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Wars of Light and Shadow
The Decoy
Falion sen Ardhai, town born to a glass artisan and a clanbred woman, maintains his uneasy, dual heritage as a free wilds courier when a message of sensitive urgency sends him to Avenor, and a test of courage beyond his imagining.
- GenresFantasy
32 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2018
1 person is currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Janny Wurts
106 books1,934 followersJanny Wurts is the author of War of Light and Shadow series, and To Ride Hell's Chasm. Her eighteen published titles include a trilogy in audio, a short story collection, as well as the internationally best selling Empire trilogy, co authored with Raymond E. Feist, with works translated into fifteen languages worldwide. Her latest title in the Wars of Light and Shadow series, Destiny's Conflict, culminates more than thirty years of carefully evolved ideas. The cover images on the books, both in the US and abroad, are her own paintings, depicting her vision of characters and setting.
Through her combined talents as a writer/illustrator, Janny has immersed herself in a lifelong ambition: to create a seamless interface between words and pictures that will lead reader and viewer into the imagination. Her lavish use of language invites the mind into a crafted realm of experience, with characters and events woven into a complex tapestry, and drawn with an intensity to inspire active fuel for thought. Her research includes a range of direct experience, lending her fantasy a gritty realism, and her scenes involving magic crafted with intricate continuity. A self-taught painter, she draws directly from the imagination, creating scenes in a representational style that blurs the edges between dream and reality. She makes few preliminary sketches, but envisions her characters and the scenes that contain them, then executes the final directly from the initial pencil drawing.
The seed idea for the Wars of Light and Shadow series occurred, when, in the course of researching tactic and weapons, she viewed a documentary film on the Battle of Culloden Moor. This was the first time she had encountered that historical context of that brutal event, with the embroidery of romance stripped from it. The experience gave rise to an awakening, which became anger, that so often, our education, literature and entertainment slant history in a manner that equates winners and losers with moral right and wrong, and the prevalent attitude, that killing wars can be seen as justifiable solutions when only one side of the picture is presented.
Her series takes the stance that there are two sides to every question, and follows two characters who are half brothers. One a bard trained as a master of magecraft, and the other a born ruler with a charismatic passion for justice, have become cursed to lifelong enmity. As one sibling raises a devoted mass following, the other tries desperately to stave off defeat through solitary discipline and cleverness. The conflict sweeps across an imaginary world, dividing land and people through an intricate play of politics and the inborn prejudices of polarized factions already set at odds. Readers are led on a journey that embraces both viewpoints. The story explores the ironies of morality which often confound our own human condition - that what appears right and just, by one side, becomes reprehensible when seen from the opposite angle. What is apparently good for the many, too often causes devastating suffering to the nonconformist minority. Through the interactions between the characters themselves, the reader is left to their own discretion to interpret the moral impact of events.
Says Janny of her work, "I chose to frame this story against a backdrop of fantasy because I could handle even the most sensitive issues with the gloves off - explore the myriad angles of our troubled times with the least risk of offending anyone's personal sensibilities. The result, I can hope, is an expanding journey of the spirit that explores the grand depths, and rises to the challenge of mapping the ethereal potential of an evolving planetary consciousness... explore free thought and compassionate understanding."
Beyond writing, Janny's award winning paintings have been showcased in exhibitions of imaginative artwork, among them a commemorative exhibition for NASA's 25th Anniversary; the Art of the Cosmos at Hayden Planet
Through her combined talents as a writer/illustrator, Janny has immersed herself in a lifelong ambition: to create a seamless interface between words and pictures that will lead reader and viewer into the imagination. Her lavish use of language invites the mind into a crafted realm of experience, with characters and events woven into a complex tapestry, and drawn with an intensity to inspire active fuel for thought. Her research includes a range of direct experience, lending her fantasy a gritty realism, and her scenes involving magic crafted with intricate continuity. A self-taught painter, she draws directly from the imagination, creating scenes in a representational style that blurs the edges between dream and reality. She makes few preliminary sketches, but envisions her characters and the scenes that contain them, then executes the final directly from the initial pencil drawing.
