Seaborn (Book #2 of The Seaborn Trilogy) [Kindle Edition]

Seaborn has taught me a valuable lesson: never underestimate Juno Books. For some reason I had assumed that Juno Books was a publisher of romance novels with a genre twist, but the reality is that Juno Books is not that much different from any other publisher of fantasy, except that they publish novels with strong female leads. And Seaborn certainly has a cast of strong female leads.

Seaborn follows Kassandra, the granddaughter of the current King of the Seaborn and the Wreath-wearer, a person of extraordinary power. King Tharsaleos is a murderer and Kassandra wants revenge not only for the House of Rexenor, but for her family as well. As she gears up for war, she has to learn to control her newfound power. Then there is Corina, a California native who loves to scuba dive, but unwittingly releases Aleximor, last of an ancient line of seaborn sorcerers with the power to control the dead who was imprisoned by the Seaborn royalty. The problem, however, is that Corina has released Aleximor within her, and he's taken over, imprisoning Corina within her own mind. And Aleximor is also on a path to revenge. When his path crosses with Kassandra's, will they work together and will they become enemies?

Chris Howard is someone I will be paying close attention to from this day forward. As a debut novel Seaborn succeeds where many others in the same class have not. It puts together a fascinating new world (within our own), drawing from Greek mythology and developing that into its own unique fantasy creation. Interesting too is that Howard has brought together two separate views of this fantasy world as a junction between the world as we know it and the world as Kassandra knows it. Corina is our outside connection, pulling us into the complexities and strangeness of theSeaborn as she is pulled into it. We are able to share our learning experience with her as her imprisonment draws her deeper into the Seaborn mythos.

Not all of Howard's novel is centered on worldbuilding, though. Seaborn is an action-packed fantasy thriller with a touch of the macabre. My expectation of the slightly flowery romantic fantasy (the literary romance, not the genre) was shattered by Howard's unrestrained presentation of the darker aspects of his world. Kassandra is not a perfect being with untold power; she's flawed and struggles against factors that might drive most of us insane. Aleximor , likewise, is a cunning, twisted individual whose passions for the macabre offer to the reader a gruesome (though not overboard) visual of death and reanimation. Corina, who is perhaps the most sympathetic character of the novel, is the odd-girl-out, being the only one who is "normal" by our standards. Her development throughout the novel keeps this fantasy world connected to ours (this feat is also maintained through Kassandra, who does interact with ussurfacers).

If it isn't obvious at this point, I enjoyed Seaborn a great deal. The novel isn't perfect, as most debuts never are. Some of the names can be a pain in the butt to pronounce. I assume they are based on Greek mythology of some sort and unfortunately my Greek mythology is wholly insignificant to have caught all the references. Also, the ending did feel a bit rushed to me, although perhaps that has more to do with the fact that I enjoy a lot of description for scenes involving battles and the like. Regardless, the novel kept me entertained from start to finish and even snatched me up in the first few pages, which is something a lot of novels have failed to do for me in recent years. Seaborn never felt like a chore and often times surprised me in its presentation--Kassandra, especially.

I look forward to reading more of Howard's work in the future. If Seaborn is what Howard can churn out as a debut, I suspect this may be the beginning of a long and fruitful writing career, with even greater novels finding their way into our libraries, personal and otherwise.

Not just born of the sea, Kassandra comes from Seaborn royalty as her grandfather rules the species. However, in spite of her regal sea blood, Kassandra has spent much of her living amidst the surfacer (land people) for she is unique as the powerful wreathbearer who possesses the spirits of her ancestors guiding her to free the Seaborn from her sadistic dictatorial grandfather whose weapon of choice to hold onto the throne is mass murder.

Four centuries of incarceration by the Seaborn has devastated the mental state of the previously unbalanced evil sorcerer Aleximor. He has finally escaped and taken control of the body of California surfer college student Corina Lairsey with plans to raise a new deadly force to destroy the surfacers and the seaborn. Kassandra with her family at her side must prevent Aleximor from succeeding, but Corina may be collateral damage; while also at the same time open up a second front war: a coup d'etat to liberate her people.

This is an exciting extremely graphic fantasy, which needs a warning label not to eat while reading SEABORN; Chris Howard is explicit with vivid violent descriptions to torture and mutilation. The story line is entertaining but driven by the heroine who has known since birth she has a quest to bear and now has no time left to learn her skills since her mission has turned out to be on two fronts. Readers who appreciate the realism brought to an epic "military" fantasy by broken bodies, blood and gore will want to read SEABORN, a well written opening saga.

Harriet Klausner

Seaborn is a riveting adventure story -- complete with underwater kingdoms, royal rivalries, familial betrayal, and epic battles -- but it's much more, too. It's a rich portrayal of two young women who, in different ways, find themselves in situations not of their choosing and have to use their smarts and strength to persevere. Corina's battle is literally over the ownership of her body - who's ultimately going to inhabit it? For her part, Kassandra's inherited a powerful legacy that, while it brings many gifts, is also fraught with responsibility and pain. The complexity of these women's characters and the beauty of the prose make this book a complete pleasure to read.