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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN num: 9780765348661
ISBN number: 0765348667
Label: Tor Fantasy
Manufacturer: Tor Fantasy
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 512
Printing Date: November 01, 2004
Publishing house: Tor Fantasy
Release Date: November 02, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 33463
Studio: Tor Fantasy
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Product Description:
According to legend, the last king of the Harshini sired a half-human child, known as the Demon Child, born to destroy a god . . .
The Sisterhood of the Blade rules Medalon with an iron fist--an iron fist within the steel gauntlet of the Defenders, elite warriors sworn to uphold the sisters and keep Medalon free of heathen influence.
R'shiel, daughter of the First Sister of the Blade, has pulled against the short leash of her mother ever since she was a child. Her half-brother, Tarja, is the dutiful son who serves as a Captain in the Defenders. But when they run afoul of their mother's machinations, they must flee for their lives. They soon find themselves caught up in the rebellion against the Sisterhood, though they revile their fellow conspirators heathen belief in the Harshini--a fabled race of magical beings thought long extinct.
But then Tarja & R'shiel encounter Brak, an Harshini outcast, who forces them to face the most shocking fact of all: the Demon Child, thought to be nothing more than legend, may have been loosed in Medalon.
(20040430)
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Rated by buyers -
Jennifer Fallon's Medalon is the very first book in The Demon Child Trilogy, which makes up the larger Hythrun Chronicles. The Sisterhood of Medalon has made it illegal to practice religion (the worship of pagan gods), persecutes all believers of the gods, and has forced the Harshini, a race of long-lived beings who interact with the gods, into hiding. The sisters use a highly trained army of male Defenders to enforce their orders across the country. But, the First Sister has just been murdered, and while the sisters are plotting and jockeying for position amongst themselves, the Demon Child -- a human/Harshini half-breed -- is coming to maturity in Medalon and the gods, who are involved in their own plots, need to find the child because it's the only creature capable of killing another god.
The main characters, R'shiel and Tarja, are the children of Joyhinia, a sister whose one goal is to be the First Sister. Though she claims to not have a concept of "sin," Joyhinia commits a lot of it as she seeks to fulfil her ambition. Even her children are not permitted to get in her way, and are used as pawns in her scheming. Eventually, R'shiel and Tarja find themselves allied against their mother and the Sisterhood, and their beliefs are challenged as they actually meet gods and Harshini who, they thought, don't exist.
Medalon was a quick and entertaining read. The pace is fast and there is plenty of action. The characters are mostly well-developed, interesting, and likeable (or hateable where appropriate). A couple of characters are over-the-top enough to be unbelievable (it's hard to believe that Joyhinia dislikes her own children more than she dislikes other people), but they are interesting enough that I found myself over-looking that. The writing, while not particularly beautiful like Carey, Clarke, Valente, or Bujold, is completely competent, clear, and often witty.
I really have only a couple of objections: Medalon is a society based on "law" and "common sense," not ideas of "sin" or "morality." Yet we learn that lust, rape, betrayal, stealing, lying, treason, murder, incest, abortion, premarital sex, and tardiness are "wrong." Whores and bastards are looked down on, paternity of Joyhinia's son is kept secret, abortionists are run out of town, and the man who defends the First Sister is required to take an oath of celibacy. For a society with no sin, they sure spend a lot of time condemning it; it just doesn't make sense.
Second, while the antics of the gods were meant to be funny and entertaining, I found them annoying. For example, the goddess of love styles herself as a little girl and demands that everyone loves her. She casts a spell to make one of the characters fall in love with another and then declares that she hopes another god won't be mad. Well, I don't know if the other god got mad, but I did. The love of the one character for the other (I'm trying not to spoil the plot here) is a major plot element, but its unnatural contrivance makes it seem shallow, and I felt cheated. Some of the other gods and their interactions with disrespectful humans (who remind them to stay vigilant and tell them to "shut up") was just silly. And then there are the ugly but cuddly demons who can become gods if they get enough followers to believe in them. Somehow, this didn't work for me.
But, even with these issues, I found myself really enjoying Medalon; it's not great literature, but it's fun. And I admire Jennifer Fallon for having a bunch of gossiping and scheming unlikeable women being defended by brave and mostly honorable and likeable men. I don't want to ruin the plot, but I'll say that only a female writer could get away with it.
I have picked up (at my library) the subsequent three books, and I look forward to starting Treason Keep soon.
-FanLit.net
Rated by buyers 
-
Medalon by Jennifer Fallon is the very first book in the Hythrun Chronicles. The second book is titled Treason Keep with the third being Harshini. An interesting note, in Australia and the United Kingdom list these three books as The Demon Child trilogy. This is Ms. Fallon's very first novel, and I have to admit I found this novel purely by accident while looking at books on Amazon. This novel appeared as one of my recommendation and it seemed mildly interesting so I decided to take a chance and get it.
The plot of this novel is very deep and involved. The main plot line is that of the long fabled tale about the emergence of the Demon Child and just what that means for all the people of the land. No one knows who the Demon child is, or just what the Demon Child is supposed to do. I found it a little different, that this is the main plot of the novel but seems to take a back seat to all the subplots most of the time. There are also a myriad of subplots permeating this book, such as a couple of political plots focusing on the Sisterhood and that of a bordering nation. There is a power struggle within the Sisterhood as well. Additionally, there are a number of heathen gods, who may play some part in the Demon Child's story. There are also a group of heathens (rebels) who are seeking to stop the Sisterhood's persecution of their beliefs. Lastly, there is a race of people who are no more than children's bedtime stories who may yet play a part in the unfolding tale. As I said before, this story is rich in range and scope, in fact all the subplots I touched on are only a sampling of what is in the pages. I didn't want to spoil anything, suffice it to say this is a very solid story.
