Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book 3 of the "Sons of Destiny" series, 23 Sep 2007
Book three in this fantasy romance series centres on Dominor, the third eldest of eight powerful magical brothers prophesised to bring disaster to the kingdom of Katan should they find their destined mates. All exiled to the island of Nightfall, Dominor soon finds himself kidnapped by Mandarite traders, later snatched by their enemies the Natallians and to further the blows to his dignity, sold as a slave to the Lady Serena Avadan; narrowly missing a future as a prize stud for the Natallian royal family.
Serena is determined to purchase this foreign mage in the hopes of casting a permanent spell to readdress the balance of power in the land and ensure each sex is equally gifted with magic. A mathemagician (her magical powers specialise in mathematical equations and formulae) Serena needs a male mage in power at least equal to her own to perform a tantric sex ritual to reverse the effects of an ancient, inadvertently spoken spell resulting in only females being born with magic. Obtaining an oath from Dominor to assist her before removing his magical restraints, she omits one important factor necessary for the spell to succeed; Dominor has to impregnate her.
With such great female leads from previous books (Kelly from "The Sword" and Alys from "The Wolf") my initial comparisons with Serena found her somewhat lacking in the first few chapters of this book. Caught up in her scheme to right this ancient spell, she comes across as somewhat calculating and less likeable than the afore mentioned women, enhanced by the fact that she has no problem with creating a child and not even telling the father. Yet with some of the remarks Dominor throws her way regarding fatherhood, her reluctance to disclose this part of the spell becomes somewhat understandable, and her absentmindedness to the necessities of life (such as food, sleep and even clothing) when caught up in her magical equations endear her to the reader. By the end of this book it is pretty obvious Serena is the perfect match for the somewhat arrogant and competitively driven Dominor, whilst he in turn is just the man to take on the necessary management her life needs when she becomes over absorbed with her work.
More is learnt of the enigmatic sixth brother Rydan and how Dominor's younger twin Evanor is dealing with the loss of his magical voice. A second prophesy is discovered which intertwines with that of the "Sons of Destiny" and we meet the woman fated for Evanor (whose story "The Voice" is due for pub. Feb 08). I can only add if you enjoyed the first two books in this series you will not be disappointed; however as the main theme throughout "The Master" is the completion of a tantric sex spell, this book contains far more intimate encounters between its leading lovers than its predecessors. The amount of action found in the first two books of this series is definitely sacrificed in favour of the lots of practice Dominor and Serena require to successfully complete their tantric spell.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fate and prophecy, 7 Nov 2007
This book is the third in a series about eight brothers, four sets of twins, whose destiny is given in a piece of prophecy - the destiny being the brother finding his soulmate. However at the start of this story, the unfortunately-named Dominor seems miles away from finding anyone. Kidnapped from his home island of Nightfall and taken captive by slavers, Dominor is horrified to find himself up for sale in a market in a land far away. The bidding war that breaks out between two women shows him that his future is unlikely to include freedom, especially as the price paid for him is enormous.
Lady Serina has been working for years to try to reverse a curse on the people of Natallia which means that only daughters inherit magical talents, that male children don't become mages, and consequently there is inbalance within the culture. Serina's scrying shows her that the curse was triggered accidentally by two powerful mages having sex in the Font or magical fountain that she guards. Her calculations suggest that if another magical couple copy the ritual but change it at the end, the curse can be lifted. But of course there aren't any male mages in Natallia because of the curse created hundreds of years ago.
So when Serina discovers Dominor in the marketplace he is clearly a gift from the gods and should be the means by which she can break the curse. Of course she has to buy him first and then persuade him to help her. But will he help her when he finds out what he has to do - to father a child with her in the Font. Serina decides to keep back some information from him when she finds out he doesn't want children. But there may be more between them than just the chance to break the Natallian curse and things might not go entirely according to Serina's plan.
The beginning of this book was very good with Dominor's experiences as a captive, his introduction to Serina and the scenes where he and Serina try to get a measure of each other. However the second half of the book really dragged where Serina spent the whole time doing calculations on slates and Dominor didn't do a great deal except train the son of Serina's friend in swordplay, tell people he didn't want children - oh, and sleep with Serina. Even the end of the book was predictable and there was almost no suspense involved in wondering whether Serina and Dominor would 'make up'. The Big Misunderstanding plot device here, about whether Dominor wanted children, just didn't work.
The worldbuilding of the magical lands was interesting but not particularly deep. The mages seem to be able to do just about anything which sometimes makes for lazy plotting. I was rather disappointed that the promise of the beginning of the book, with its considerations of the role of women in society and of slavery, was not fulfilled by the rest of the story which turned into a rather charm-less series of sexual encounters with Serina's ever-present slate and chalk to mark each event. This was reasonable enough holiday reading but it lacked the depth and characterisation which were possibilities with the writing at the start of the story.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, © Helen Hancox 2007
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5.0 out of 5 stars
the master a novel of sons of destiny, 21 Sep 2009
great book loved them all this is the 3 one there are 8 in total couldnt put them down
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by Jean Johnson
