Lia arrives at Anhame, a crafthall for honing anar\u2014the craft of people with \u201chigher senses.\u201d Lia is a fifth-level anar, meaning she has healing abilities. She can also see others\u2019 inner soulforms, which represent people\u2019s true nature (some take the shapes of animals). That alone puts her on the same level as Anhame\u2019s masters, but Lia still hopes the crafthall will help \u201ctransform her powers from a conscious exertion into effortless proficiency.\u201d She becomes an apprentice to the teacher Maethin, who suggests she stay mum about her anar prowess, but he\u2019s not afraid of her abilities, as Lia\u2019s former master had seemingly been. That same master told Lia that her soulform was corrupt and evil, making her reluctant to meld (connect with another anar), lest it prove deadly. Other potential dangers haunt Anhame, such as a mysterious \u201cfigure\u201d watching Lia. This first installment of the author\u2019s series has very little action, despite clear signs of various menaces and the setting\u2019s complicated history. Schofield instead uses this novel to meticulously develop an extensive cast, including the protagonist\u2019s fellow students, the Nine (Anhame\u2019s masters), and Lia herself. The powerful young hero is refreshingly humble and doesn\u2019t trust easily. She makes several intriguing connections with others; the most rewarding is her relationship with Maethin, who treats her with warmth and respect. Details about the supporting cast suggest the larger world of this planned pentalogy; not all crafts, for example, are magical (there are also jewelers and musicians). Every page showcases the author\u2019s luminescent prose: \u201cTrees shaped themselves out of the night as great soft shadows\u2026The eastern sky shaded into pink, bringing gleams of colour to the monochrome predawn world.\u201d A few key revelations, most notably that of Lia\u2019s soulform, help pave the way for sequels.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lia arrives at Anhame, a crafthall for honing anar\u2014the craft of people with \u201chigher senses.\u201d Lia is a fifth-level anar, meaning she has healing abilities. She can also see others\u2019 inner soulforms, which represent people\u2019s true nature (some take the shapes of animals). That alone puts her on the same level as Anhame\u2019s masters, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}