Review: TEARS OF A HEART by Chase Blackwood

TEARS OF A HEART is lyrical literary fantasy, excellently-written by an accomplished author. A tale of myths and legends given life, it is couched in the framework of an annalist-a scribe-seeking knowledge of the past in lost lineages and concealed parchments. The story is of a young mountain boy, Kirin, only son of the village kovor (similar to a chieftain or mayor). At thirteen Kirin undergoes the requisite coming-of-age trials, which are both lengthy and extensive. (Surprisingly, in this culture both girls as well as boys must partake of the trials.) After Kirin completes the sixty-one days of solitude, and the extended trial of hallucinatory substances and mentally merging with the mountain-dwelling shroud cat (a trial perhaps comparable to Native American vision quests), he embarks upon the third and final trial. But while he is away, myth emerges into life and the life he had always known is obliterated.

TEARS OF THE HEART is Book One of THE KAN SAVACSI CYCLE.