The seed idea for the Wars of Light and Shadow series occurred, when, in the course of researching tactic and weapons, she viewed a documentary film on the Battle of Culloden Moor. This was the first time she had encountered that historical context of that brutal event, with the embroidery of romance stripped from it. The experience gave rise to an awakening, which became anger, that so often, our education, literature and entertainment slant history in a manner that equates winners and losers with moral right and wrong, and the prevalent attitude, that killing wars can be seen as justifiable solutions when only one side of the picture is presented.
Her series takes the stance that there are two sides to every question, and follows two characters who are half brothers. One a bard trained as a master of magecraft, and the other a born ruler with a charismatic passion for justice, have become cursed to lifelong enmity. As one sibling raises a devoted mass following, the other tries desperately to stave off defeat through solitary discipline and cleverness. The conflict sweeps across an imaginary world, dividing land and people through an intricate play of politics and the inborn prejudices of polarized factions already set at odds. Readers are led on a journey that embraces both viewpoints. The story explores the ironies of morality which often confound our own human condition - that what appears right and just, by one side, becomes reprehensible when seen from the opposite angle. What is apparently good for the many, too often causes devastating suffering to the nonconformist minority. Through the interactions between the characters themselves, the reader is left to their own discretion to interpret the moral impact of events.
Says Janny of her work, "I chose to frame this story against a backdrop of fantasy because I could handle even the most sensitive issues with the gloves off - explore the myriad angles of our troubled times with the least risk of offending anyone's personal sensibilities. The result, I can hope, is an expanding journey of the spirit that explores the grand depths, and rises to the challenge of mapping the ethereal potential of an evolving planetary consciousness... explore free thought and compassionate understanding."
Beyond writing, Janny's award winning paintings have been showcased in exhibitions of imaginative artwork, among them a commemorative exhibition for NASA's 25th Anniversary; the Art of the Cosmos at Hayden Planet
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 20, 2024
A tale of blood, of honour, of courage and of sacrifice!
A mere 32 pages, but they will keep you glued to your seat until you've read the very last word!
Falion sen Ardhai, town born to a glass artisan and a clanbred woman, maintains his uneasy, dual heritage as a free wilds courier when a message of sensitive urgency sends him to Avenor.
Considering himself a nobody and rattled to be tossed headlong into the nexus of greater affairs, Falion ends up on a horse bound at speed for Avenor to deliver a crucial message to the queen regent, the last surviving member of the royal family.
A lanky lad, constantly stumbling and tripping over his own feet and more likely to nick himself with a blade while drawing it than even pointing it the proper way towards an enemy; Falion finds himself thrust in the midst of a bloody uprising through which he must slip unseen and unknown and fulfill a mission of utmost importance for humanity's very survival.
But no plan ever unfolds as we expect and nothing is ever as it seems!
Armed with only a brave heart and a long knife Falion is placed at the crossroads of fate and must brave a test of courage beyond his imagining.
A decoy will be needed for the clans' survival. A bloody, brutal one; sorrowful enough to break a heart!!
Will Falion have the strength to provide it?
For the readers of Wars of Light and Shadow - YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS!!
For first time readers of Janny Wurts' works - this will give you a nice picture of what her books are like.
A wonderful, unforgettable short story that I couldn't set down!
I highly recommend it to all those who favour bravery and honour.
Hope you will love it just as much as I did!
Happy reading. :)
Check out this review and more over at The Magic Book Corner
A mere 32 pages, but they will keep you glued to your seat until you've read the very last word!
Falion sen Ardhai, town born to a glass artisan and a clanbred woman, maintains his uneasy, dual heritage as a free wilds courier when a message of sensitive urgency sends him to Avenor.
Considering himself a nobody and rattled to be tossed headlong into the nexus of greater affairs, Falion ends up on a horse bound at speed for Avenor to deliver a crucial message to the queen regent, the last surviving member of the royal family.
A lanky lad, constantly stumbling and tripping over his own feet and more likely to nick himself with a blade while drawing it than even pointing it the proper way towards an enemy; Falion finds himself thrust in the midst of a bloody uprising through which he must slip unseen and unknown and fulfill a mission of utmost importance for humanity's very survival.
But no plan ever unfolds as we expect and nothing is ever as it seems!
Armed with only a brave heart and a long knife Falion is placed at the crossroads of fate and must brave a test of courage beyond his imagining.
A decoy will be needed for the clans' survival. A bloody, brutal one; sorrowful enough to break a heart!!
