C.L. Wilson wrote her first story at age six, and though she took a number of long detours during her life, she never gave up her lifelong dream of being published. When not writing, C. L. enjoys relaxing with her husband and three children in sunny Florida and daydreaming of a world where people exercise in their sleep and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is a fat-burning food.
Read excerpts of her work at C.L. Wilson's website.
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Fading Lands (Tairen Soul) — (2007-2010) Romantic fantasy. Publisher: Long ago, in the magical holocaust known as the Mage Wars, the immortal Fey and their allies fought to defeat the grasping evil of the Elden Mages and their dark-gifted supporters. During those wars, in a fit of grief-induced madness caused by the death of his mate, Fey shapeshifter Rain Tairen Soul nearly destroyed the world in a blaze of tairen fire. Now, a thousand years later, the fierce Fey king must fight to save his race from the brink of extinction and once again stop the evil rising in the homeland of his enemies, the Eld. The key to his success lies in the mortal city of Celieria, where the Mage Wars began, and with a young woman whose soul sings to him in ways no woman’s ever has, whose presence reawakens the primal fury of the tairen within his soul, and whose vast, untapped power can either save or destroy him and his people.
Lord of the Fading Lands has me thinking about genres, and the distinctions between them, and the places where they blur. Specifically, is the Tairen Soul series romance-with-fantasy or fantasy-with-romance? I'm going to have to come down on the side of romance-with-fantasy, though there's a great big fantasy plot in this book alongside the love story.
The central characters are Rain, a shapeshifting Fey king with a thousand years' worth of traumatic past; and Ellysetta, a young woman of humble background who is unappreciated in her home city but who turns out to be exceptionally powerful. Each is able to heal some of the other's psychological wounds. Though the particulars of the plot are very different, I was reminded a little of Anne Bishop's romantic themes; fans of Daemon and Jaenelle may find another couple to root for here. And like Jaenelle, Ellysetta has a few moments of seeming a little too "Mary Sue" as her unprecedented powers begin to emerge. Then again, she's in good company. Romance is full of waifs who grow up to marry the prince, and fantasy is full of waifs who grow up to save the world. Ellysetta may well turn out to be both...
Rain and Ellysetta are drawn together as "truemates," which means their souls are metaphysically bound to each other. This is not a plot device I ordinarily like, but C.L. Wilson does a great job of showing that the soul-bond doesn't automatically equal a perfect relationship. Rain and Ellysetta have to learn to understand each other and get along just like any other couple.
The course of true love never did run smooth, of course, and at the same time as Ellysetta and Rain are getting to know each other, they face a slew of threats both mundane and magical. Ellysetta's boorish former betrothed is unwilling to give her up. The Celierian court is less than pleased at the sudden elevation of a commoner. Prejudice against the Fey is growing. And a sinister Mage is delighted to exploit all of these problems in order to achieve his own ends. The Mages, might I add, are scary as hell.
The plot starts a little slowly; the thing to remember is that Lord of the Fading Lands and Lady of Light and Shadows were originally written as one book. A "slow" start in a 400-page book isn't necessarily a "slow" start in a book twice that size. I found that the story crept up on me. At first I thought I was just reading a sweet love story, but as I went on, the fantasy plot thickened gradually until it had me compulsively turning pages. By the time I finished Lord of the Fading Lands, I was on the edge of my seat. I've already ordered Lady of Light and Shadows and can't wait to see what happens next.
One more bit of praise: There's a map! And a glossary! (I used to gripe when these weren't included in a book; I think I'm going to start giving props when they are included, in the hopes that they'll become more common.)
Recommended for readers who like a heavy dose of fantasy in their romance, or a heavy dose of romance in their fantasy. —Kelly Lasiter
Lady of Light and Shadows
Lady of Light and Shadows is the second volume in C.L. Wilson’s romantic fantasy epic, Tairen Soul. Like the previous novel, Lord of the Fading Lands,Lady of Light and Shadows is a fun guilty pleasure. Ellysetta and Rain may be a little over the top in terms of their powers, treading close to Mary Sue territory, but I’m enjoying the heck out of their story anyway. The Tairen Soul series is a delightfully escapist saga, reminding me a little bit of Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels, but without all the sexual violence. All of the elements that made Black Jewelsfun are here: a Cinderella heroine who rises from obscurity to (maybe) save the world, a hero with a dark past and a heart of gold, a beautiful love story, compelling secondary characters, and a touch of humor.
