One for 2011? ‘The Unremembered’ – Peter Orullian

Because the reading isn’t going as quickly as it normally does so I thought it could be cool to look at what I might be reading next year...

I found mention of this over at Aidan’s site and the cover art immediately piqued my interest. Seriously, check it out. Isn’t that gorgeous? There’s the kind of picture that I wouldn’t mind having on my living room wall. Unfortunately, the blurb doesn’t have quite the same affect...

The gods, makers of worlds, seek to create balance—between matter and energy; and between mortals who strive toward the transcendent, and the natural perils they must tame or overcome. But one of the gods fashions a world filled with hellish creatures far too powerful to allow balance; he is condemned to live for eternity with his most hateful creations in that world’s distant Bourne, restrained by a magical veil kept vital by the power of song.

Millennia pass, awareness of the hidden danger fades to legend, and both song and veil weaken. And the most remote cities are laid waste by fell, nightmarish troops escaped from the Bourne. Some people dismiss the attacks as mere rumor. Instead of standing against the real threat, they persecute those with the knowledge, magic and power to fight these abominations, denying the inevitability of war and annihilation. And the evil from the Bourne swells….

The troubles of the world seem far from the Hollows where Tahn Junell struggles to remember his lost childhood and to understand words he feels compelled to utter each time he draws his bow. Trouble arrives when two strangers—an enigmatic man wearing the sigil of the feared Order of Sheason and a beautiful woman of the legendary Far—come, to take Tahn, his sister and his two best friends on a dangerous, secret journey. Tahn knows neither why nor where they will go. He knows only that terrible forces have been unleashed upon mankind and he has been called to stand up and face that which most daunts him—his own forgotten secrets and the darkness that would destroy him and his world.

So, looks like we’ve got a case of ‘boy with a mysterious past has to save the world from evil’ going on here... The question then is not so much whether we’re getting something original here, more of a case of whether Orullian is going to be able to give us something fresh using the same old ingredients... I still find myself in the mood for a good ol’ quest story every now and then; I wouldn’t say ‘The Unremembered’ ranks as a highly anticipated release but I will check it out. Look out for this one in April next year (from Tor).