Will Falion have the strength to provide it?
For the readers of Wars of Light and Shadow - YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS!!
For first time readers of Janny Wurts' works - this will give you a nice picture of what her books are like.
A wonderful, unforgettable short story that I couldn't set down!
I highly recommend it to all those who favour bravery and honour.
Hope you will love it just as much as I did!
Happy reading. :)
Check out this review and more over at The Magic Book Corner
April 5, 2023
This story is available exclusively on the author's website: https://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/bo...
A stark, violent, and heart-breaking look into the bitter and senseless conflict between the townfolk and the clanborn of Athera in the "Wars of Light and Shadow" series, Janny Wurts' short story "The Decoy" put us in the middle of a bloody uprising, where rulers will fall, but others will take their place, and will - no matter the terrible cost - fulfill their duty, and their destiny.
The plot revolves around Falion sen Ardhai. Falion is a young man who has experienced a complicated, sometimes harrowing, and in many ways sad life. Torn between two worlds, Falion's father (whose last name is sen Ardhai) is a glass forger - a townborn guild tradesmen.
Falion's mother is a distant relative of the royal family of s'Ilessid (yes, THOSE s'Ilessids, whose lineage bears the High Kings of Tysan, of which Lysaer in Wurts' main "Wars of Light and Shadow" series is the current heir.) Falion's father wants Falion to follow in his footsteps as a guild artisan, but fate has other plans for the young man.
The portentous dichotomy that Falion is both townborn and clanborn manifests in an incident that takes place when Falion is very young. In a prank born of the immaturity of youth, Falion's childhood friends Torrien (of noble heritage whose family are members of the royal court), Jaegan, and Leylie leave Falion with a sack bound over his head, in the royal dungeons in Avenor, traditional capital of the High Kings of Tysan.
This incident traumatizes Falion, and also rouses his latent royal heritage but neuters the adroitness required to be a guild artist, thus destroying any chance for Falion to follow his father into that line of work.
Most mortals, save some of the clanborn, cannot normally withstand the intensity of exposure to the Paravians (the ancient semi-mortal races who once dominated the world of Athera). However, as a clanborn, exposure is still attempted as a rite of passage, to see if the one exposed can emerge without being driven mad, or dying in the exposure, proving the strength of one's clanborn inheritance.
Still, at age 12, Falion passes the trail, and would nominally receive an indelible clanborn tattoo, to mark their attunement with the Paravians and proud clan endowments. But there is a growing hatred between the clanborn and townborn. Falion's father does not want the derision of his family, potential loss of business from townborn customers, or even danger that could be brought down on him from Falion being clearly marked as clanborn.
So, Falion's father does not permit his son to receive the ritual tattoo.
Yet this absence of the tattoo comes very much in handy later in life, when Falion, unable to be a tradesmen, becomes one of a quartet of "unmarked" clan messengers. These messengers can walk with more ease among the townfolk, and thus have a better chance to deliver surreptitious dispatches of urgency when needed.
Fatefully, one day, such a message arrives, and it's the most imperative message yet. And it's on Falion's shoulders to get that message to the queen-regent in Avenor, or all may be lost. Fortunately, Torrien, Jaegan, and Leylie are not just fair weather friends, and only good for practical jokes. They are loyal comrades, who will risk their lives to assist Falion, in his desperate attempt to help save a kingdom, and the world beyond it.
A lack of page count never limits the author from providing brilliant characterization, and that holds true for this approximately 30-page story. Falion is a very interesting and well-drawn protagonist, who in many ways is not the true hero of the story. I'd give that honour to, ultimately, Cindein. Or, even Falion's friends Torrien, Jaegan, and Leylie.
Falion is described as a clumsy youth, no warrior, and one can't help but feeling empathy for him. He's never truly fit in with either society, it seems, clanborn or townfolk. At first - and later for different reasons - one can't help feeling sorry for him. His life has seemed rather lacklustre, with a lot of frustrations and unfulfilled promise.
Rather than being some grand mover and shaper of his own destiny, much less others, Falion seems to be a victim of happenstance, or one saved by the bravery of others, to carry his mission forward.
But he uses his anonymity, his lack of standing out, to his advantage, and there is no question he is clever, brave, and talented at his core, endowed with the s'Ilesid traits of justice, courage, and fortitude, and the ability to channel the gifts bestowed to him.
