Product Description

Combining the best of fantasy traditions with her own unique vision, Sarah Ash brings to dazzling life a new saga filled with epic adventure and unforgettable characters. Far-reaching in scope and imagination, Lord of Snow and Shadows embarks on a journey like no other—into a shape-shifting world teeming with political intrigue, astonishing magic, and passions both dark and light.

Raised by his protective mother in the sunny clime of the south, Gavril Andar knows nothing of his father—or the ominous legacy that awaits him. But his innocence is about to be shattered. The man who ruled the wintry kingdom of Azhkendir, a man infused with the burning blood of the dragon-warrior known as Drakhaoul, has been murdered by his enemies. It is his fiery, chameleonlike blood that pulses through Gavril’s veins. The news is Gavril’s first taste of death—but it will not be his last. For blood is the liquid that seals his fate.

Expected by clan warriors from the north to avenge his father’s murder—and still his unquiet ghost—Gavril is kidnapped. He soon learns that becoming Drakhaon means not only ascending to the throne of Azhkendir but changing, in subtle ways at first, into a being of extraordinary power and might. A being that must be replenished with the blood of innocentsin order to survive. Ensconced in Kastel Drakhaon with no means of escape from the icebound kingdom, and carefully watched by neighboring rulers waiting to move against him, the untested Gavril must fight to retain his human heart and soul in the face of impending war—and the dark instincts that threaten to overpower him.

Man and beast, spymaster and insurgent, nature and the netherworld--all collide in phenomenal twists and turns. A masterwork of adventure fantasy, Lord of Snow and Shadows will leave you stunned—and longing for more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325312 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-29
• Released on: 2004-06-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 608 pages

Amazon.com Review
Sara Ash's Lord of Snow and Shadows is the promising opener to the Tears of Artamon series. The novel sets the stage in grand fashion as Ash deftly introduces the principal players in her well-realized fantasy realm. She begins with Gavril, a carefree portrait painter basking in the sunny climes of an irrelevant island republic. He soon discovers he is heir to a great and terrible legacy in the snowy wasteland of Azhkendir. Kidnapped by his murdered father’s personal guard, he is both captive and the Drakhoan--ruler of Azhkendir. His inheritance turns out to be more than just a crown, however. A dark force of immeasurable power is growing inside him while he finds his realm under siege from within and without.

Ash masterfully avoids most of the usual fantasy memes--except, of course, the reluctant hero, Gavril--and imports a vast menagerie of technologies and culturally resonant magics into her world. Her conflicting armies wield magic, muskets, and heavy cannon alongside darker forces that are too delicious to mention here. Apart from a few niggling inconsistencies (Gavril's transformation from foppish artist to deft statesman, for one), Ash's novel is a frosty infusion of new air into a genre overrun with the usual maidens-with-broadswords clichés. –-Jeremy Pugh

From Publishers Weekly
In this excellent start to a new fantasy series from British author Ash (Moths to a Flame), Gavril Andar, an idealistic young artist, falls for the nobly born Astasia Orlova, whose portrait he's been hired to paint. Luckily, he's attractive enough for Astasia to return the favor. He doesn't know he's also Gavril Nagarian, son of the recently assassinated ruler of the wintry kingdom of Azhkendir, and that fate is about to deal him a dreadful blow. Like his father before him, Gavril becomes soul-bound to the Drakhaoul, a creature that grants awesome power at a terrible price. Kidnapped, Gavril finds himself trapped in Kastel Drakhaon, reluctant to draw on his new magical abilities, as their use only makes him more beast-like and less human. But with Prince Eugene of Tielin threatening to reconquer all of the Rossiyan Empire, he may have no choice. Fascinating and unpredictable, Gavril's tale gains richness from the grand scope of Ash's narrative, with its echoes of Russian history under the czars. Enhanced by supporting characters who are living, breathing individuals, this book will leave readers drooling to get their hands on the sequel from the moment they turn its final page.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When his father is murdered, young Gavril is forced to come of age and to step unprepared into his role as the new Lord Drakhaon of Azhkendir. Complicating matters is that, raised in the sunny south, Gavril knows nothing of his father or his dark lineage. When he was a child, his mother, Elysia, fled with him from the Drakhaons' castle in fear for her life. Now, as Gavril endures a period of initiation by the people of his kingdom, he slowly comes to realize the depth and horror of the darkness associated with his kingship--a darkness that, by the power of fire and blood, possesses and rules every Drakhaon, a darkness that requires the blood of innocents in order to survive. Ash's interesting, quickly paced dark fantasy emphasizes the power of love to conquer evil and the making of responsible choices. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

more stupid decisions and plot twists than a bad movie
I love good fantasy. This isn't it. Every character makes unbelievable bad choices at almost every point possible. How can you garner sympathy for any of them? During the climatic battle the ruthless ruler (Eugene) cries like a schoolgirl when his no-longer-necessary protege Jaromir gets killed in yet another unbelievable sequence of stupid mistakes. Sarah Ash doesn't know how to write about male characters, that's certain. She should put her next fantasy novel in a world entirely peopled with females. I am destroying my copy of this book to ensure that none of my daughters stumble on to it and waste their time.

Two stars for managing to think of using Tsarist Russia in fantasy
The author deserves credit for developing a Russian-themed world as the background for her story. The curse of the principal character is also interesting.

And that's about it.

Extraordinarily sparse characters and a pointless and uninteresting plot combine to render this book an utter waste of time and money.

I'd rather re-read one of the latter Wheel of Time books than finish this book, let alone continue with the series. That's how bad it is.

If you like high fantasy with tormented characters, you'll like this
I'll be honest-what first attracted me to this book was the cover. It's just beautiful-even for a non-fantasy book. For a fantasy novel it really rates up there with the best covers because there is no amazingly beautiful woman wielding a sword or magical flames or riding a dragon or winged horse on the front. But what kept me interested in this book; in a period when I've been having trouble focusing on one book was the content.

This is the story of Gavril, who just wants to be a painter like his mother as he was trained to be. But he has no idea who his father is, and when the man dies his blood sworn guards leave the frozen kingdom of Azhkendir and inform Gavril he is the new ruler. When he resists them, they kidnap him from the peaceful bay where he lives and dreams of being with the Grand Duke's lovely daughter and take him back to the land of his father-who was reported to be a monster in more ways than one.

There he finds his fathers pregnant mistress, a serving girl who somehow liberated his father's murdered ghost into the world of the living and that he is changing. The sprit of the Drakhaoul has entered in to him as the heir to his father, and it is changing him, making his blood purple, causing him to shoot blue lightning from his hands and creating a lust for innocent blood...

Set against a backdrop of political strife and impending imperialism, Gavril's struggle to remain human while protecting his new home, finding his fathers murderer and trying to free himself from the demon is compelling stuff. It's well written too with a very well designed world. It's not perfect though, there are a lot of plot lines to follow (though not nearly as many in say, "A song of ice and fire") and the motivation for what characters do is often unclear. Still, halfway through I purchased the next two books in the series and expect to read them soon.

Four stars. If you like high fantasy with tormented characters, you'll like this.