of the Exiles, and Quintana of Charyn, of which I would gladly give five stars to all three. This is a series that my mind loves to study in its writing techniques and its down to earth characters during my free time. Based in the land of Skuldenore, one which is constantly reminding me of Tamora Pierce's kingdom of Tortall, Finnikin of the Rock begins with a kingdom, Lumatere, and the "Five days of the Unspeakable" during which, the royal family is slaughtered, the people of the kingdom turn on one another, a false king takes control and burns the Forest Dwellers in their homes, the captain of the guard is arrested and sent to a foreign kingdom, the captain's beloved dying during the birth of their child in the palace dungeons, the matriarch of the Forest Dwellers crying a blood curse as she burnt at the stake which "caused the land to shudder and split" and a dark force to enclose the kingdom, and the one people to become two, one half trapped inside and the other trapped outside the walls. This series is beautiful and sticks with its readers. Some may consider it a bit lengthy at first but the series holds plenty of twists and turns that will hold most of all fantasy readers.