It's the secondary characters, little as we see of them, that truly stand out, and will make you weep, for all they do to preserve the s'Ilesid royal line.
Which brings me to what I found to be the main theme of this short story: sacrifice. It runs throughout, and the sense of pathos Wurts delivers here, in terms of what others must give up for the greater good, hits like a hammer. The altruism of some of these characters, the cruel and clear pragmatism in the face of death, shows us the best of what humans can be.
We also see the worst of humanity as well. The utter idiocy, the absurdity of the clanfolk versus townfolk conflict, the horrible danger it poses to all mortals, the complete savagery of the uprising, and delight in barbarism and depravity that can potentially explode when people are stirred to self-righteousness behind a cause, was wholly frustrating, hideous, and depressing.
Thus once more, Wurts gives us the darkness and the light, side by side, bare for all to see. Yet in the end, she does give us hope.
In terms of worldbuilding, I have truly enjoyed the glimpses Wurts' shorts have provided, for they are all set in very dark times - either extremely or infinitely far before the main series. "The Decoy" takes place approximately two decades following the initial invasion of the dreaded Mistwraith, whose gaes blots out sunlight in Athera, now a place of shriveling crops, an increasingly despondent populace, and constant war.
By this time, the situation surrounding the Mistwraith has become dire indeed. Fighting this curse has snatched the lives of many noble lords and soldiers, and only the Fellowship of Sorcerers and what High Kings remain can rally humans against the darkness. But the petty dispute between clanborn and townfolk puts all this in jeopardy, as revolt against the rule of the High Kings, and mistrust of the Fellowship and all things related to sorcery, mount.
And, of course, we are gifted once more with the delight of Wurts' stellar, unique, lush, and mesmerizing prose, in this short story.
"He breasted the wisped gleam where the flux currents draped the ancient haunts in cold phosphor, and flinched from the ghost-fingered cling of the cobwebs streamered in the drafts. His step gritted on the detritus of centuries, and he breathed the fust of mouldering wood, where disuse had sealed the high vaulted doorways the far sides refashioned into recessed bookshelves or cabinets or cushioned lover's nooks."
A dark, emotive, sorrowful tale of courage, honour, sacrifice, and destiny, and an amazing story in its own right, "The Decoy" can only serve to enhance the reader's journey into the seminal works that are Wurts' "Wars of Light and Shadow".
I highly recommend reading as many of Wurts' short stories related to Athera that don't spoil you for reading the main series.
Please peruse the author's website for suggested reading order of the novellas, in relation to the different arcs in the "Wars of Light and Shadow".
A stark, violent, and heart-breaking look into the bitter and senseless conflict between the townfolk and the clanborn of Athera in the "Wars of Light and Shadow" series, Janny Wurts' short story "The Decoy" put us in the middle of a bloody uprising, where rulers will fall, but others will take their place, and will - no matter the terrible cost - fulfill their duty, and their destiny.
The plot revolves around Falion sen Ardhai. Falion is a young man who has experienced a complicated, sometimes harrowing, and in many ways sad life. Torn between two worlds, Falion's father (whose last name is sen Ardhai) is a glass forger - a townborn guild tradesmen.
Falion's mother is a distant relative of the royal family of s'Ilessid (yes, THOSE s'Ilessids, whose lineage bears the High Kings of Tysan, of which Lysaer in Wurts' main "Wars of Light and Shadow" series is the current heir.) Falion's father wants Falion to follow in his footsteps as a guild artisan, but fate has other plans for the young man.
The portentous dichotomy that Falion is both townborn and clanborn manifests in an incident that takes place when Falion is very young. In a prank born of the immaturity of youth, Falion's childhood friends Torrien (of noble heritage whose family are members of the royal court), Jaegan, and Leylie leave Falion with a sack bound over his head, in the royal dungeons in Avenor, traditional capital of the High Kings of Tysan.
This incident traumatizes Falion, and also rouses his latent royal heritage but neuters the adroitness required to be a guild artist, thus destroying any chance for Falion to follow his father into that line of work.
Most mortals, save some of the clanborn, cannot normally withstand the intensity of exposure to the Paravians (the ancient semi-mortal races who once dominated the world of Athera). However, as a clanborn, exposure is still attempted as a rite of passage, to see if the one exposed can emerge without being driven mad, or dying in the exposure, proving the strength of one's clanborn inheritance.
