Book Review: The Broken Road

The Broken Road

By:  Teresa Frohock

Publish Date:  September 21, 2014

Publisher:  The Story Vault

Format:  eBook

Genre:  Fantasy

Series:  1st in Frayed Empire series

Recommendation:  Wow. A whole new world and magic created in a novella. I enjoyed the chanting magic and use of vibration. Then the whole element of the connection of worlds and what darkness is present on the other side... and seeping into this fantasy world as well.

Synopsis:
The world of Lehbet is under siege. The threads that divide Lehbet from the mirror world of Heled are fraying, opening the way for an invasion by an alien enemy that feeds on human flesh.

Travys, the youngest of the queen’s twin sons, was born mute. He is a prince of the Chanteuse, nobles who channel their magic through their voices. Their purpose is to monitor the threads and close the paths between the worlds, but the Chanteuse have given themselves over to decadence. They disregard their responsibilities to the people they protect—all but Travys, who fears he’ll fail to wake the Chanteuse to Heled’s threat in time to prevent the destruction of Lehbet.

Within the palace, intrigue creates illusions of love where there is none, and when Travys’ own brother turns against him, he is forced to flee all that he has known and enter the mirror world of Heled where the enemy has already won. In Heled, he must find his true voice and close the threads, or lose everyone that he loves.

First Sentence:
Outside the gilded halls of Aquitania, summer wilted the crops in the fields.

Purchase At:
Amazon  /  Barnes & Nobles

My Thoughts and Summary:
Travys, the prince, and Marc, Travys lowborn noble friend, find a morbid sight of the dead god and the sacrifice with it. The nobles have not done as they promised to the lowborn citizens. The promise to hold back the fray and beasts within. The person behind the ritual and fueling the lowborn is more than Travys had imagined and Travys is on the mission to find this person to protect his people. Then the matter of the princes marriage comes forth as another problem and his twin is not pleased.

Wow. A whole new world and magic created in a novella. I enjoyed the chanting magic and use of vibration. Then the whole element of the connection of worlds and what darkness is present on the other side... and seeping into this fantasy world as well.

I like there is a chanting magic to create the spells on walls to help protect the town people and to try and hold the fraying edges of reality together, keeping the dark monsters born from the fraying edges at bay. But things aren't going so well with the magic either. Only the nobles are of this magic.

Travys, the second of the Queen's twin sons, was born mute so he's powerless to the changing magic in his blood. Yet he has found a way to make the magic work for him.

This feels like a dark fantasy to me, more so than horror. There are ugly dark things in the world Travys lives in and beyond. Yet some of those dark things are not as terrible, at the moment, as others. The book didn't make me jump or scare me, so it's not that sort of horror.

This story surprised me when I got into it. I enjoyed the writing and the creation here. What surprised me is this is a novella! It reads like a full length fantasy novel. With each page the world and characters grow along with the plot and troubles they come across.

I look forward to more of this world. there is so much here to explore and so many possibilities. And I have a few curious thoughts on what else could happen. Oh do I hope Teresa gets us more of The Frayed Empire soon!