Plagues of Kondar (Trials of Kondar Bk 1)
By Lynne Kositsky
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: July 5,
2014
ASIN: B00DPLMYW8
Amazon Synopsis:
Planet Kondar has a light side that faces the sun and a dark
side in eternal night. Lightsiders have never met those on Darkside, known as
Oscura.
Arien lives in Kattannya on Lightside. When her parents fall
through thin ice and drown, she is sold in the marketplace. The chief seer of
Vor, Yaddair, purchases her.
Vor is very close to Edge, a grey wall of fog that divides Lightside from Oscura. The
Vor is very close to Edge, a grey wall of fog that divides Lightside from Oscura. The
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My Thoughts:
Arien
is a young girl, fourteen cycles old. Her parents drown in the frozen lake on
their return crossing it while bringing grain back for their starving village.
A neighbour claims that now Arien owes them for the borrowed burden beast that
drowned with Arien's parents and so her parent's farm is given to the neighbour
and Arien is sold as a baseborn (slave) to pay off the debt.
The
planet Arien lives on is called Kondar and it has 2 sides. Oscura never sees
the sun and Lightside, where Arien lives never sees total darkness. Arien is
bought by the Chief Seer of Vor, a village very near the Edge, close to Oscura.
Arien is devastated, thinking she will never see her childhood friend Radol
again who recently moved closer to the center of Lightside.
Arien
expects her life to be filled with misery and drudgery as a baseborn since they
have no status or importance in her culture. But life does not always give us
what we expect. Afterall, she never expected to become a baseborn either.
The
Plagues of Kondar
are filled with strange beasts and animals and difficult tasks that Arien must
face. Arien discovers she has a skill that almost no one else on the planet
has. You will need to expect the unexpected as you read this book.
The
Plagues of Kondar
is well written and well edited. There is no foul language and the book is
clean as far as romance is concerned. The book is suitable for teens to adults.
I liked the pacing of the book. It was fairly constant throughout.
I
very much liked the characters of Arien and Yaddair. I even warmed up to
Neretta, but I just couldn't like Gilan much at all. I can't see how anyone
could possibly cry so much.
It
was fairly easy to visualize most things on the planet of Kondar. The
descriptions were fairly well detailed. The only thing I had some trouble
visualizing were the Oscurans. We didn't see all that much of them. For some
reason, in my mind they seem to resemble pterodactyls somewhat, but with
clothes and purple, red and orange skin.
The
Plagues of Kondar
was an enjoyable sci-fi/fantasy read. I think that anyone who enjoys science
fiction and fantasy will enjoy this book
too. I gave it 3 stars out of 5.
Thank
you to the publisher via NetGalley who provided a copy in exchange for a fair
and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thought are my own.
About the Author:
Lynne Kositsky is an award-winning
Canadian poet and author with a degree in psychology, another in education with
specialties in English and drama, and a Master’s degree in English from the
University of Toronto.
Lynne has taught at the middle school,
secondary school, and university levels, but resigned 15 years ago to pursue
writing children’s and young adult novels full time. Her poetry has won the
prestigious E. J. Pratt Medal and Award, and the Canadian Author and Bookman
Award. One of Lynne’s novels, A Question of Will, concerns the Shakespeare Authorship question and
has garnered considerable critical acclaim. It was recently on display at the
Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington in the Library’s “Golden Lads and
Lasses” exhibit.
Lynne has just finished a speculative
Y.A. novel, The Plagues of Kondar. It
is the first novel of a three-part series, and will be published by Dundurn in
July, 2014. Her latest project, A Terrible Grief, concerns Jewish refugees accepted in Shanghai
during the Second World War.
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