Curse of the Tahiera - Wendy Gillissen

Curse of the Tahiera
Wendy Gillissen
Booklocker.com
Copyright Date: 2009
978-1601458391

The jacket description:

A journey through haunted forests, through dreams and time.
A story of love, magic and the power of forgiveness.
Rom, a young Tzanatzi outcast and Yldich, a mysterious Einache shaman are on the trail of an ancient curse.
Will they save their people from destruction?

Curse of the Tahiera is a book that was sent to me for review. I might not have bought the book on my own, had I seen it in a bookstore, but once I started reading it, I found that I really liked it, and I'm pleased there will probably be a sequel.

The story is suitable for more or less all ages from older teens to adults of all ages (provided they like fantasy). The book certainly has it's exciting moments! It managed to keep me up past one in the morning one of the days I was reading it.

It's different, because the true quest of the story doesn't become clear until well into the book, unlike those where the goal is known from the start. Makes for a different read, where I thought one thing was going to happen, when it all turned out to be caused by something else.

I found the start of Curse of the Tahiera to be a bit iffy, but I think that's as much because the book seemed at that point to almost be setting up to have some form of overarching message that I was supposed to be seeing. Soon enough though, I was into the story proper. The characters grew on me quickly and I had to know what was happening to them next. I still haven't quite shaken them out of my head yet.

The book starts out as a typical fantasy/journey, but takes on it's own dimensions and character quickly, growing into it's own storyline. Who is Yldich? What's going on in Rom's personal history? They're all questions that grow out of the beginnings of the journey, and need answering before the story is through. And the answers will take up much of the rest of the story. We're discovering the truth of the answers at the same time the characters are.

Wendy Gillissen has created an interesting landscape for Curse of the Tahiera, and the characters fit in their world well. I liked the way we learn the history of the world as the characters do and as the story goes by, rather than having it lumped in all in one place as is done quite often.

I should note that there are a couple of typos in the book, and a couple of times where things could have been phrased better, but overall, they don't affect the story (and I've seen the same things in other books, just not very often).

Overall, I'd say Curse of the Tahiera is definitely worth reading at least once, and I can see myself rereading it at some point in the near future.