THE SEPARATION OF BRIIN

In this fantasy novel by K.I.S., two brothers pursue their destinies.

The author’s Chronicles of Aitarbith series continues in this second installment, likewiseset on the eponymous fantasy continent with its many kingdoms and varied climates. This volume shifts focus from the healer Ata, the main character in the preceding entry, to center around a young apprentice magician named Briin and his older brother Hiirn, who are as close as twins even though Hiirn is the elder by three years; he often helps his sensitive brother overcome panic attacks (when they were little children, he’d “stuffed his tiny fist into Briin’s shrieking mouth and been savagely bitten bloody—all to no avail, for Briin had continued to shriek like a stuck pig and awoken the entire household”). As the novel opens, Briin is having increasingly vivid dreams in which he’s fighting his way through a dark wood, pursued by monstrous creatures called the Gruxhoon. The narrative splits between the adventures and perils of each brother, with Hiirn meeting his future wife Meira of the exotic Irie race (“he had known their marriage was inevitable and right, and so had set out to make it so”) and Briin studying to become a magician despite his unconventional approach to understanding his world’s magic. The author’s prose style is often turgid with fantasy-lit archaic language (“you ruffian” and the like) and filled with cliches, like “beg, borrow, or steal” or “discretion is the better part of valor.” But, like its predecessor, the novel is written with heartfelt energy that carries the narrative along. Briin is particularly well realized—his brother must warn him that the old master magicians “don’t respond well to being shown their own inadequacies by a mere novice.” The relationship between the brothers, often played out over correspondence, is touchingly rendered as the author further fleshes out this intriguing fantasy world.

An engagingly intimate chapter in this intricate, sprawling fantasy series.