Battleaxe - The Axis Trilogy - Book One - Sara Douglass

Advantages: Great pace and enthralling characters
Disadvantages: Far too short.

When a series of books have been described as "the best Australian fantasy novel" a reviewer has ever experienced there has to be a hint of "SO!" when reading. However the description would work easily as well if you drop the Australian. This series is by far one of the best Fantasy series I've ever read. The storyline concerns Axis who is the leader of the Axe-Wielders , the military arm of the religious faction known as the Seneschal. The Seneschal ...
...trees are evil and thus the land of Tencendor has been swept clean of all but a handful of forests. As the storyline progresses we are introduced to the other races of Tencendor, the Avar and the Icarii who the Seneschal refer to as the Forbidden. Once the three races lived in peace now they are mortal enemies. Slowly Axis begins to see that things are not quite the way that he has been brought up to believe. Thus begins his exploration of his own ... Read review