I can’t believer I ever passed over an opportunity to review the first title in Jill Williamson’s Christian fantasy series! However, I did, but I’ve managed to rectify my mistake and scored a review copy for this month’s CSFF tour, and I’m so glad I did!
By Darkness Hid is a classic fantasy in the best of all possible ways. Achan is a stray – a foundling with no status in his society – who is taken in by a great knight as his first squire. Still, great amounts of mystery surround this boy’s origins, and intrigue seems to dog his every movement. In the meantime, Vrell (really Avrella) is in hiding as a boy to avoid a hideous fate as the wife of the nefarious prince-in-waiting - Gidon. Their lives intersect through the gift of “bloodvoicing” a sort of mind-to-mind communication that is a gift from the father-God of Er’Rets.
Williamson has developed both incredibly likeable characters to populate her fascinating and mysterious world, one which is populated by a huge pantheon of Gods, in which only one is authentic, the father-God Arman (whose followers are few in number). A mysterious veil splits the land of Er’Rets into two halves – one with a normal diurnal cycle, the other perpetually in darkness.
I received this 490 page novel only a couple of days before the tour was due to start, but I’ve already finished it – devoured it might be a more appropriate term. Williamson is a wonderful author, her descriptions of teaching swordplay are thorough and realistic – the best I’ve read (and I love books about knights in training)! There is political intrigue, romance (only the best kind though – no premarital physical intimacy), and parable like correlations between the history of Er’Rets and the Christian faith.
What’s even better (and even more maddening) is the fact that this is only the first of a series, one that promises to be incredibly enjoyable and memorable. Williamson just released the second book in the series To Darkness Fled, and I can’t wait to read it! Hopefully I will be able to find my way to a review copy of the second book, if not, it’ll be off to Amazon for me! Do yourself a favour, and check out By Darkness Hid if classic fantasies with a Christian bent are your style – you won’t regret it!
You can find Jill online here!
CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!
And don’t forget to visit the other bloggers participating in this month’s tour!
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Sarah Flanagan
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher