Talon is a young man just coming into his abilities. He happens upon an icetiger and confirms he is a Rada--one who shares a telepathic bond with an animal companion. And that means he also has a shapeshifting ability. But he also soon learns he may have more abilities than he imagined. When his homeland comes under attack by the Zeikas, a militant people who worship the fire-god, Zeidarb, Talon must rise against them. His abilities make him the best defense his people have. But the leader of the Zeikas is aware of Talon and his abilities, and he seems set on capturing Talon for his own devices.

It's a lot of pressure to put on a young man like Talon. And he's no family left to rely on. So he needs to figure out who he can trust and who he can't. And he soon learns there are plenty of people on both sides of that line.

I always enjoy writers who can create a world with a high level of complexity and present it in an easy-to-follow manner. And that's exactly what Amanda Greenslade has accomplished here. There are places and people and abilities and tribes and gods...so many names and words to keep track of. Yet I never felt like I had any real trouble doing so. And there's a good mix of action and history, allowing readers to understand the context without needing to read a whole chapter of the history of the world to understand it.

I'm intrigued by this book, to be honest. I sort of stumbled upon it without really hearing much about it. But I'm glad I did. It's an interesting start to what I'm hoping will be a great fantasy series.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] ( )

The good: I really did like this book, and liked it well enough to dive right into the sequel. I love human/animal bonding stories, and this book absolutely revels in the concept of mental bonding to animals, spirits, and other things. Shapeshifting is also a winner. The worldbuilding is very complex, details are rich, and the characters are well-fleshed out. Magic, psychic abilities, wolf gods, and more.

The not-so-good: Info-dumping occurs with industrial-sized construction equipment. I don't actually mind a little info-dumping, but there's nothing little about it, here. Overexplaining is also present. The cultural explaining gets tedious in places, breaking immersion. Many of the commonly-used words are unpronounceable at a glance. (How the heck do you deal with that double 'i')? The MC may be a bit of a Marty Stu. His only flaw seems to be a justifiable wrath, which everyone is trying to help him overcome, so we know he'll do it.

The not-good, not-bad, but notable: This books is way more Christian than Narnia, and boy the religious overtones are driven home using a sledgehammer. The names and details of the mythos may be different, but the Christian metaphysics, beliefs, and mindsets are relentless. The division is presented as very black and white - the bad guys are all bad, the good guys are all good. This book is almost entirely ABOUT religion, which given the current issues in the world, is more than a little hard to take in a fantasy - especially since it definitely takes sides. But if that's your thing, you'll love it. ( )

... a fascinating and magical world

It always amazes me how authors can create other worlds, complete with their own occupants, gods and animals, plants, landscapes that seem familiar and that are different and occupants who have abilities we can only guess at. Such a place is Chryne, created by Australian author, Amanda Greenslade. A place where magic abounds, where there exists the Kriites, a people who have animal bond-mates, the Rada-kin. Such a man Is Talon, who comes into his bond at later than normal and unexpectedly, with an icetiger. This happens just as his community is attacked by an opposing force, the Zeikas sorcerers and worshippers of the fire god Ziedarb. The Zieka want to bring the Kriites and their bond mates under their control.
Sent on a mission to ask neighbouring kingdoms for help, Talon and his companion Sarlice and their bond mates are tracked by Zeikas. They rescue a young woman, Lira, who joins them on their journey, only to betray them in startling ways.
As Talon and Sarlice race towards refuge they are pursued by a relentless group of Zeikas, who seem to want Talon for his bloodline and gifts.
A tense story of action, of magic, and of the growing battle for the Kriites to remain free from the evil espoused by the Zeikas and to continue the ways of their peoples.
Where this series will lead is an intriguing puzzle.

A NetGalley ARC ( )

I received a free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Light. Glorious, blue prisms of light sparkled of every leaf and branch.

Personally I like the first sentence of this book because it sets the scene and the atmosphere at that particular moment. It gave a good opportunity for some world building but instead of doing so Talon meets his Rada-kin in the first couple of pages. That could have worked out fine if the rest of the book was written with the same forward movement. Unfortunately that was not the case and so the reader enters the story very quickly only the be held back after that.
A positive aspect was how the information of the history of this world was explained. The book is written in first person but instead of making it some kind of monologue in order to inform the reader on the history, Talon informed his Rada-kin. I think this is an original way to handle things. In the first chapter the icetiger is awakened and knows nothing of the world of humans because she has lived as an animal without spirit she met Talon, so she has no knowledge about humans yet and has to learn it all from Talon scratch. (Don't worry if this is a little vague to you, it's all explained in the book). But even though the information, history and religion mostly, was given in an original way I felt like I missed some information in order to fully understand Talon and his kind.
The idea of not taking some random 15 year old as a main character but choosing someone who is nearing his twenties is a big plus. There are too many young adult novels where I think the main character is acting too much like a twenty year old instead of acting the way a fifteen year old should. Making Talon nineteen and giving him a somewhat naïve view on some events (like women) creates new opportunities which will not seem as unreal because he acts someone his age could (and probably should in this world).
Another nice touch is the tiny map at the front. I'm usually not that much of a fan but this one is not just there for the journey but also to illustrate that Jaria, and the other mentioned place, isn't just a village but also a country.

One huge plus in my opinion is the relationship between Rada and Rada-kin. This is really well explained in the book so I won't go over the details in this review. I really like the idea of the 'waves' which support , among other things, the conversation between Rada and kin but also between two kins. The more information I got about the waves the more dazzling it all became. These waves seem to control everything and so a Rada is also able to transform into every kind of animal he or she wants, as long as there is enough concentration that is.

I am just confused right now because this whole idea has so much potential and for some reason I keep thinking that there is something is lacking in this. It could have been so much more than it already is. For example instead of mentioning that the characters are moving through a forest, describe the look of the forest because there is a slim change that that particular forest looks the same as every other forest. I mean he comes from near the mountains and they are moving south so there ought to be some differences I reckon.
Then there are the clichés and the 'give-aways' as I'd like to call them. I think that there's nothing wrong with using the right clichés, or making some things predictable, but when here it got on my nerves, when someone in the story is already telling the main character that he/she has a great destiny in front of him/her I tend to slowly die inside.
Though the detail was a nice touch it sometimes felt like it didn't really add up, either because of the lack of more detail to really create the image or because there was too much detail for the scene. For example, spoiler here!:
There is a scene where Talon is fighting one of his enemies and this enemy has one huge ugly and very sharp sword. Do I really need to believe that Talon is able to deflect that sword a couple of times with a fishing spear until it finally breaks? In this case it could have been wise to say that is was a very thick spear or that he deflected it with the upper half of the spear which could have been made from a lot of metal, or something like that.

Overall I really liked the idea but it could have been so much more. Even though there were a lot of aspects that I liked, there were also aspects that I didn't like. I am not sure about this series yet, towards the ending I did get more hooked to the story so I do want to read the sequel. For now I give this series 2.5 stars because it didn't quite do it for me. ( )