Still, at age 12, Falion passes the trail, and would nominally receive an indelible clanborn tattoo, to mark their attunement with the Paravians and proud clan endowments. But there is a growing hatred between the clanborn and townborn. Falion's father does not want the derision of his family, potential loss of business from townborn customers, or even danger that could be brought down on him from Falion being clearly marked as clanborn.
So, Falion's father does not permit his son to receive the ritual tattoo.
Yet this absence of the tattoo comes very much in handy later in life, when Falion, unable to be a tradesmen, becomes one of a quartet of "unmarked" clan messengers. These messengers can walk with more ease among the townfolk, and thus have a better chance to deliver surreptitious dispatches of urgency when needed.
Fatefully, one day, such a message arrives, and it's the most imperative message yet. And it's on Falion's shoulders to get that message to the queen-regent in Avenor, or all may be lost. Fortunately, Torrien, Jaegan, and Leylie are not just fair weather friends, and only good for practical jokes. They are loyal comrades, who will risk their lives to assist Falion, in his desperate attempt to help save a kingdom, and the world beyond it.
A lack of page count never limits the author from providing brilliant characterization, and that holds true for this approximately 30-page story. Falion is a very interesting and well-drawn protagonist, who in many ways is not the true hero of the story. I'd give that honour to, ultimately, Cindein. Or, even Falion's friends Torrien, Jaegan, and Leylie.
Falion is described as a clumsy youth, no warrior, and one can't help but feeling empathy for him. He's never truly fit in with either society, it seems, clanborn or townfolk. At first - and later for different reasons - one can't help feeling sorry for him. His life has seemed rather lacklustre, with a lot of frustrations and unfulfilled promise.
Rather than being some grand mover and shaper of his own destiny, much less others, Falion seems to be a victim of happenstance, or one saved by the bravery of others, to carry his mission forward.
But he uses his anonymity, his lack of standing out, to his advantage, and there is no question he is clever, brave, and talented at his core, endowed with the s'Ilesid traits of justice, courage, and fortitude, and the ability to channel the gifts bestowed to him.
It's the secondary characters, little as we see of them, that truly stand out, and will make you weep, for all they do to preserve the s'Ilesid royal line.
Which brings me to what I found to be the main theme of this short story: sacrifice. It runs throughout, and the sense of pathos Wurts delivers here, in terms of what others must give up for the greater good, hits like a hammer. The altruism of some of these characters, the cruel and clear pragmatism in the face of death, shows us the best of what humans can be.
We also see the worst of humanity as well. The utter idiocy, the absurdity of the clanfolk versus townfolk conflict, the horrible danger it poses to all mortals, the complete savagery of the uprising, and delight in barbarism and depravity that can potentially explode when people are stirred to self-righteousness behind a cause, was wholly frustrating, hideous, and depressing.
Thus once more, Wurts gives us the darkness and the light, side by side, bare for all to see. Yet in the end, she does give us hope.
In terms of worldbuilding, I have truly enjoyed the glimpses Wurts' shorts have provided, for they are all set in very dark times - either extremely or infinitely far before the main series. "The Decoy" takes place approximately two decades following the initial invasion of the dreaded Mistwraith, whose gaes blots out sunlight in Athera, now a place of shriveling crops, an increasingly despondent populace, and constant war.
By this time, the situation surrounding the Mistwraith has become dire indeed. Fighting this curse has snatched the lives of many noble lords and soldiers, and only the Fellowship of Sorcerers and what High Kings remain can rally humans against the darkness. But the petty dispute between clanborn and townfolk puts all this in jeopardy, as revolt against the rule of the High Kings, and mistrust of the Fellowship and all things related to sorcery, mount.
And, of course, we are gifted once more with the delight of Wurts' stellar, unique, lush, and mesmerizing prose, in this short story.
"He breasted the wisped gleam where the flux currents draped the ancient haunts in cold phosphor, and flinched from the ghost-fingered cling of the cobwebs streamered in the drafts. His step gritted on the detritus of centuries, and he breathed the fust of mouldering wood, where disuse had sealed the high vaulted doorways the far sides refashioned into recessed bookshelves or cabinets or cushioned lover's nooks."
