HANGED BY FATE

Wolf presents an SF/fantasy novel about four youngsters whose connection to a prophecy upends their later lives.

In 2177, Ariaas Haran Ebronds attends an auction with one goal: to get back his four grandchildren. Unfortunately, only three of them are up for sale, and Ariaas only succeeds in buying back one of them. That boy, Brenor, and his siblings aren’t like other children, as they are all tied to the widely known prophecy of the Canen Dera, which states that they will grow up and, as Ariaas puts it, “destroy us all” with “more power than anyone [has] ever seen, not in all our history.” He makes sure that Brenor is safe at a place called Aroun Vaer. Elsewhere, Brenor’s sister, Lenora, lives a simple but similarly secluded life in the northern forest. When, in the year 2200, the king suddenly summons her, it’s clear to her that she must flee for her own safety. She winds up connecting with Ariaas and Brenor, who dashed into action after they received word that she was on the run. That leaves two more siblings in potential danger, and plenty of trouble afoot. A young woman named Sissel Vakarra is taken away from her ailing grandmother by soldiers after apparently killing someone; her story initially seems disconnected from the story of the siblings, and the narrative transitions between the two plotlines are not always smooth. Just as momentum is building in the Lenora storyline, for instance, the focus changes to Sissel taking a quiet walk with her grandparent. There are occasionally verbose and awkward passages that slow the pace: “The younger brother of the king had taken him prisoner and locked him in the dungeon of the castle awaiting a public execution for a crime the younger brother himself committed.” The premise is well-crafted, however, and the action increases as the characters face and fight back against escalating dangers. Even with the story’s complexities and large cast, the suspense remains high, and the main players’ futures are uncertain.

An ambitiously vast but tightly wound tale of destiny.