Like its predecessor, Lady of Light and Shadows gets off to a bit of a slow start. There’s a lot of talk, as characters discuss and debate politics. At issue is the proposed treaty with Eld. Most of Celieria’s nobility favors this agreement. Rain believes it’s a dangerous step, but every time he starts to make headway in persuading the lords to vote against the treaty, events happen that raise suspicions against Rain and the Fey. Meanwhile, Rain spends his free time courting Ellie and teaching her to control her magic, Ellie has another run-in with the catty girl who tormented her when they were teens, and Ellie’s mother is pushed toward drastic steps that she thinks will save Ellie’s soul. All of this is interesting, but it doesn’t move very quickly, and I started to wonder whether the characters would ever manage to get out of Celieria by the end of this book, or even by the end of the third.
But when this plot goes BOOM, it does it in a big way. The second half of Lady of Light and Shadows is just terrific. First, we meet the infamous renegade Fey, Gaelen vel Serranis. I love Gaelen. I like him better than I like Rain, to be honest, and I hope he gets still more screen time in the next two Tairen Soul novels, and a great character arc. We learn more about Ellie’s background, and some of the revelations test the relationship between her and Rain. And the Mage conspiracy comes to a head in a treacherous attack and a suspenseful battle scene.
The self-sacrifice of one particular character, and the scene between Rain and Ellie at book’s end, had me misting up. I was quite impressed with these later chapters, and am looking forward to King of Sword and Sky and Queen of Song and Souls, in which our heroes will continue to fight the Mage threat and attempt to halt the decline of the tairen (powerful creatures who are something like a blend of dragons and big cats) and the Fey. —Kelly Lasiter
King of Sword and Sky
King of Sword and Sky is longer than either of the previous two Tairen Soul books, but for me, it breezed by so quickly, I could hardly believe it. King of Sword and Sky continues several plotlines from the earlier books, resolves a really huge one, and ends with a heck of a bang.
We follow Rain and Ellie as they travel to the Fading Lands, where they set out to prepare the Fey for war with the Eld and attempt to save the tairen from the mysterious decline they’ve been suffering. They meet with resistance from many influential Fey. C.L. Wilson does a great job of depicting this opposition without demonizing it. These Fey, after all, don’t know that Ellie and Rain are the protagonists. All they know is that their king has suddenly decided he wants to take a more active role in state affairs, that his new wife may be tainted by the evil Mages, and that the two of them are turning almost all of the time-honored traditions of the Fey upside down. We can see why they’re suspicious even as we know our heroes are right.
The mystery of the tairen deaths is really well-done. We get to meet, and grow to love, a number of the great cats. Their situation is tragic, yet they also provide some hilarious moments of comic relief (I especially loved Steli’s difficulty with knocking on doors), and the result is that they are well-rounded and the reader really feels for them. The solution to the mystery, when it comes, is absolutely diabolical — I didn’t figure it out until just before the characters did, and it’s a doozy!
King of Sword and Sky contains several scenes that are gorier than any we’ve seen previously in the series. We get to see more of what goes on within the Mage stronghold of Boura Fell, and let’s just say they don’t adhere to the Geneva Conventions there. However, the scenes in Boura Fell show something else, too: discontent brewing right under Vadim Maur’s nose. I can’t wait to see what becomes of this subplot.
The novel ends with an epic two-front battle, and for some beloved characters, a cliffhanger. The story continues with the release of Queen of Song and Souls, next week (book four of five). I've got a review copy, so I'll get that review out soon! —Kelly Lasiter
Queen of Song and Souls
Queen of Song and Souls, the much-anticipated fourth book in C.L. Wilson’s Tairen Soul series, continues the story of Rain and Ellysetta’s quest to complete their bond and defeat the sinister Mages of Eld. In this volume, they attempt to enlist allies in their war against Eld.
