Title: The Obsidian Man
Author: Jon Wilson
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Pages: 234
Characters: Holt, Kawika, Keone
POV: 3rd person
Setting: Darnouth/Wyrnet
Sub-Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Cover Rating: 3
Kisses: 4
Blurb:
All his life, Holt has dreamed of leaving his life of drudgery to join the legendary Danann, a mysterious race of rangers and magicians. When trolls threaten his village, he sees his chance in the arrival of Kawika, a handsome ranger sent for protection. But things take a deadly turn when a demon appears, leading an army of horrible creatures. The village goes up in flames, Kawika vanishes, and Holt finds himself wandering lost and alone in the wilderness. Rescued by the Danann, Holt suffers both physical and psychic scars. However, Kawika’s lover, Keone, hopes to use that connection to track and destroy the demon responsible for the attack. Unfortunately, the link works both ways—Keone can track through it, and the demon can use it to invade Holt’s mind. As the pursuit continues, Holt’s sanity begins to slip away. Gradually the realization dawns that instead of helping Keone defeat the demon, he may be leading them both into the demon’s deadly trap.
Review:
The Obsidian Man is high fantasy set in an alternate universe where trolls, demons, and imps live none too peacefully with Danann and the non-Danann humans, known as breeders.
Holt is a thirteen year old boy from the village of Darnouth, a village in the midst of a territorial land dispute with the trolls, who invade Darnouth and all but wipe out each one of its human inhabitants. Holt is a boy who has never fit into his family or his life in the village, always dreaming of something beyond its boundaries—the city of VaSaad-Ka, home of the Danann, rangers who patrol the frontier, and stonedivers, a group of mystics with various powers.
The ranger Kawika is sent to Darnouth to head off a jirran invasion. The hero captures Holt’s fascination, as well as his imagination and Kawika befriends the boy, perhaps seeing a potential in him that no one, not even Holt himself, can see. The troll onslaught that ultimately leaves Holt an orphan is far more aggressive and deadly than even the powerful Kawika is able to overcome. The insidious presence of a Moadaeshe demon complicates the battle for the ranger, a complication that itself soon turns fatal for the powerful warrior.
Left entirely bereft after Kawika’s death, Holt finds himself in a state of shock, wandering lost and alone in the wilderness with nothing more than a stone given to him by the man who Holt had believed would be his salvation and key to a new life. It’s Holt himself who becomes the key, however, when Kawika’s lover Keone uses Holt’s fragile connection between reality and dreams, delving into the boy’s mind and risking his sanity, to hunt down the demon and avenge his mate’s death.
Jon Wilson has written a complex and entertaining Young Adult fantasy filled with gruesome creatures, plenty of action, and enough maneuvering that it kept me guessing and wondering on whose side I was supposed to be, ranger or stonediver. If there was any one thing that didn’t work entirely for me, I’d have to point to my conclusion that I would have liked to have known each of the characters, Holt, Kawika, and Keone a bit better. Having said this, however, I’d also leave it open to the possibility that The Obsidian Man might be the introduction to a series that will dig further into the characters’ backgrounds and the imaginative world the author has created, as it progresses.
If that is the case, I would be glad to read further along and continue to see Holt grow into the man he is to become, as I’m sure he’s destined to be much more than we’ve seen thus far.
Reviewed By: Lisa