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DAUGHTER OF GODS (DISILLUSIONMENT BOOK ONE)
by T.C. McMullen
Star Publish
ISBN 978-1-935188-01-8
Cedrik always knows which slave to buy. He can only afford to free one at a time, but that
doesn't make it any less worth doing. As a son of the high nobility, a people returned to Earth two thousand years after their
ancestors fled it during a human-caused cataclysm, he's supposed to think of slaves as things to be used. But Cedrik cannot
do that, and the reason for his being so different from the rest of his people lies hidden somewhere deep inside him.
Tryn, the slave Cedrik buys and frees, has been in the mines since she was twelve years
old. This daughter of the Inaut, the humans whose ancestors somehow survived Earth's near destruction, has not been broken
by her long and abusive captivity. She cannot understand why her new Madai owner sets her free, but she grasps that freedom
instantly and sets off to find what (if anything) remains of her family. That journey takes her perilously close to death.
It crosses her path with that of a being she has always considered mere legend, and it uncovers in Tryn powers she also thought
to be the stuff of stories, only. Then she learns that Cedrik needs her, and everything else has to be put aside because the
man who rescued her from slavery cannot die for that kindness if Tryn can possibly save him.
This
first book in a new series makes a satisfying read on its own, but it promises a great deal more as the Inaut and the Madai
continue their stories. Tryn is just the sort of heroine I love to read about: smart, competent, self-confident, with conflicts
stemming from her sense of honor and from an on-going battle between her need to trust and her hard-learned unwillingness
to do so. Cedrik's secrets come out at just the right time as the plot unfolds, and the universe author McMullen creates grows
more believable - more "real" to the reader - with each detail and each new revelation. I hated to put it down, and didn't
except when forced to do so!
--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "To the Farthest
Outlands" and 2005 EPPIE winner "Regs" (http://ninaosier.50webs.com/)
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