The characters in this novel are as deep and rich as the story. Much like the multiple plots, there are also a plethora of characters as well. The main characters are Tarja and R'shiel who are a Defender and a probate in the Sisterhood respectively. Along the way they meet many, many people. I was trying to come up with a way to really talk about the characters and such without spoiling anything, but I have come to realize to really talk about them would spoil things for the reader. So, please excuse the generic discussion. All the characters in this book have some character development. The main two, Tarja and R'shiel, obviously have the most development but it is fantastic progression. All the dialogue for the characters is believable and allows each character to have his or her own voice. Each characters actions seem to hinge on the character's own personal motivations and convictions. Not only that, but Ms. Fallon's writing quickly drew me into caring about the characters and what happened to them. Simply put, these characters were a joy to read about.
I do have a couple of criticisms about this novel however.
First, and this really has nothing to do with Ms. Fallon, there are some editing mistakes in the novel. Such as misspellings, missing words etc. The only reason I list this is because they are very obvious and being that this novel (at least the copy I have) is in the second printing - these things should have been fixed by the publisher.
Secondly, there were a couple points in the story that seemed rather predictable of what was going to happen next. This isn't a really big deal, especially in the fantasy genre where stories tend to repeat themselves, but none-the-less it was there.
With all that said, I think Ms. Fallon deserves high praise for this novel. Her prose is fluid and easy to read. The progression of the story, and characters, makes logical sense and happens in a very believable way. When I finished reading this novel and found out that this was Ms. Fallon's very first novel I was shocked. To me this reads as though it is from a seasoned writer. Ms. Fallon obviously spent a great deal of time not only on the story and characters, but building the world as well. I really enjoy reading novels where the world itself has a particular story and history to it. That is certainly the case here.
All in all I really enjoyed this novel. My only regret is that I had to stumble upon this novel, and I didn't do it sooner. This is certainly a book fans of the fantasy genre should read. I would even go so far as to say that people considering reading fantasy should think about starting with this one. It's a solid novel and one I am happy to have read. This is a book that will certainly be at the top of my recommendation list when people ask for a good fantasy book. I only hope the rest of this series can live up to the promise of this novel.
Rated by buyers -
I'm not a fan of starting new series, so I was a little hesitant to start this one. (especially since the cover came across as a little too childish) It was only by a great recommendation that I picked this one up, and thank god, I absolutely loved it! After the very first chapter you will be drawn in up until the very last book.
Rated by buyers 
-
"Medalon" the very first book in the demon child trilogy is a relatively simple fantasy that just appears complicated because of the many gods and political fractions involved. However most fantasy books are like this, as is the real world, so if you can remember what country the main people are from and what religion that different countries follow you'll be fine-if not, well there's a glossary in the back of the book.
The country of Medalon decided a couple hundred years ago to be an atheist nation run by women known as sisters of the blade who are businesswomen and politicians. To bring about this perfect nation they killed off most of the pagan people who worshiped Gods (a little linguistic lesson from a real pagan-the word Pagan means "from the fields" and is essentially a nice way of saying hick) and these semi immortal fairy people the Harshini. The Harshini then went into hiding and are in the present of this book presumed dead. There are a couple other countries, two of which are pagan and hold with the gods (who are real by the way) and one which is monotheistic and ruled by a God who apparently needs to be killed-or so the other gods think. But they won't do it and the Harshini can't kill so there is a prophecy that a demon child will be born who will be half Harshini and who will kill a God.
Meanwhile in the present day in Medalon, in the citadel of the sisters of the Blade political power changes are taking place. One sister is scheming to be in charge and her children, Tarja, and his half sister R'shiel rebel and run away, find out they're not really related at all (can you see where this is going?-yeah, somehow the author manages to make it not creepy because they're not brother and sister at all and he's ten years older so they didn't grow up together...it's actually kind of sweet) and organizing the pagans into a rebellion. Meanwhile one half Harshini is searching the world for the demon child alternately helped and annoyed by the gods (who are hilarious.)
This is a pretty decent book and I really enjoyed it, except for one really annoying thing. Tarja and R'shiel are constantly having to rescue each other. I mean CONSTANTLY! Like one of them would rescue the other and then it would fail and they'd be a in a worse situation and they have to start all over. It's like that for the entire book. It gets old. I mean there is some interesting stuff in the rescues and while waiting for them and in between them there's some romance and good mythology and political maneuvering and funny scenes with the Gods, but it doesn't really break even.
In the end, three point five stars. I'll definitely read the subsequent one though, which will hopefully have less running and chasing!
Rated by buyers -
Let me start off by saying that this is a great book. I usually go to the book store and paruse books by the art on the cover. I picked it up and started reading, and after a few pages I became hooked. This is one of those books where you really care what happens to the characters, the plotline is epic, and there are plenty of twists and turns. Though the plot is a bit generic; woman is 'chosen' to destroy a god, save the world, etc etc, that's pretty much a staple in every fantasy book i've ever read. It's the character interactions and situations that make fantasy books, and this one does very well.
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