First, this means a return to Celieria City. We learn more about the consequences of the weave Ellie inadvertently spun at the end of Lord of the Fading Lands; something shocking has happened to everyone involved. We get to see King Dorian and Queen Annoura again as the rift in their relationship grows, and as the Mages do their best to take advantage of it. Wilson also further explores the poignant star-crossed love of Talisa and Adrial, a plotline that began in Lady of Light and Shadows.
Later, our heroes travel to Elvia to meet with the Elves. These Elves are a tribute to Tolkien’s creation (then again, whose aren’t?), dwelling in a beautifully-described city built of living trees and dispensing cryptic wisdom. Ellie, in particular, is strongly affected by her stay here. She learns a little about the possible futures that could unfold, and finally discovers who her biological parents are, but finds just as many new questions as she finds answers.
We also see more of Ellie’s sister Lillis, who has a mysterious experience in the Faering Mists, and Melliandra, who continues her one-girl insurrection against the High Mage. (I love that kid…)
Wilson has stated on her web site that Queen of Song and Souls was originally intended as the final Tairen Soulbook, but that the story grew too big and was split. A fifth book, titled Tairen Soul, is scheduled to follow this one and complete the series. Queen of Song and Souls suffers a little bit from the change in plans. It’s well-written and often moving, but there’s a feeling of “set-up” to it. In the earlier Tairen Soulbooks, Wilson takes her time moving her pieces into place but builds to an exciting climax once the scene is set. Here, most of the climactic events are deferred to the next book. One subplot is resolved, but I didn’t have the same “satisfied” feeling I had at the end of King of Sword and Sky. Then again, maybe that’s because when I finished King, I knew Queen was waiting for me, but now I have a wait ahead of me before I learn what happens next!
King of Sword and Sky remains my favorite of the series so far. If Wilson ties all of her plots up with a great ending, though, the fifth book could very well blow it out of the water. —Kelly Lasiter
Crown of Crystal Flame
With Crown of Crystal Flame, C.L. Wilson concludes her epic Tairen Soul quintet. The series has always walked the line between romance and epic fantasy. In the later books, however, with the connection between Rain and Ellysetta mostly established (other than that pesky incomplete soul-bond issue), the balance has shifted more toward fantasy as the war with the Eld Mages moves to the forefront.
In this installment, the Fey and their Elven and Celierian allies make their last stand against the Mages. Meanwhile, the insurrection brewing within Vadim Maur’s stronghold comes to a head as well. The good guys are vastly outnumbered and the Mages have terrible powers at their disposal. Yet Rain, Ellie and friends refuse to give up hope, and help from an unexpected quarter may just be enough to turn the tide.
I advise against starting Tairen Soul with Crown of Crystal Flame. The characters and their struggles will be more meaningful to you once you’ve followed them through the first four books, and the plot will make more sense if you’ve read the buildup. But have no fear of an endless series. Crown of Crystal Flame is an actual, honest-to-goodness ending, tying up all the threads Wilson has introduced.
With its focus on the war, it’s the most violent book of the five. Ellie and Rain undergo unimaginable suffering on their way to the climactic scene, and some beloved characters don’t make it. The darkness is not total, however. There are victories along the way, and beautiful moments of romance (both joyous and bittersweet). My favorite scene involves a minor character finally learning how much another character loved them. Reader, I bawled. I also enjoyed the developments regarding the dahl’reisen, and the rediscovered lore about Azrahn and its role in the history of the Fey.
Wilson’s influences bleed through the story in a few places. This is most evident in a scene reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Isengard (particularly Peter Jackson’s interpretation thereof), and in a Fey proverb that sounds a lot like one I remember from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
On the whole, however, Crown of Crystal Flame satisfies, giving readers the conclusion they’ve been waiting for. Now that the series is finished, I can enthusiastically recommend it to fans of romantic fantasy. —Kelly Lasiter
C.L. Wilson wrote her first story at age six, and though she took a number of long detours during her life, she never gave up her lifelong dream of being published. When not writing, C. L. enjoys relaxing with her husband and three children in sunny Florida and daydreaming of a world where people exercise in their sleep and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is a fat-burning food.
Read excerpts of her work at C.L. Wilson's website.
Lord of the Fading Lands
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