Ending an Ending

Ending an Ending, Danny Birt, Ancient Tomes Press, 2008

First of a series called the Laurian Pentology, this book takes place on a flat, polytheistic world where the gods take an active role in everyday life. People called Seren awake from Sleep, which could last weeks or centuries, knowing the name of "their" God. Their mission, and destination, is generally implanted in their brain. Sanct is the exception.

He has no idea who his God is (which is totally unheard of), and has come into possession of a staff of great power. No matter how much he tries to get rid of it, the staff always returns to him. In his present mission, Sanct has this vague feeling to travel in a certain direction, but agrees to go in the opposite direction to help Pander, who he met on a previous mission. They travel to the castle of Seighn, where Pander's mission is to prevent an assassination, but he doesn't know who or how or when. While there, the castle is destroyed by a magically-created earthquake, and the King and Queen are killed. Pander and Sanct get their daughter, and heiress to the throne, Eiry, out of the area, fast. Whoever caused the earthquake will be looking for Eiry.

Along with several others, a young man named Claren joins the group. He was subject of some high-level magic, which scrambled his neural circuits, causing him to talk in gibberish. After his brain is unscrambled, he and Eiry instantly fall for each other. Alaris, a mage of great power who seems to know everyone and everything, finds an isolated farming community where all of them, especially Eiry, can hide. The urgency is because the amount of time allotted to the world is quickly running out, so there is the great danger of everything just ceasing to exist.

This is a fine piece of storytelling, and of world-building. It may seem a little slow, and will take some work on the part of the reader, but it is very much worth the time.