Good lord, what’s the world coming to? I actually finished a book for the first time in about 12 years.

It was Jennifer Fallon’s The Lion of Senet and it was quite good, after a bit of a slow start. It’s a relatively traditional fantasy, though its clear that the world was once populated by a more technologically sophisticated culture (possibly it was an earth colony at one time?). Anyway, there are twin suns so its normally never dark, but relatively recently there was an “Age of Shadows” when it not only got dark, but the planet went through a lot of stress (earthquakes and the like). Because of this, there was a big shift in political power, as well as a new religon forming. I don’t want to go into too many details because learning about all this is part of the fun of the book.

Anyway, thus far there’re no magic spells or dragons or anything. Its more a story about politics and people. Fallon has a nice way of introducing characters such that you have no idea if they’re ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’ for a long time, and often once you get it all figured out, things shift. If you liked Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series (aka “Game of Thrones” series) then you’ll probably enjoy this book. It’s not as grandiose or as complex as Ice & Fire, but the struggles and obstacles are similar.

One word of warning, though. This is the first book in a trilogy and it kind of just stops with not much in the way of an ending. If you find yourself liking it, best to be read with volume II, Eye of the Labyrinth.