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Summary
Summary
Ruling from his palace on the idyllic island of Acacia, the emperor of the Known World, has inherited generations of peace and prosperity established by his ancestors. He's an intelligent man, a widower who dotes on his four children and it is this devotion that obliges him to hide a terrible secret.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sprawling and vividly imagined fantasy, historical novelist Durham (Pride of Carthage) chronicles the downfall and reinvention of the Akaran Dynasty, whose empire, called Acacia, was built on conquest, slaving and drug trade. The Acacian empire, encompassing "The Known World," is hated by its subjugated peoples, especially the Mein, who 22 generations earlier were exiled to the icy northland. Having sent an assassin to kill the Acacian king, Leodan, the rebel chieftain, Hanish Mein, declares war on the empire. As Acacia falls, Leodan's treasonous but conflicted chancellor, Thaddeus Clegg, spirits the king's four children to safety. When the Mein's rule proves even more tyrannical than the old, the former chancellor seeks to reunite the now adult Akaran heirs--the oldest son Aliver (once heir to the throne), the beautiful elder daughter Corinn, their younger sister, Mena, and youngest brother, Dariel--to lead a war to regain the empire. Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic and populated by complicated personalities grappling with issues of freedom and oppression. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Something genuinely new from the author of historical novels about the black American experience (Gabriel's Story, 2001; Walk Through Darkness, 2002) and the Second Punic War (Pride of Carthage, 2005). Volume One of a planned trilogy, it's set in a fictional empire, the Known World, whose political center is the fertile and temperate island realm of Acacia, ruled by King Leodan Akaran. He's a compassionate monarch who sincerely mourns his beloved wife and dotes on his four vibrant children: stalwart Aliver, his ingenuous brother Dariel and their sisters, headstrong Corinn and stoical Mena. Yet Leodan has inherited his wealth and power from "a slaving empire...[that] traded in flesh...[and] peddled drugs to suppress the masses." Opposition to Leodan's ostensibly benign reign appears at the outset, as Thasren Mein, one of three brothers who effectively rule a distant (and impoverished) northern wasteland, travels in disguise to Acacia to assassinate his people's longtime enemy. From every corner of the Known World, tribes and enclaves ally themselves with Akarans or Mein, and gradually assemble into battle positions. Meanwhile, a plan conceived long ago by Leodan and now orchestrated by his Chancellor Thaddeus Clegg (one of several characters possessed of divided loyalties) sends the royal children away, into separate adventures and ordeals: Mena among a remote island culture's sinister priesthood; Dariel as a warrior member of Rebellious Outer Island Raiders; Corinn as the mistress of Machiavellian Mein Chieftain Hanish; and Aliver as the hero he was bred to become, challenged to defend his people in single combat. The novel's strong echoes of Homer and Virgil, Tolkien, Norse mythology's Twilight of the Gods and America's compromised history as a republic built on slavery fuse into an enthralling, literate and increasingly suspenseful narrative. Heavy going, but Durham has imagined its landscape and ethnography in persuasive detail. Many readers will eagerly await the continuation of Acacia's story. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The outwardly idyllic life of widower Leodan Arkan, ruler of the Known World, and his four children belies the underlying darkness of drug and slave trafficking that supports the kingdom's prosperity. Meanwhile, in the frigid north the long-exiled Mein are planning the war they inaugurate by assassinating Leodan at a public gathering. The tension is palpable as the enemy forces make their move. Rampant intrigue and treachery place the lives of the Arkan children in great danger, and they are spirited away--scattered to the four winds--in hopes of keeping them safe. None of the four knows where the others are, and each has to discover his or her own destiny. But all are determined to avenge their father and restore the Acacian Empire. Durham has created a viable, vital world, his plotting is impeccable, and his characters are diverse in race and multidimensional in personality. A full-bodied history of events leading up to the situation portrayed and a well-conceived mythology are woven into the narrative, giving it even greater substance. Fortunately indeed, this is just the blockbuster beginning of the War with the Mein.--Estes, Sally Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Arkan, ruler of the Known World, has been felled by an assassin, and his four children fight to restore his empire to its former peace and prosperity. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.