My Favorite Fantasy – Borderlands Novels by Lorna Freeman

Have you ever felt you just had to re-read a favorite book?  I just finished re-reading (for the third or fourth time) the three Borderlands novels by Lorna Freeman, Covenants, The King’s Own and Shadows Past.  Once again the wonderful, complete characters, excellent plot, intricate back story and strong narrative writing kept me reading and once again I found more to enjoy with each book.

I will review each book separately in upcoming posts; let’s look at the three overall first.

Characters

Rabbit, otherwise known as Lieutenant Lord Rabbit ibn Chause eso Flavan, tells all three novels.  Rabbit is the son of Two Trees and Lark, formerly high born nobles from Iversterre who fled to the Border to become farmers and weavers and raise eight children in the land of the fae and magical.  Rabbit had been apprenticed to Magus Kareste, but fled in fear and came back to Iversterre to be hide, becoming a horse trooper in the Royal Army.

Lorna Freeman does an excellent job showing us Rabbit who is a most enjoyable young man.  He is courageous, loyal and intelligent, yet fears his magic and wants no part of politics, whether in Iversterre or the Border.  Rabbit matures through the three novels as he faces and reconciles to his magic and demands on his person and loyalties.

Laurel, the mountain cat Faena, is come to Iversterre to seek peace in the face of blatant smuggling and murder – and to seek Rabbit on behalf of the Border High Counsel.

Other key characters are well rounded:  Captain Suiden, Captain Javes, Enchanter Wyln, King Jusson, even minor figures like Ryson and Thadro and the assorted villains and other players in each novel

Not Really a Trilogy

You would enjoy these the most by reading in sequence but it isn’t truly necessary.  The individual plots stand alone and each has unique characters for the competing parts.

Covenants

Covenants is the longest and most complex of the three.  Rabbit and his troop are lost in the very familiar mountains they routinely patrol near the small northern town of Freston.  Even though they know the area they cannot find their way until Rabbit meets Laurel in a small dell.  Laurel shares cakes with Rabbit and gives him a red feather, signifying a meal covenant.  Suddenly the troop can see the town below and the way is clear.  This is the first magical mystery, but not the last.

Laurel turns out to be the ambassador from the Border High Counsel, sent to Iversterre in a final attempt to broker peace.  This is a surprise to the King of Iversterre, Jusson, and most of his government, since they did not realize there was a problem.

Covenants moves very fast.  It is over 500 pages long and complex and you may – like I did – find you see even more the second time through.  Lorna Freeman tells the story by dialogue and Rabbit’s thoughts and observations and the little vignettes build on one another.  Those vignettes are easy to read through and not see the significance until later.

The King’s Own

The King’s Own picks up after Rabbit and company return to Freston, where the king has stopped on his progress through the kingdom, a trip meant to reassure and bind the kingdom together.

Unfortunately the remnants of the plotters from Covenants also come to Freston, only this time they bring a demon.

The King’s Own is a little harder to follow than Covenants, partly because Rabbit himself is puzzled by the apparently senseless actions.  It also further develops the relationship between Rabbit and King Jusson, and brings in several stand-alone characters that are interesting, Chadde the peace keeper, Ranulf and Beollan the Marcher lords, doyen Dyfrig.  The plot is great but the characters keep us interested!

Shadows Past

Shadows Past marks the point where Rabbit realizes how serious is his situation.  He has sworn to the throne of Iversterre and to King Jusson personally, and Jusson has made Rabbit his heir.  Up to now Rabbit has been too busy fighting rebellions and demons to realize exactly what that means.

The crux of the book is about 2/3 of the way through when Rabbit is tempted to just leave, to get to the harbor and take the first ship away.  He gets as far as a couple of steps when he realizes what he is doing:  denying his oaths, denying his magic, denying his friends.

Shadows Past doesn’t have the intense plot threats and conflicts of the first two (although there are still plenty of both), instead Rabbit must fight through to what and who he is, remaining true to himself while remaining true to his oaths and loyalties.

Summary

I enjoyed all three books immensely. Covenants is outstanding, one of the very best fantasy books I’ve ever read.  The other two are excellent, and I found that re-reading them this week that I enjoyed them more than before and would rank them right up with Covenants.

Borderlands is hands down my favorite fantasy series.  According to Lorna Freeman’s page on Amazon, she intends to write a fourth book, The Reckoning Flames, but it apparently has not made it out to print.

Borderlands reminds me of the Ivory Series by Doris Egan.  There are many similarities:  one-and-done series that are enormously popular, well-written with engaging characters and settings, with authors that seemed to come out of nowhere.  I keep hoping we’ll see more books featuring Rabbit, Laurel and the rest.