Book Info: Genre: FantasyReading Level: AdultRecommended for: anyoneTrigger Warnings: Fairly graphic representations of sex acts (not a lot, but they are there); rape (minor and short scene, fortunately)My Thoughts: This is another book absolutely filled with lyrical and poetic language; it is very obvious that Vera Nazarian spent a lot of time on these earlier books honing her language skills. Reading them is a sensuous act in and of itself if you enjoy words, like I do.Nazarian has an odd tendency to describe the color of things and people with botanical terms. I first noticed this in Dreams of the Compass Rose (review here where formatting allowed). Instead of “red” she’ll use “persimmon” or “amaranth”; instead of blue/purple she’ll use “heliotrope”. I noticed at least three separate instances in the first 20 percent of this book in which she described people’s hair as “dandelion” in texture (since this is a world without color, any descriptions of color are theoretical). There is also an underlying message that leads me to believe she is at least sympathetic to PETA.The essential idea of the book itself requires a substantial suspension of disbelief, in that you must be willing to accept that the world’s colors are affected by an external element and not perceived by each individual, as opposed to reality; for color vision is the result of the physiology of the eye, after all, and I cannot think of any specific thing that could cause the world to lose all color. This idea is actually mentioned in the book, but no real explanation as to why color perception was lost is explained. And, in fact, humans still can perceive color, in the monocolor orbs; but no color exists anywhere else. It’s a real stumper, really.Ranhé is a most interesting character. Androgynous, skilled in almost everything, ambivalent to the world around her, and somewhat mad. Vorn is another interesting one. Nazarian does a great job overall of creating memorable characters in this book. If I were to list each of them, I would essentially need to list the entire cast, and there are quite a lot of them.I do want to point out that hidden among all the rest of the story is a beautiful love story. It’s subtle (just the way I like it) but definitely there. Wonderful! Also, wonder of wonder and joyous days, a sequel is planned for this book, called Lady of Monochrome. I have no idea when, but I will be watching for it! Nazarian has some fun things associated with this book, like a quiz to show which Tilirr (Lord of the Rainbow) you serve at veranazarian.com/lorquiz (link where formatting allowed). Mine is Dersenne, Yellow. Find yours! Other info about the series can be found at Nazarian’s series-specific website, linked where formatting is allowed.Another highly recommended work by Vera Nazarian. If you love a good story that is well told, don’t miss this one!Disclosure: I received an e-book copy of this text through the LibraryThing Member’s giveaway in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.Synopsis: Imagine a world without color, illuminated by a gray sun … An unrequited love... War... mystery... exultation... An epic fantasy of unspeakable wonder...Lords of RainbowImagine a sudden brilliant flash—an artificial orb ignites, filled with peculiar impossible light...The nature of this light bears no description. It lingers in dreams, inciting an unrequited love for a goddess.A corrupt city is shaped like a perfect wheel, and is ruled by a sister and brother, Regent and Regentrix, by perverse desires, and by a secret...A loyal warrior woman swears to serve a mysterious lord. At the same time, an epic invasion is precipitated by a being of utter darkness, who is the one absolute source of black in a monochrome silver world.And amid all this, flickers an ancient memory of a phenomenon called Rainbow and of those who had once filled the world with an impossible thing called color...Lords of Rainbow.
