10,000 Suns – Book 1 of the Bainevah Series

A young scribe who studies The Prophecy of her people gets caught in a struggle of love and destiny…

Many years before, the King’s own Seer and his wife, Lady Naya had warned the King and his court about “The Prophecy”. Unfortunately the King had chosen to ignore the insights of Shazzur, and his court had ridiculed him. Enemies of the King had murdered Lady Naya and kidnapped her young son. Shazzur took his only remaining treasure, his daughter Challen and fled. He chose to live far away from the capital, Bainevah, working as a Healer, with Challen and another young man acting as his assistants and apprentices. Shazzur and his daughter are gifted in many ways. Both have visions and have communicated with Lady Naya in dreams. Challen is aware of danger before it occurs and can see things that others can’t. She can also control fire and heat. When the King sends his army to bring Shazzur back to Bainevah, Challen senses that her father is expecting them. Parts of The Prophecy have come true and now the King is desperately awaiting his favourite Seer’s words of wisdom.

Shazzur and Challen still have unknown enemies so it is fortunate that Challen can sense approaching invaders who cloak themselves with dark powers long before their arrival, making a difficult battle easy. The danger escalates when they reach Bainevah, so Challen is sheltered with the pampered young women who prepare themselves to sacrifice their virginity to the king and “Mother Matrika”. Mother Matrika is the force behind their spirituality and can communicate through visions to some that are gifted. Challen bemoans her prison and is occasionally released in disguise to continue her studies of The Prophecy. She falls in love with a handsome soldier/scribe and wishes that she were someone else, a commoner who is free to pursue her love. The king’s oldest son, Elzan has grown fond of the young female scribe he studies The Prophecy with but knows that he can never marry this girl; he must set his sights much higher…

Although both Challen and Elzan are studying the ancient scrolls to learn the predictions of The Prophecy, they have no idea that they have been born to fulfill roles and are mere pawns of the demi-gods. Their love is real, yet their dedication to their spirituality and country must come first so both must be willing to sacrifice their own happiness. Many of the secondary characters are important to this mythological type tale, and their own stories and personalities are woven into the story, explaining more as The Prophecy unfolds. The evil that threatens Bainevah is a type of dark magic, but the force behind it and its sinister path is very well constructed by the author. As The Prophecy begins to come true, this reader was unable to put the book down, because as the danger grows clearer the story becomes quite fast-paced. This spiritual concept is quite vast, and all of the intricacies involve detailed explanations. It took this reader quite a while to understand it all, but it is well worth persevering .The sexual scenes are tender and leave the characters and the reader begging for more. Fortunately this is the first installment in a series, so I eagerly await the next release.

Reviewed by: Naomi