Camber of Culdi

I. ADORE. Terry Brooks.

Back a few years…and by “a few,” I mean sixteen years ago…I was living in a new town. I didn’t know anyone, I was far away from family and friends and lonely as all heck. One day, I was driving around, trying to familiarize myself with the town, when I passed a library. I pulled over immediately, went inside, discovered the Shannara books there by Terry Brooks, and have been a fanatic fan of his ever since.

But what do you do, when you’ve read every book that the author has released about eighteen times and need something new?

You read Katherine Kurtz.

I had never heard of Katherine Kurtz, until about a month ago. (I know, I know. I’ll go sit in a corner and think about my bad behavior.) But I was literally driving myself nuts, wanting to find an author…specifically a series…that had the Shannara feel to it. And I had been striking out for a few months. But when I was offered the opportunity to read “Camber of Culdi,” I jumped at the chance. The reviews looked pretty great, and the story sounded pretty dang awesome.

Now, from what I understand, this is not a new book. This is simply a newly released edition (i.e. same book, new cover). The original one was released on June 12, 1976. It was the fourth novel in her Deryni novels and the first book in her second Deryni trilogy, The Legends of Camber of Culdi. However, “Camer of Culdi” is the first book in the internal story. Clear as mud? (In other words, read this one first.)

I was so excited, as I dug into this book. The storyline is so good. It has the perfect amount of mystery, magic and medieval. The characters are incredibly developed, easy to relate to, and easy to develop an affection for. The one thing that I love about the Shannara books, is that you forget that you are reading a book. The same holds true for this book, as well. I would be so engrossed in the happenings, the surroundings and the author’s wonderful ability to paint pictures with words, that I would forget that I was reading a book. That, my dear readers, is when you know you’ve struck gold with an author. When they are able to trigger your imagination to such a degree, that you lose all sense of time and space, then you know that you’re holding a treasure.

I can’t wait to get the other books in this series, as well as the others that she has written as well. Something tells me that I’ll be reading them for the next sixteen years.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media for the opportunity to read and review this book!