I've tried this one close to three times over 2 years, and I can't get into it. The novel seems to be all over the place, and I'm not too attached to the characters either. I read a trilogy by this author that I absolutely loved and was hoping for more of that. Got a third of the way through and stopped. ( )

"Ten years ago, two children witnessed a murder that still haunts them as adults... When a chance meeting brings [the two] together, the secrets of an entire kingdom are uncovered and a villain out of legend returns to throw the land into chaos. Tali and Rix must learn to trust each other and find a way to save the realm--and themselves."

As the first in a trilogy, let me be honest, the size of this book frightened the ever living daylights out of me, but once I got into the story, I really got into the story! Granted, it took me some weeks to actually get started, but once I did...Whoa! After all, who can't resist a gruesome murder in the very first chapter? And one witnessed by children? Even better! The terror that young Tali feels really enhances the tension early on in the book. The fact that she is able to escape what could have been her own death, shows a courage and an intelligence that promises for a good tale later on, and the author doesn't disappoint!

Ian Irvine's Vengeance, Book one in the Tainted Realm Series, takes place in a fictitious world rife with shape-shifters, swords, sorcery, and slaves. There initially seem to be three races in the book, and while most of the people of the land see the Pale as a separate race, they are in fact Hightspallers that have been underground with their captors so long that they no longer have much pigment in their skin. Tali, our heroine, is of this race. She is the epitome of the noble slave, and something growing within her skull seems to be of great importance to the upcoming war.

Meanwhile, Rix is truly a noble of Hightspall, complete with a grand palace and a side-kick, Tobry, who acts both as his voice of reason and his personal trickster. Together these two young warriors happen to encounter our villain, a ghastly (yet still somewhat solid) ancient mage king out for... Vengeance! Then, on their way home, they just happen to run into Tali, complete with her own side-kick, a much younger slave girl named Rannilt.

The way the characters all come together is a bit reminiscent of a D-n-D game, which, I suppose, is to be expected from just about any modern day book in the fantasy genre and could become quite hokey, but not so here. Irvine managed to weave the mystery into the story in a way which makes the reader want to continue on with our heroes. We see the story unfold through various viewpoints, and each one is not the whole story. Each new piece of evidence is presented through a faulty lens, as each character has their own feelings/worries/agendas, and this kept me truly on the edge of my seat until I finished.

There were so many questions to be answered, and almost every answer brought up new questions: Who killed Tali's mom? Why is Tali so important? Will Tali figure out how to use her magic? How can her enemy help her to learn to use said magic? What exactly is Rannilt's gift? What happened to Tobry's family? Who is the wrythen? How does Rix and his family fit into this whole story? And so much more?

So why only four stars instead of five? I did find some flaws, which hopefully are just misunderstandings that will be cleared up in the second book. First of all, I was about 80-100 pages in before I really got a feel for the place, or understood who some of the characters were. We meet a lot of people when we first see Tali all grown up, and some of her wanderings left me very curious. If she's a slave, why can she just walk about and no one notices her? We find later that it might have something to do with her magic, but it's never really clear.

Plus, even though Tali seems to know exactly where she is in the labyrinth of tunnels where the Cythonians, or the enemy, as Tali calls them (another confusing point at first), live, I as a reader was hopelessly lost trying to figure out where she was or what she was doing, or, as I noted, why no one seemed to notice her, even when she was obviously in a place she should not be.

It felt a little lost, like in the beginning of Lord of the Rings, when Frodo and his friends first leave the Shire, and it becomes obvious that Tolkien wasn't sure where they were going anymore than the characters were, especially when we meet Tom Bombadil and wonder when we will see him again, but don't. I get a similar feeling here. We meet a lot of people, and it seems the author is trying to get a feel for the character of Tali by showing her with a bunch of different types of characters and in a bunch of different situations, and then we meet "Mad" Wil, and we wonder if we'll ever see him again, but in this book, we DO! So that's something at least...

The ending had a similar feel, a bit. It came rapidly to a close, and yet certain characters knew things they really shouldn't know. Like Rix knew Tali was lying about her feelings, yet Tobry didn't. This seemed very unlikely. Throughout the book, Rix was the dolt who needed someone to keep him out of his own way, so for the two to switch and Rix to inform Tobry of Tali's true feelings, it was really stretching, in my opinion. It's a small thing, but something that really bothered me. I didn't know if perhaps she had told Rix something and I'd missed it as I began to read faster to get to the conclusion.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor, a minor villain, I think, continuously knows things he shouldn't but not certain key elements that it would be dangerous for the plot development of the story if he knew. On the one hand, I want to know who his sources are; on the other, shame on Irvine for taking the easy way out with this one. If it turns out that the Chancellor has an unreliable spy or just doesn't want to tip his hand, then cool, but if not, it was kind of a sleazy way for the author to advance some key plot elements.

Again, hopefully it all gets cleared up in the next book, which I will totally be reading this summer, along with the rest of the trilogy, and perhaps some other works by this author.

( )

I read this book last year, and having found it to be a wonderful example of gripping Epic Fantasy, this re-read allowed me to delve into the deeper nuances of the story and pick out all sorts of details I had missed on my first, heart stopping read. Vengeance is a thought-provoking book, and in the usual Irvine style, left me desperate for more!

As I have to expect in an Irvine book, world building is immaculate in this book: everything has a purpose, a role, and it’s all vividly realised through the prose. The history is rich and complex, and the races of the Cythonians and Hightspallers are wonderfully delineated in terms of customs and speech. It did take me a while to place the Pale and the Herovians within this world, but I got there! One of the things that grabbed me about the book is that the first part – 193 pages – occurs over just a few days hours. It’s insane! I kept waiting for the characters to catch a break, and they never did! Vengeance is difficult to put down, and even when you’re away from it you’re always thinking about it!

The characters in the book carry a special place in my heart – Irvine has written about developed characters with clear conflicts and motivations that I found easy to empathise with. However, I still think that Tali could have been a little more complex: she’s your typical underdog for a lot of the book but does have shining moments where she steps out of that role. My favourite character is Tobry – there’s just something about him that draws me, plus his sense of humour provides a welcome reprieve from the darkness offered in the story.

Reading the story for the second time around, I was struck by the desperation of Lyf to return his people to their former glory. Previously I had just read him as a power-hungry bad guy – but this time around I saw other depths to his character and I’m really looking forward getting to know more about him as the series continues. Credit has to be given to Irvine for writing Lyf so that, even as I am hating him for threatening Tali and Rix’s lives, I am sympathising with him for the horrible things that have been done to him and his people.

Having read and loved Ian Irvine’s The Three Worlds books, I was nervous that I wouldn’t like this new series because, honestly, how could it get much better? Although Ian Irvine has written a completely different type of book in Vengeance, his trademarks of amazing world building and characterisation are still in evidence. It will be enjoyed by both fans of his earlier works, and those new to his work, and I highly recommend it!

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )