The Heir Of Night: The Wall of Night: Book One

The Wall of Night Book One . author of Young Adult fiction, Helen Lowe now brings us The Heir of Night—the first book in her four-volume Wall of Night series, .
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Yes, I know she's from New Zealand, but it seems that part of the world has better representation, plus the third book is already in production and this is the first I'd heard of it! Friedman had settlers, Rawn had exiles, de Burgh again, like Lowe has refugees, combatants in an interstellar battle. Tamara Jones does a mass conglomeration in every one of her novels but it all flows together. And that's what this book has done. I'm glad I already have the rest of the trilogy on hand, because I think things are just getting warmed up.

D Great book, easy 5 stars. I enjoyed the story as a standard coming-of-age hero quest part 1. Others have described the plot so I will not duplicate their very effective efforts. I just want to point out the real inspiration for the book: Hodgell and her Godstalk series. The set-up has far to many points of similarity to be a coincidence.

Here are a few: The whole arrangement, with the Derai Kencyr fighting the darkswarm perimal darkling across of series of worlds and having to retreat to a new world in the distance past, is almost identical. The main character has a remote father and a mysterious and absent mother. The priests are a separate and distrusted group due to the betrayal the fall who are kept separate from the warriors. The author started with essentially the same back-story that P. Even with all the similarities, this is a very different story.

Malian is a much more traditional hero-in-training the Jamethiel. Some of the strange complexities of Hodgell's tale are missing here, although there are enough complicating elements to keep things interesting. Godstalk starts with the protagonist long separated from her family, whereas Malian is living in her home fort as the story begins. I find Hodgell's work richer and better executed, but this is an enjoyable story.

I will read the sequel to see where it goes. See all 50 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 11 months ago. Published 1 year ago. Published on August 27, Published on July 8, Published on April 27, Published on March 7, Published on March 1, Published on February 27, Published on February 16, Customers who bought this item also bought. The Wall of Night Book Three. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. View or edit your browsing history.

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Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. Amazon Inspire Digital Educational Resources. Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. Amazon Restaurants Food delivery from local restaurants. In fact, that may be my one criticism of the novel. The world building was layered so thickly that it overtook some of the character development.

I enjoy rich and well-developed worlds one of the reasons why Epic Fantasy is such a favorite of mine , but it felt a bit overdone in this case. This novel won the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best newcomer. I can see why this one went over well with that crowd. A solid foundational start to what promises to be an entertaining series.

Rob B March 29, 0 Comment. I happened to like this for the realism of a girl who knew her entire world would change. Then she stepped up and filled her role brilliantly. Kalan I was indifferent to for a long while but I think he proved to be a good second lead and an intriguing character showing the other side of the Derai. The Heralds however intrigued me the most, and I'll be interested to learn more of them and Asantir as well.

Overall, a good read and looking forward to the second book. Feb 18, Cal Tidey rated it did not like it. This book was complete dreck. I made the mistake of picking up this book for a trip interstate, based of a neat title, an interesting blurb, and the way that one of the sequels was compared to Martin's work in a prominent review quote. This book is so bad that I reactivated my Goodreads just to talk about it.

Firstly, I hope you can tolerate stupid fantasy names. If you want to hear the term "Derai" about thirty thousand times, this book is for you. Every character speaks in expositional terms. T This book was complete dreck.

They have to tell you their position when addressing each other. They give histories at a whim, mostly self-aggrandising nonsense about the central people, the "Derai", a pointlessly stupid group of militaristic bozos who have a racism metaphor tangled with their "Chosen One" metaphor Oh, and there's literally a Chosen One, because the writer is a hack , which will no doubt be resolved by series end to teach you an important lesson about bigotry, because maybe you're discriminating against "The Special". It somehow makes the trite allegories of X-Men and Bright seem enlightened.

Our heroine does nothing active in the plot, apart from listen to more stupid exposition. It's a joy when she receives a psychic message telling her to GTFO because it means we can stop getting scene setting exposition for a moment. Of course, it means all the pompous crap we dealt with up till that point was for next to nil. Characters judgements don't make sense, they're done for plot purposes. Some characters are magical, and several characters are established as bigoted against those with those powers, but that bigotry ranges from segregation and extermination to non-existent depending on the plot.

THE HEIR OF NIGHT by Helen Lowe (Wall of Night #1)

It's shallow worldbuilding, and since the history of the world makes clear this magic was essential to their survival to this point, the bigotry makes no sense. Obviously, the reader is meant to feel clever understanding that our protagonist's society is not perfect, but it's just stupid and makes you feel like your time is being wasted.

Characters rarely get development, and there is a sort of real bigotry underlying the writing of this book. Our heroes matter because of their noble birth and magic, everyone else doesn't because they're not the Chosen One. It's the most problematic elements of Campbell's Hero's Journey, yet the book mysteriously chooses NOT to utilise the 3 act structuring of the aforementioned, leaving character agency to the wind, and having MacGuffin's established moments before they pop into the world, and into the hands of our protagonists. It's crap, sheer crap, making something with a strange structure is one thing, turning from a chase to a political thriller, to a chase that turns into exposition for MacGuffins, which are then immediately bestowed, is just hideously bad writing.

Tension does not rise or fall, because the book can't establish things ahead of time, not build to anything. It feels like how a child might invent a story. It could be exciting in the moment, but as nothing is established, and our characters are pretty universally stupid and unlikeable, and beholden to plot contrivance, it fails at that. Also, the action lacks detail, to the point where several monsters lack descriptions, bar names like "The Raptor of Darkness" and "Night Mare" A demon horse.

Yes, this level of cheese and stupid is on full display. But these things come and go with little to no real impact, being brought in and killed off with a lot of ceremony, but without any tension, because nothing is established. Come on, please, laugh at this stupid shit. The psychic realm drops in and out of our story, and it's always bad. It means extra exposition and extra magic which is unexplained and unnecessary, and unestablished.

A lot of it references Tolkien, or English or European Folklore, and the story seems to think that you'll care because of the weight of these references. They actually just drag down the story further, by adding the impression that these things should be as significant as the folkloric inspirations, but just leeching off assumed prior knowledge. All of the characters are stupid and do whatever is required by the plot, motivations and decisions aren't considered. It feels contrived throughout. A rescue mission is mounted that has the weight of the world hanging on it, and a handful of people are despatched, and all others are waved away as "They're needed to defend elsewhere", however, nothing else is properly established, and it feels contrived to create a small group.

It's still not tense though because there is no expectation that they won't succeed. When they explain things, they're pompous, and adopt "half chants", for things which clearly weren't memorised nor in verse. Few characters act as though they lived in a world which is a consequence of the past. The few times characters are likeable, is when they rip through this charade, by being irreverent, impudent, or not caring about this dreck.

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You will get very used to reading the word "Derai" reading this book because the author insists on dropping worldbuilding on you at every moment. It actually ruins most of the dialogue, including internal dialogue, because characters don't think of each other in terms of their relationships with each other, but in terms of their backstory, which most readers won't care about. Worldbuilding is a plague-some authors believe dropping unnecessary information and leaving plot threads waiting for resolution counts as storytelling. Good worldbuilding means our characters should know the world they live in, and their actions in relation to it should teach us about it and build the world for us.

If the characters have to tell us, through internal dialogue, and through monologues, what the history is, then there just isn't worldbuilding. Our setting is a wall on the edge of the world defending against an alien race of monsters which conquer everything before them. It's manned by a warlike people with many internal disputes, who dislike outsiders, the outsiders also not understanding pretty much anything. Different factions have different issues with each other, which somehow aren't overcome by the threat they face.

They discriminate against those with the powers needed to defend the wall, even though that's the be all and end all of their civilisation. Our geography is never really given proper import, and the defence of said wall doesn't actually get much of a look into our setting. Considering the way the book takes liberally here from Martin, consider the Night's Watch, who are a defensive order, with racial biases, who've turned from the original purpose of their order, to protect the realm from the Others, to fighting Wildlings, and how they are built up as Rangers, probing beyond the wall, scouting, and Builders and Stewards, maintaining the Wall, and the supply lines.

The story doesn't care. They take the idea of Castle Black, at face value, choose it for a setting in implication, then use a bunch of nonsense for the actual layout. It's not worth considering. The author just doesn't care. They thought this was a novel idea, they took it. Characters speak in riddles for no reason. You want the characters they're lecturing with nonsense to attack them and force them to give them a straight answer, not talk shit. Prophecies are dropped everywhere, and they're just straight up chosen one shite.

It's meant to sound deep, it isn't. The dialogue also has a problem where it changes from old-timey and pompous Which is universally awful to a lot more modern and conversational, at whim, from scene to scene. It's not determined by setting, one of the most pompous scenes in the book is between lovers, it doesn't build the world, it's just the author can't handle dialogue or giving character through dialogue.

The Derai all have one characteristic dialogue, the Heralds have another, and the Bard has another, and none of them really build character. The tale is not "Richly told", nor full of "strange magic" or "dark treachery". There's not a single "conflicting loyalty" in it. Characters do what the plot demands, they don't have the character to have loyalties or treacheries. The setting is constantly exposited to you, but it's never established to make dramatic stakes clear.

It's just a hodge-podge of cliches and stolen ideas anyway. It doesn't hew to a traditional structure, but not out of idiosyncracy, it just doesn't know better. This book is basically a MacGuffin hunt where the hunt only starts most of the way through, and the protagonist is just given the item, and told to get the other ones.

It's slowly paced considering the tripe it puts on you, and feels patronising to read, I can't see a child enjoying something this ponderous, and I can't see anyone who could ponder the page count as being stupid enough to enjoy this. I am shocked that this got published, absolutely shocked. The editor should have sent it back, with a ton of notes to make the story at least a bearable ride through. An openning to a series that leaves me utterly lacking in desire to read the others to see if it improves.

I have a low bar for fiction. I can generally read anything and get through it, and I've had very few experiences I utterly regret bothering with. The only reason I finished this book, is because I refused to let this shit beat me, because goddamn it I won't hear that I didn't understand it. This crossed a line with me, it's boring, overlong, unlikeable, unstructured, and yet cliched. Don't read this book. I guarantee you will enjoy yourself more. Apr 10, Online Eccentric Librarian rated it really liked it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it and found it engrossing, with a lot of great action. Malian is the protagonist, a girl of 13 who has grown up knowing she is the Heir of Night, one of the nine Derai houses that came from the stars to the world in which the novel is set. The Derai have tasked themselves with defending all worlds from the evil Swarm, and came to this world and built a wall with different keeps which protects the rest of the world from the Swarm.

Other reviewers have mentioned that this novel has a "Sci Fi edge" because of their "origin from the stars", but in the end of the novel it explains that they came through magical gates. This to me keeps it strictly in the Fantasy realm. One result is a strict division between magic and non-magic users, with enmity between the two. The disfavor with which magic users are viewed due to the historic events has led to the loss of old magic and left the Derai divided and very much weakened.

As this novel opens, the Swarm are about to exploit that weakness. That wasn't the only time I was reminded of other novels, including the Lord of the Rings series. As originality is important to me, that was one sweet spot missed. However, the action and characters kept me continually interested. The history is interesting and at times enthralling, with legendary heroes and events with far-ranging impact.

Where the story fails me is with the magic use. I credit the author with trying to explain things after the fact, but it only exposes me to more questions. For example, when they are running for their lives from the Swarm and a Night Mare, they are attacked and able to kill or drive off all of their attackers. The Night Mare is a very powerful beast and it can cloak itself and others In the novel that question is asked by Malian, and her young male friend Kalan replies that demons become visible when crossing water, and they had just crossed a river. So the author tries to explain away why this supposedly incredibly strong creature wouldn't have just killed them all before they knew it was there, but you have to ask yourself Doesn't it know the shortcomings of its own magic?

The same questions arise when you find out at the end that someone can relatively easily create gates to other parts of the world something previously referred to as very difficult to do. Why isn't this kind of strong magic used more often, and at more convenient times?

Helen Lowe - The Wall of Night

There were just a few too many cases where the reader finds out about potent magic and it raises questions about the storyline. I loved it that Malian learns more and more about her world and its history and then further insight and information challenges her beliefs. She definitely evolves as a character in the wisdom of her thinking and in her non-Derai ability to think outside of long kept beliefs. I enjoyed the book and will read the sequel when it comes out. Jul 23, Abhinav rated it it was amazing Shelves: Step out of my comfort zone, I thought.

Honestly, nothing could have prepared me for Helen Lowe's debut novel from last year, Heir of Night. What usually sets fantasy novels apart from one another is usually the setting or the type of characters being talked about or how gritty or soft or adult or simplistic they are. Rarely does an author focuses on how to tell that story itself, by which I don't mean the choice of tense or flashbacks or anything like that. I mean the style of the narrative, the mood it creates, if that makes sense. What Helen does with her novel is something entirely different from any other fantasy novels I've ever read, except for those by a particular author: And if that's not a clue enough, then, simply put, Helen doesn't just tell the story of a young girl on the run from the forces of darkness that want to utterly annihilate her people and her struggles to deny that future, she tells the saga of the same, an epic.

She evokes the wonder of Tolkien's style and the mood of his most popular works and yet stamps her ownership and influence all over the novel. To use one of my oft-used phrases, she writes an epic fantasy story in a truly epic way. I could easily have been reading a Norse saga or a Greek myth. That's what defines Heir of Night for me and what sets it apart from all its contemporaries and its peers.


  1. Mishas Nutcracker;
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  4. Fox Point Dragon.
  5. Planning for Long Term Care.

The first in the Wall of Night series, Helen's debut is about a young noble girl Malian who is forced to confront one harsh truth after another about her race's arrival on the world of Haarth and the terrible enemy the Derai have brought with themselves. It's a coming-of-age story, of innocence slowly forgotten in the face of reality and a toughening-up of character to become the leader the Derai need and yet do not know of it.

The protagonist is neither a thief nor an assassin, a long-suffering noble or a disillusioned common man. The protagonist and her supporting cast are neither superfluous nor stupid, they are all logical and realistic beings, if often susceptible to their emotions. First and foremost that is why I liked Heir of Night. As the novel is not in first person limited to the POV of the protagonist, we see the world of Haarth, the Derai and the various native races in detail. Haarth is not a place where I'd want to live by any means but all the same, it is a world where I'd love to go at least once!

The flight of the Derai from their homeworld to Haarth eons ago, their settling on their new world, their interactions with the natives, the Derai culture, their history, it all makes Helen's world complex yet simple in a genre that is increasingly being burdened with too much of the former and not enough of the latter.

The author has found the right mix of these and has stayed consistent all the way to the end. As the Derai culture and society is the one we see most off, I can say that the Derai were richly portrayed and come across as multi-faceted and realistic in and of themselves, rather than being caricatures of any "real-world" culture or society. They are certainly original, but they are also something much more. Their formalities, their titles, their codes of conduct, their histories, it is almost as if Heir of Night is not just a fantasy novel kicking off a series, but also a deep and insightful study into that very culture.

My appetite has really been whetted for the sequel, Gathering of the Lost. You can find the full review at The Founding Fields: That is the ancient prophecy of the Derai people who inhabit the world of Haarth. There among the mountains they have their keeps and hold guard against the dark forces of the Swarm. The warlike Derai are not native to this world, they came across time and space, and they have always fought the Swarm who wants to cover the universe in darkness. Malian is the Heir of the House of Night. She loves the old stories of heroes past and she knows her duty as the Heir of Night.

But as the Swarm attacks she will have to make a choice of her own. There was this constant feeling of something else in this book. Some books are fantasy, you know this, and you feel it. Then there are those that are also fantasy, but still they have this lingering feeling of something else. Here it might be because the Derai came from the stars, a portal, but still from the stars. And there is talk about hunting among the stars. The lingering feeling make it something more than just epic fantasy.

There are other books that have managed this too and they do it very well. So for me it certainly feels more than just epic fantasy, it is epic fantasy infused with hints of sci-fi. Of times long gone by, of times to come. Of times forgotten and unknown. Melian is the main character, our young heroine as she is not a child, not yet a woman. Her love of the history of her people, gives the reader an insight to the Derai people. And they have a rich and colorful history, even if a very warlike one.

They do not only fight the Swarm, they also fight among themselves. They have codes of honor and seem to be a very harsh people. But they are a fascinating people, warriors and priests. And Melian is a good heroine among them; she is still young and curious and has yet truly been shaped by the ways of her people. She can still change, which brings hope to the story since the Derai are not ready for war against the Swarm. There are of course also a bunch of other characters, but most important for the story to come is Kalan, a young priestling at the Temple of Night.

He will have role to play yet and just like Melian he is young. I will be interested to see where the story takes these two and the others I have become invested in. The story itself is about an attack at the House of Night and the things that follows. We know doom is coming and as always, can it be stopped?

What will Melian do? This book is a good start to this series. We learn about the history, and why things are like they are. We get to know the players so far and at the end of it, the story has truly begun. It ends with a cliffhanger, yet not a cliffhanger. It will make you want more, but because of how the ending is written you can survive until the next book.

The Heir of Night

For which I thank the author. Because of the rich setting and history I want more. I do need to know what happens if Night falls, or if Night can continue to keep the Swarm at bay. The book feels unique and different, perhaps because of that lingering feeling of otherness I spoke of.

The Derai live on the edge of the world, charged with guarding 'The Wall' against the ancient and terrifying Swarm. A ferocious, demonic race. The Derai are an uncompromising people, ruled by tough rules and routine. But their task is such a hard one, they dare not deviate from the way of life that has been followed for hundreds of years. For, legend claims that if the H Reviewed for www. For, legend claims that if the House of Night falls, the rest of the world will follow. Victims to the Darkswarm. Thirteen year old Malian is the Heir of Night, daughter to the Earl of Night and as his only child and successor is destined to rule the Derai after his demise.

A daunting task for any child to comprehend, but Malian embraces her future with relish, longing for adventure. By contrast our other main character is Kalan. Kalan is from a noble warrior family, but when is family discovered he has magic they disowned him, turning him over to be trained as a priest of the Temple of Night. For in the Derai magic and warriors do not mix. This is a book about destinies, bravery and hard choices.

When after years of silence the Darkswarm rise again, it becomes evident that the Derai are no longer strong enough. A lot of the old ways and magics have been lost with time. And suddenly the fate of both a race and the world may potentially rest on the shoulders of two children - Malian and Kalan. But they are surrounded with suspicion, untrained and in terrible danger.