Antonia Bernardin

The 55th book I read this year was Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, the first book in the Raybearer series. This has been sat on my bookshelf for way too long, so I’m glad I finally got round to reading it.

A summary attempt

In this world, one ‘Raybearer’ is born in every generation of royals. They are born immune to one kind of death and then they must select eleven council members. Each one is connected to the Prince by the power of the ray, as he anoints each council member, he becomes immune to one more form of death, until eventually he practically immortal, except to old age.

Our main character, Tarisai, has been raised in isolation in Swana (the countries in this aren’t real countries but they are loosely based on real places in Africa). An army of tutors have been preparing her for something all her life but they are terrified of her because Tarisai has the ability to see the memories of a person or object. Her mother is exclusively referred to as ‘the lady’ by the people around her and is gone for months or years at a time. Just before they leave for the capital, Tarisai finds a kind of djinn in a pool near their home, who claims to be her father and that he is bound by her mother, who by extension of the magic she uses to bind the djinn, has the ability to command her against her will. She tells Tarisai to win the princes trust and then kill him.

The next day she is taken to the Children’s palace, a place where hundreds of children who hope to be selected for the Prince’s council come to be trained. All the children at the Palace have magical gifts and to her surprise, Tarisai finds that she is well liked by all of them, after years of being treated with fear. The Prince also takes a liking to her and decided very impulsively to immediately offer her a place on his council but Tarisai remembers the lady’s command and refuses. She keeps on refusing, despite coming to love Dao and her life at the palace. Until an incident occurs where Dao life is threatened and Tarisai decides to use her own power on herself and purge all memories of the home and the Lady, erasing her command and making her safe to be beside Dao.

The rest of the novel follows how the Lady’s plot unfurls, the political changes in their country and Tarisa’s role in this.

What did I think?

So, I was going through quite a stressful period when I started this book but I think it was all the world building at the start that slowed me down. However, I came back to it after a couple months break and started reading it again, once the novel got going I found it a really enjoyable read. The world is so rich, the cultural aspects make it so interesting as someone whose not from and has never visited that area of the world. It was really easy to fall into the book and I thought the ending was fantastic, so I’ve gone ahead and bought book two already.