Saturday, September 19, 2009

Hetar Series - Book Reviews

Lara
A Distant Tomorow
The Twilight Lord
The Sorceress of Belmair
The Shadow Queen
By Bertrice Small
Authors website
The World of Hetar




I have spent this week reading a new (to me) series of Books - by Bertrice Small. Ms Small writes lusty historical romances. Generally they would have to be rated R18. This series of Books is called the World of Hetar. The central character is a half faerie and half human girl called Lara.

Lara is the faerie version of Joan of Arc. She has a destiny - to reunite the world of Hetar and bring peace to the land. The world of Hetar has several landmasses. The largest is called Hetar. It is divided into 6 areas - the city of Hetar, the Midlands, the Forests, the Desert, the Coastal Kingdoms and the Outlands.

The Forest is the home of the Forst Lords and also of the Forest Faeries and the giants. The Desert is the home of the Shadow Kings - a mysterious magic and long lived race of beings. The Midlands is the farming area and produce most of the food for the city of Hetar. The Coastal Kings produce luxury goods for Hetar and the Outlands are where the "savages" live.

Hetar is ruled by a Council. This council has 2 representatives from each area except the Outlands. The city is becoming too crowded and the Midlands can no longer produce enough food for the city. Gaius Prospero is a merchant. He is the head of the Merchant guild and on the council. He is also getting greedy. He wants to be emperor of Hetar. He also wants to invade the Outlands to anex more land to grow food or Hetar.

Lara is a half faerie and half human girl who was born in faerie land but then given to her human father to raise when she was 3 month old. Her father is a mercenary. He wants to become a Crusader Knight (the eleite mercearies). But on Hetar Looks and Appearance are everythiing.

So Lara comes up with a plan for her father to get enough money to join the crusader knights. She tells her dad to sell her as a slave to the pleasure houses, (what we call bordellos). Lara is 14 years old at this time. She has no idea that she has a destiny, nor does she know what that destiny is.

So Gaius purchases Lara and then attempts to sell her in a private auction to the highest bidder - in this case the owners of the Pleasure Houses. but when they see Lara's beauty, they begin to argue amongst themselves and even start fights. So Gillian, the Head of the Pleasure Houses guild, stops the auction and refuses to sell her to any pleasure house. Gaius wants his payment so Lara is sent to the Coastal kingdoms to be sold.

One the way to the Coastal Kingdoms, they must pass through the Forest. The Head Forester purchases Lara as a slave and Lara spends a year with the Cruel Forest Lords. As a faerie Lara has the abiity to produce children only when she chooses. The Foresters were cursed by a faerie many years before and they now beleive that only another faerie can undo that curse. The Foresters demand that Lara give them a son. She refuses to do. Lara's only friend in the Forests is the giant Og whose mother was killed by the Foresters when they killed everyone who would know of the curse.

Lara and Og escape from the Forests and eventually arrive in the desert where they meet the Shadow Kings. Og is given a job as the horse master and Lara is taught how to use her magic and how to fight, how to love and how to trust. She is also renunited with her faerie mother and faerie grandmother whom she has never known.

Eventually Lara's destiny calls to her and she must leave the Shadow Kingdoms. She heads for the Outlands. There she meets Vartan - the lord of the Outlands and of the Fiacre clan. she learns that the people of the Outlands are not savages as the Hetar believe.

The other 4 book tell of Lara's journey, her family, her husbands, her lovers, her children, her new home on Terah, how she rescued and saved the clans of the Outlands from Gaius's invasion, and how she must protect Terah from Gaius Prospero, the Emperor of Hetar. The old ways of Hetar are fading. Lara must teach the people new way to live.













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