Lords of Rainbow is quite wonderful. The world building in it is - wait, it is better to write it in italics, like world building or even with capital letters World Building ... yeah, that'll do. So yeah, the World Building is brilliant, and you can actually feel all the thorough work behind it.In the first half of the book we are introduced to the weird colourless world (yeah, colourless, can you imagine?) and to Tronaelend-Lis (had to peek inside the book one more time before writing that one), the city where most of the events take place. The pace at the beginning is really slow, so we have plenty of time to look around, get to know the city and its people.Nazarian is good – a truly talented writer, who loves her language. Her prose is lyrical. Her characters, very much alive, complex, different.Here I have to say that initially I planned to give Lords of Rainbow five stars, but ended up with just four - I am a terrible person, I know, but I’ll try to explain. I loved the first half of the book, which was slow, yes, but had this unforgettable feeling about it – feeling that you are descending deeper and deeper inside this amazing world, discovering it. But then the pace changed, and the story just dashed forward towards its a bit hasty – though neat – ending. And this change of pace, however necessary, was the only thing that I didn’t like – much.Okay, now that I’ve explained my problem with the book, here are the things I loved:1. The world building. I say it once more – It is that brilliant. Pages of pure description, intervening with the main storyline, but never out of place, never boring. I got lost in Tronaelend-Lis. It left me wanting more.2. The main character. Oh, Ranhe, I love you! I love you so much I find it hard to believe my heart will ever belong to someone else. Seriously though, Ranhe is the best female character I’ve seen in – Ever, actually. I can’t explain her awesomeness in plain words. She is so strong and smart, but also vulnerable and insecure, and, yes, I know, this can be said about a lot of heroines, but believe me, Ranhe is special.3. The other characters. Every single one of them was great, and different. Gender switching Phoenix was intriguing, and I wish the author allowed us to see more of him/her, as well as the other minor characters.Overall, Lords of Rainbow was a very satisfying read. For those who love fantasy, highly recommended.
Do You like book Lords Of Rainbow (2011)?
Let me start by saying that Vera Nazarian is very, very good at worldbuilding. It's something I've seen in her other work, too. One of the great things about her writing is that it shows us these worlds. In this case, it's a world without color, a world transformed to shades of gray and silver. As a writer, I was curious to see how Nazarian would describe this place with such a limited palate, but she did an excellent job. I was half-expecting this to be the literary version of black-and-white TV, where everything's about the same, just filtered. Instead, this was a rich, lushly described world, one which seemed more real, thanks to its color-challenged palate. The story itself was strong, following a warrior woman named Ranhe Ylir as she and her companions work to overthrow a siege on the city from the forces of (literal) darkness. Ranhe was a great character. She's got the traditional stoic, loner outlook, but she's much more developed and complex than the average fantasy hero. (I could hear Nazarian's voice speaking through Ranhe when she talked about her vegetarian habits, but that's just because I've seen her write about such things before.) There were places where the story was a bit slow for my taste. I don't know whether this is a reflection of the story itself, or of my own short attention span. At times, Nazarian breaks out of the story to address the reader directly and take us on a tour of her world, and those sections didn't really work for me. Much as I admire and enjoy the worldbuilding, I prefer it to be in the context of action and the characters. Overall though, I enjoyed the book, and would certainly recommend it. It breaks away from traditional fantasy tropes and cliches, which is always nice. The characters and relationships drew me in (though it took me a few pages to remember which one was Elasirr and which was Elasand). Personally, I don't know that I'd be up for taking a concept like a colorless world and turning it into such a richly developed novel, but Nazarian pulled it off. I'll have to go back and read more closely to figure out how she did that.
—Jim
Like The Cobweb Bride series, we have another heroine who is independent, capable, and... unlovely. The story feels like it's almost entirely laying groundwork for the ending, so much history and weirdness to explain for a full appreciation when the climax bursts through at the end. This is a leisurely, sensual read, not a skimmer.And the language... Magical and otherworldly, poetic. I've read so much inconsequential crap lately that this singlehandedly revived my IQ and made me feel clean again. Ahhhhhhh.
—Jeanne Johnston
This book had such a great, unique story. Her world and characters are interesting and different than I've ever read before. Unfortunately, the book really needed a good editor.Regardless, it's absolutely worth a read if you love fantasy and are craving something new and different.Pros:- great, well-developed, never-seen-before protagonist; a strong female character, with depth and twists- an interesting cast of secondary characters- unique magic mechanic- awesome story that kept me readingCons:- a huge number of incidental characters that have too many pages dedicated to them, but never get fully developed. I like large casts in books, but most of these started promising, but then disappeared from focus.- slow start; takes about 20% to really get going- overuse of flowery prose. She tried hard to sound epic and literary, but hasn't mastered the style. It fell flat, almost distracting from an otherwise good book.- I got tired of certain words always in italic wherever they appeared. It's hard not to read them with emphasis, and they didn't merit it.There is a planned sequel to this book, and I will probably pick it up to see where the story and characters go. However, this book stands alone so you won't have to commit to a series.
—Brian
