Xfresh Archive: From my Fantasy Book Cupboard...

Book Review: The Lightstone - The Ninth Kingdom

David Zindell was known for his sci-fi trilogy A Requiem for Homo Sapiens. The Lightstone is the first book of an epic called the Ea Cycle and his first attempt at fantasy. I got acquitted with the Lightstone as a last minute 'take a book, any book' run around in an MPH book fair. I didn't pay much attention other than the summary and book cover that had attracted me. Still, it was a good deal after all.

Since my first ever fantasy book was Lord of the Rings in 2001, I sought to find an epic that could match up to it. Only the Lightstone had managed to return me into that level of suspense, intrigue and beauty. This book is written in first-person and had a grand and impressive use of words, narration and detail that, to my long search, felt like a good cup of fresh, clear drink after a hot day.

This epic was played on an island continent called Ea. The main character is young Valashu Elahad. He was the seventh prince in the royal family of Mesh and of the race and culture of men called the Valari. He set off on a journey with six others in a search for a living crystal called the Lightstone. His companions were Maram (a free thinker and heavy drinker), Master Juwain (an elderly healer and teacher), Kane (mysterious man with a dark past), Atara (a warrior woman with an oath), Liljana (secretive yet gentle cook) and Alphanderry (an ambitious merry musician).

There was a prophecy that those united with seven stones under the seventh son will be the ones who would find the Lightstone from Morjin the Red Dragon. This guy is the antagonist, a master illusionist who twists the truth as he twists Valashu's dreams into nightmares. This fallen angel sought the Lightstone for his own purposes and rule not just Ea, but break open the prisons of darker worlds for an age of domination.

Valashu himself has a gift of inner empathy to feel the emotions of others and was uncertain of his own fate and role in Ea and the Universe. His desire to stop wars and end suffering, for a Valari knight, took him on a hazardous journey of self-discovery across miles of beautifully detailed descriptions in a magical landscape under angels' stars.

Excerpts:
... But certainly himself was a child of the One, and therefore a spark of the infinite glowed inside him. Who was I to put it out? Who was I to look into his tormented eyes and steal the light? ...

... "Perhaps there is no cure," I told him. Then I said, "The Red Dragon is so evil - how could anyone be this evil?"
"Only out of blindness," Master Juwain said, "so that he can't see the difference between evil or good. Or only out of the delusion that he is doing good when actually bringing about the opposite.'
The Red Dragon, he said, was certainly not evil by his own lights. No one was. But I wasn't as sure of this. Something in Morjin's voice seemed to delight in darkness, and this still haunted me ...

I found the Lightstone to be something very magical fantasy to read. As this was a beginning book, much of the story is dedicated to description, culture and history of Ea, so the plot was not as deep so you won't get lost. The suspense and the thrills were to wake up nights for. David Zindell's best play is his ability to put into perfection the display of powerful emotions and thought-provoking passions into written words.

David Zindell's part one of the Lightstone - Ninth Kingdom can be available in paperback at any MPH and Kinokuniya stores, both at around RM35. Zindell had just completed in 2004 the Book Two of the Ea Cycle, Lord of Lies.