Book: “Star of the Morning” by Lynn Kurland
Publishing Info: Berkley Trade, December 2006
Where Did I Get this Book: The library!
Book Description: Darkness covers the north, since the black mage has begun his assault on the kingdom of Neroche. Legend has it that only the two magical swords held by Neroche’s king can defeat the mage. Now the fate of the Nine Kingdoms rests in the hands of a woman destined to wield one of those blades…
In this land of dragons and mages, warrior maids and magical swords, nothing is as it seems. And Morgan will find that the magic in her blood brings her troubles she cannot face with a sword-and a love more powerful than she has ever imagined.
Review: This book came to me by way of boredom-browsing through the library, a habit that has been met with both good and bad results in the books I ultimately end up with. I chose this one purely on the cover and the description. I have a weakness for the fantasy warrior woman trope, and I’m not ashamed! And as far as this aspect of the story goes, I was definitely satisfied.
We’re introduced to a fully capable Morgan who has years of experience under her belt, isn’t taking back talk from anyone, and demonstrates her abilities repeatedly throughout the book. Often, I find fantasy stories can rely too heavily on telling readers that their heroes are great, all while getting caught up in other plots and never really proving this claim. Morgan is not this. She fights off wild beasts, she trains a lord’s set of guards, she beats up on the king, for heaven’s sake! We are repeatedly shown just how awesome she really is. And I loved it all. What’s even better is that Morgan is aware of her talent. She doesn’t downplay herself and is fully confident in her abilities. If anything, she’s on the arrogant side which plays great for humorous effect.(She regularly complains about how incompetent the king is, unaware that he’s the king, and it’s too much fun).
And it’s not only Morgan who’s aware of her skill. Other characters, male characters, mention and appreciate her skill as well, reinforcing her place as a uniquely skilled swordswoman. Major points for this! It’s always refreshing to read a fantasy novel like this where the female protagonist isn’t punished in any way for being what she is: an extremely talented fighter. She’s just who she is, and that’s enough for everyone around her.
The story is split between Morgan and Miach, the king’s youngest brother and archmage of the realm. Also her love interest. He was given much more time in the story than the plot synopsis indicates. If anything, it’s a dual protagonist set-up between the two. He was also a fun character and what time we spent with him was enjoyable. While I probably enjoyed Morgan’s sections more, I wasn’t bothered by Miach’s portions.
The biggest strength of this book for me was the humor. There were several laugh-out-loud moments for me. The dialogue was witty and Morgan’s inner appraisal of those around her was always entertaining. Again, her disdain of the undercover king, and his reactions to her bluntness, was hilarious.
I do have a couple of criticisms. This book is fantasy-lite. The worldbuilding is of the most generic type for stories like this. We could be in any average magical world and nothing is really unique about this one. Magic is just a thing, there is no explanation for how it works the way it does or any limitations on its range. The politics are very typical, and what we’re given of the history of the world isn’t presenting anything terribly interesting.
And I personally always ding a book when the major conflicts of the story hinge on people choosing to just not communicate. There are several decisions like this throughout the book that just made me want to slap people. It was easy to see the conflict being set up by these choices and the payoff wasn’t worth the frustration of watching characters so badly mismanage things for a purely contrived purpose. These decisions made no sense and when I can see the author’s hand this clearly, it aggravates me. It goes completely against the competent characters that have been set up so far to then make them behave in this way, and it only succeeded in taking me out of the story.
Also, the ending. I won’t spoil it, but it was wrapped up way too quickly and in a manner that almost undid a lot of the goodwork and goodwill the book had built up up to this point. This book is the first in a trilogy, and while I was entertained by it and there were a lot of aspects I liked, I’ll still put this on my to-read list but I’m not in a major rush to get my hands on the second one based on some of these flaws.
Rating 6: So good in so many ways! So frustrating in so many ways!
Reader’s Advisory:
“Star of the Morning” is included in these Goodreads lists: “Best ‘Strong Female’ Fantasy Novels” and “Magic, Adventure, Romance.”
Find “Star of the Morning” at your library using WorldCat!
The Library Ladies 