A dark, emotive, sorrowful tale of courage, honour, sacrifice, and destiny, and an amazing story in its own right, "The Decoy" can only serve to enhance the reader's journey into the seminal works that are Wurts' "Wars of Light and Shadow".
I highly recommend reading as many of Wurts' short stories related to Athera that don't spoil you for reading the main series.
Please peruse the author's website for suggested reading order of the novellas, in relation to the different arcs in the "Wars of Light and Shadow".
November 19, 2022
This is another short story set in the Wars of Light and Shadow series.
The events take place about twenty years after the mistwraith's initial incursion. So that would be almost five hundred years prior to The Curse of the Mistwraith.
Falion is a courier. He also has a clanswoman for a mother and a towns-bred artisan for a father. The hatred and mistrust between the two segments of society has settled in firmly. Despite having this dual heritage, Falion is able to pass anonymously through either the clans or the towns. And it's a good thing he is since there's a plot against the queen-regent of Avenor and her family, and Falion is sent with the warning and to help them escape.
The effects of the mistwraith are really starting to show in this one. Many leaders/kings/chiefs have lost their lives fighting against it. The Fellowship is preoccupied with trying to keep it at bay, and the Paravians have now become scarce. Crops are withering from the lack of sunlight. And then there's the stupidity of the hatred between the two peoples.
As always and no matter the length of the book, this author has a gift. It's always a pleasure to read anything she has written.
The events take place about twenty years after the mistwraith's initial incursion. So that would be almost five hundred years prior to The Curse of the Mistwraith.
Falion is a courier. He also has a clanswoman for a mother and a towns-bred artisan for a father. The hatred and mistrust between the two segments of society has settled in firmly. Despite having this dual heritage, Falion is able to pass anonymously through either the clans or the towns. And it's a good thing he is since there's a plot against the queen-regent of Avenor and her family, and Falion is sent with the warning and to help them escape.
The effects of the mistwraith are really starting to show in this one. Many leaders/kings/chiefs have lost their lives fighting against it. The Fellowship is preoccupied with trying to keep it at bay, and the Paravians have now become scarce. Crops are withering from the lack of sunlight. And then there's the stupidity of the hatred between the two peoples.
As always and no matter the length of the book, this author has a gift. It's always a pleasure to read anything she has written.
November 1, 2025
⭐⭐⭐⭐ ║ A beautifully crafted short story that proves just how much Janny Wurts can do with so little space.
The Decoy delivers tension, emotion, and vivid imagery in under forty pages. The prose is lyrical, layered, and dense—every line carrying weight and meaning. I found myself pausing often to reread passages—each one feels like poetry. With this writing style, Wurts is able to accomplish incredible things with relatively few, perfectly chosen words.
The action is gripping, the stakes surprisingly high, and the characters are wonderfully portrayed. It’s incredible how much depth Wurts fits into this brief tale, offering a powerful glimpse of the past events that influenced the world of The Wars of Light and Shadow series.
The Decoy delivers tension, emotion, and vivid imagery in under forty pages. The prose is lyrical, layered, and dense—every line carrying weight and meaning. I found myself pausing often to reread passages—each one feels like poetry. With this writing style, Wurts is able to accomplish incredible things with relatively few, perfectly chosen words.
The action is gripping, the stakes surprisingly high, and the characters are wonderfully portrayed. It’s incredible how much depth Wurts fits into this brief tale, offering a powerful glimpse of the past events that influenced the world of The Wars of Light and Shadow series.
June 3, 2025
An emotional waterfall of lyrical prose, heart stopping tension, and mythical worldbuilding.
These short stories are unmissable entries in Janny's WoLaS series, perfect little snapshots of a world in flux.
Janny gives us a peak behind the veil, into the deep mysteries of the past, both enhancing our understanding of future events, and the shocking turning points of yester year.
Quick, yet rich i highly reccomend for anyone to get a glimpse of the maestro that is Janny Wurts
These short stories are unmissable entries in Janny's WoLaS series, perfect little snapshots of a world in flux.
Janny gives us a peak behind the veil, into the deep mysteries of the past, both enhancing our understanding of future events, and the shocking turning points of yester year.
