The Godstone

 The Godstone- Violette Malan

DAW/Penguin Group

Release Date: August 3, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Fenra Lowens has been a working Practitioner, using the magic of healing ever since she graduated from the White Court and left the City to live in the Outer Modes. When one of her patients, Arlyn Albainil, is summoned to the City to execute the final testament of a distant cousin, she agrees to help him. Arlyn suspects the White Court wants to access his cousin's Practitioner's vault. Arlyn can't ignore the summons: he knows the vault holds an artifact so dangerous he can't allow it to be freed.

Fenra quickly figures out that there is no cousin, that Arlyn himself is the missing Practitioner, the legendary Xandra Albainil, rumored to have made a Godstone with which he once almost destroyed the world. Sealing away the Godstone left Arlyn powerless and ill, and he needs Fenra to help him deal with the possibly sentient artifact before someone else finds and uses it.

Along the way they encounter Elvanyn Karamisk, an old friend whom Arlyn once betrayed. Convinced that Arlyn has not changed, and intends to use Fenra to recover the Godstone and with it all his power, Elvanyn joins them to keep Fenra safe and help her destroy the artifact.

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In this world of magical Practitioners and mundanes, Fenra Lowens is a Practitioner with a gift for healing who prefers living in a small village far from the politics of court in the City. When her patient Arlyn must go to the City to deal with a false will naming him heir to a distant, ancient, cousin Fenra agrees to go with him to help. But it doesn't take long before she understands the truth: the man she knows as Arlyn, a man with no magic, was once the "cousin" Xandra Albainil- known as one of the most powerful Practitioners ever before he disappeared. Turns out, when he made a Godstone and discovered what most sensible people would have guessed (namely that using or creating anything with enough power to be called a Godstone is a BAD idea), he did have the sense to know he couldn't control it. Xandra sealed the Godstone away in his vault, but it took all of his power to do it.  Now people are looking for it to finish what he started and he needs Fenra's help to stop it. 

Malan's characters are multilayered and nuanced, we discover them slowly even though they are the ones telling us the story. The facet they show the world is never more than the first layer to a person full of strengths and flaws, untapped bravery and stubbornness. Fenra in particular wants her quiet life, but by the end is willing to do whatever it takes to deal with the Godstone. Arlyn is a brilliant character-or characters. He is the mild-mannered, quiet, brilliant woodworker the village children like; the stubborn man Fenra helps as a patient and slowly befriends. But there is also Xandra- the brilliant, stubborn Practitioner who believes he can never be wrong and knows better than anyone else, and who Fenra is pretty sure she's glad she never met. How did Xandra become friends with the levelheaded and loyal Elva? Elva is a case of someone who seems a completely open book, what you see is what you get. But watching the other characters develop makes you wonder what more of Elva's layers are.  We don't get to see them all here, but maybe in the future? Along with maybe more than the hint of romance we get here? Then there's the Godstone itself- a sentient being on some levels, Xandra on other levels, and something else in between. 

The Godstone doesn't end as a cliff hanger, but there are enough hints of future books that we can hope for a nice long series in this new world of Malan's. So many aspects still to explore, the reader will want to dip back into this world(s) again and again to see what they missed the first time.  

If you haven't read Violette Malan's books yet (Gift of Griffins, Halls of Law, The Sleeping God series), you are missing a master's class in brilliant world building and nuanced characters. The Godstone is another perfect example of Malan's talents.  Fantasy lovers will be thrilled and addicted.