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Young Lord of Khadora: Book
One of
Forgotten Legacy by Richard S. Tuttle
Commentary:
Richard S. Tuttle expertly delivers a fast-paced fantasy
tale in Book One of Forgotten Legacy. Young Lord of Khadora
is filled with exceptional dialogue, exciting action, intriguing
suspense, and clever and conniving characters that seem all too
real. Tuttle definitely has a gift for fantasy writing. I look
forward to reading the second book in this series. I
highly recommend Young Lord of Khadora as an ideal
fantasy read.
Synopsis: (May reveal
much of the plot)
Marak, a Situ Clan soldier in Khadora, moves up the ranks
quickly for a young man, even though his mother, Glenda, is a
slave and Soil Mage-one whose magic makes the earth yield
bountiful harvests. But Khadoran law does not allow Marak to
speak to his mother, so he hates Khadoran culture and despises
slavery. Thinking his father dead, Marak's love for his only
parent has him sneak to meet her, but he is caught and brought
before Lord Marshall Grefon. Thinking his punishment to be
slavery, Marak is surprised when Grefon informs him of the
recent promotion from Squad Leader to Cortain. As Cortain, Marak
has rights to visit his mother. Marak's happiness is
short-lived, for Lord of Fardale is killed by Chula-cat-like
people that ride tigers and panthers, and have transformation
and invisibility powers.
Lord of the Situ clan, Lord Ridak, along with Lord Marshall
Grefon, designate Marak as Lord of Fardale and give him the
responsibility of meeting grain contracts by harvest time. Ridak
and Grefon feel the contracts cannot be met and plan to blame
Marak when the expected grain is not delivered. But Marak is
wiser than the two men think, and he requests "absolute
powers" as Lord of Fardale, granting others the right of
allegiance to him through "Vows of Service". Once
Marak is at Fardale, he frees all slaves, assigns a woman as
Bursar (finance manager), and teaches Air, Sun, Soil and Water
Mages to use magic as weaponry; and cleverly and tactically
makes peace with the cat-people and gets Vows of Service from
three neighboring clans.
Marak breaks from the Situ clan in his effort to change
Khadoran ways and forms his own clan: Torak Clan. Tmundo,
Leader of Kywara Tribe (cat-people), gives Marak the Sword of
Torak. Marak accepts the gift in friendship, unaware of a
prophecy about him and the sword. The Sword of Torak becomes the
Torak Clan symbol to restore honor and freedom to all Khadorans.
But Ridak and Grefon will do anything necessary to cease Marak's
growing reign of power, even if it means killing him, his mother
and the entire Torak Clan.
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