Quick, yet rich i highly reccomend for anyone to get a glimpse of the maestro that is Janny Wurts
December 27, 2019
Purchased on Valentine's Day 2019 and read the same day. Loved it, every heart-rending moment. Another piece of the puzzle.
Available in ebook edition now from author's website: https://www.paravia.com/catalog/index...
Available in ebook edition now from author's website: https://www.paravia.com/catalog/index...
June 28, 2019
Critical information must get through to a royal heir --- in the midst of an uprising to overthrow crown rule. As is the way of life, things don't go as expected and critical choices must be made.
Readers of the series "Wars of Light and Shadow" should enjoy the extra background information in this story. First-time readers can look forward to an almost complete 11-volume series and several other related short stories.
Readers of the series "Wars of Light and Shadow" should enjoy the extra background information in this story. First-time readers can look forward to an almost complete 11-volume series and several other related short stories.
January 11, 2025
The Decoy sends the reader on an intriguing journey and is a fantastic read. I am addicted to this authors work.
Jannys’ work invites readers to unravel its intricacies layer by layer. It challenges them to confront the darkness within the narrative, suggesting that those who venture into this world will want to remain amongst the pages. She masterfully weaves together a tapestry of suspenseful storytelling. The narrative unfolds through edge-of-your-seat plots and chilling enigmas that ensnare readers from the very first page.
This story seamlessly blends supernatural and paranormal elements. I am addicted! This series is gripping and exciting. It is a tangled web that leaves you breathless and craving more. It is filled with loss and hope, magic and danger, suspense and tension, humour and action within a world where nothing is what it seems.
Jannys’ work invites readers to unravel its intricacies layer by layer. It challenges them to confront the darkness within the narrative, suggesting that those who venture into this world will want to remain amongst the pages. She masterfully weaves together a tapestry of suspenseful storytelling. The narrative unfolds through edge-of-your-seat plots and chilling enigmas that ensnare readers from the very first page.
This story seamlessly blends supernatural and paranormal elements. I am addicted! This series is gripping and exciting. It is a tangled web that leaves you breathless and craving more. It is filled with loss and hope, magic and danger, suspense and tension, humour and action within a world where nothing is what it seems.
February 29, 2024
Excellent and Bleak short story set in The Wars of Light and Shadow world. This details the after effects of the uprising to destroy clan heritage blood lines and the sacrifices people had to make. Not what I was expecting in the best possible way! Definitely do not skip the shorts!
July 29, 2022
I read this in the anthology "Unfettered 2".
Falion is one of the royal relay messengers. He is of mixed standing. His mother's people are mocked, and his father considers him a failure. Once he was put on a horse though he excelled. He is tasked with getting to the queen-regent and telling her to flee from a revolt that has already taken the lives of several of the royalty. The first part of the story is somewhat dull. Upon arriving he is attacked by childhood friends. At first he believes this to be a cruel prank. He soon realizes they are actually trying to save his life. The story is from the “Wars of Light and Shadow” series.
Falion is one of the royal relay messengers. He is of mixed standing. His mother's people are mocked, and his father considers him a failure. Once he was put on a horse though he excelled. He is tasked with getting to the queen-regent and telling her to flee from a revolt that has already taken the lives of several of the royalty. The first part of the story is somewhat dull. Upon arriving he is attacked by childhood friends. At first he believes this to be a cruel prank. He soon realizes they are actually trying to save his life. The story is from the “Wars of Light and Shadow” series.
July 12, 2019
A short story set 500 years before war of light and shadows in Avenor
The hero here has to struggle between clan and town cultures / experiences but having both gives him the edge to potentially escape the slaughter Will it be enough? Read and find out.
A quick read for fans of the bigger series filling in a little bit more of the history. It shows some detail up close of really desperate times and the uprising feels that little bit sharper and nastier when seen in the present rather than from 500 years later.
The hero here has to struggle between clan and town cultures / experiences but having both gives him the edge to potentially escape the slaughter Will it be enough? Read and find out.
A quick read for fans of the bigger series filling in a little bit more of the history. It shows some detail up close of really desperate times and the uprising feels that little bit sharper and nastier when seen in the present rather than from 500 years later.
January 18, 2022
A short tale of a young courier with a hint of royal blood is sent to warn the queen to make her escape before the insurgents take her.
August 5, 2022
fun little story that gives some extra context.
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