The Hand of Andulain Paperback – January 1, 2011

The Hand of Andulain is the debut novel from Aaron Mahnke, who is, by trade, a graphic artist and designer. He was introduced to me in mid-2010 by our mutual friend, Patrick Rhone, for his long form writing at his blog. Over the last month or so, we have struck up a friendship through our love of fantasy fiction. I have been a huge fan of his blog for sometime and was very excited when he announced that he was releasing The Hand of Andulain in the Kindle store. I think that I may have been the first sale that Aaron made as I woke up on the Saturday morning it was supposed to be available, and I bought it before I even got out of bed.The Hand of Andulain tells a very rich story that takes place in an ancient land. It details the journey of an unwitting adventurer and his best friend as they embark across their land to find the story behind a mysterious piece of jewelry that has come into their possession. We also learn how the prince of a neighboring kingdom gets involved to help the friends on their journey, while trying to wrestle control of his father, the King, and their Kingdom away from a growing evil that is takign over the land.Bran and his best friend, Callidus, live in the small town of Landermal, where their families are farmers by trade. They were coming home from hunting one day when someone comes running out the forest in front of them. It is clear that this person is being chased and he is running for his life. Suddenly, a pack of hideous creatures break through the forest and resume their chase of the man. Bran and Cal take up their bows in an effort to protect the stranger as he begged for help. Suddenly the stranger falls with an arrow in his back and just as Bran is about to attack the three creatures, they disappear. With his dying breaths, the stranger gives the boy the pouch that he is carrying, which he is trying to protect, and tells him not to let it fall into the enemy. Thus begins the journey that Bran and Cal must undertake to find the meaning and origins of the mysterious contents of the pouch.Mahnke has developed a rich world for the friends to travel in. There seems to be two main races of beings, Men and Eki. The mysterious stranger turns out to be a member of the Eki royal house. Eki seem to be almost elf-like in their descriptions. Mahnke describes them as cat-like with movements that were "graceful and fluid". We find out that seem to be immortal as well. The world is filled with small towns and large cities and treacherous mountainous regions and protective waystops, which were "small, concealed holes that were built and maintained by the Eki". I had no problem visualizing the terrain that he would describe as the party crisscrossed the land.Mahnke does a great job by not inundating us with a lot of characters to keep up with throughout the story. There are two story arcs that are running concurrently. There is Bran and Cal, along with Bran's tutor, Auctoris, traveling at the direction of Auctoris and his limited knowledge on what he thinks is in the pouch. Then there is Prince Malach, who is framed for a crime that he did not commit and escapes his own father's army and searches out his best friend, Elos, who himself is an Eki. Then there are a couple of people in the enemies camp to watch (but I won't discuss them so that I don't spoil the story). At most there is probably seven main characters to keep up with and three or four minor characters that aid in the party's adventure.The story starts off a little slow as Mahnke builds the world and introduces the characters to us. This is the first book in a proposed trilogy titled The Tapestry Saga (and I happen to know that some prequel type material is in the works as well!). Setting the stage for an epic fantasy of this caliber is very important, and Mahnke does a great job at it. He smatters in some history of the world, as well as how each of the main players relates in the big picture. Not since the late 80s with Star Wars have I been so interested in knowing the history of the work that I was reading.J.R.R. Tolkien is an obvious influence in Mahnke's writing. That is ok for me since Tolkien is my all-time favorite writer. I did see a number of similarities to The Lord of the Rings, but it did not bother me. (Unlike when I attempted to read Eye of the World when I was in my late teens...I could not finish it, and I have not read any of the Wheel of Time books since.) I could probably compare each of Mahnke's characters with a character in Lord of the Rings and be pretty close about it. Again, there is just enough of a difference with The Hand of Andulain that I do not mind the comparisons.The magic system, or the Art as it is called, is not very fleshed out in book 1. The magic is my favorite part of reading fantasy novels, and I was a little disappointed by not knowing more about the Art. Hopefully, book 2 will provide more background to the Art than was mentioned in The Hand of Andulain. It is very powerful both offensively and defensively. It seems people have different levels of ability to use the Art, and I am not sure if everyone can access its abilities or it is a select few. Again, hopefully it will be spelled out in book 2.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Hand of Andulain, especially as a debut work. I have enjoyed Aaron's non-fantasy fiction writing for awhile, and I am glad that his talent extends into yet another genre that I enjoy. I am very excited at the prequel material and to see what adventures lie ahead in books 2 and 3. The Hand of Andulain is available in the Kindle store. You can find links to all available formats at Aaron's book site.

The Hand of Andulain is a pretty standard fantasy. In the grand tradition of Frodo Baggins, Rand al'Thor and Luke Skywalker (Star Wars is pretty much fantasy), Bran is a young man from a quiet, pastoral village. He has reached twenty summers, and is looking forward to tending to the family farm, although he occasionally dreams of adventure. But then he saves an Eki messenger who is being chased by some Broken (think Orcs or Trollocs) carrying a powerful magical item, and therefore has to run away from home and family, accompanied by his best friend and his wise old mentor (who is more than he seems.) Along the way he meets a pretty girl, fights some bad guys that are hunting him, and learns that he is the only one with the power to destroy the Dark Lord. Like I said, pretty standard.This is the first book of a series, so it's a bit clunky. There's a lot of setting up and introduction to the world. The world is also fairly standard, but pretty well described. I would like to know more about the magic system and the history of the world. The characters are also quite archetypical, although I did like Alae more than most of the other characters - she seems pretty interesting for a servant girl.Some of the explanations were repeated quite a bit, which annoyed me. The characters constantly realised things about 50 pages after I realised it, and then proceeded to deliver a speech about how exactly it worked. It's almost like the author wanted to make triple sure that we understood how something was significant to the plot.Another annoying thing was that there were quite a few typos. For instance, there was "they road their horses" instead of "they rode their horses."Overall, a pretty light, predictable and fun read. I'll probably pick up the next book at some point when it's out.

I adore fantasy! So when I saw this debut novel; it was the first book I purchased for my Kindle app. I loved the first part of the book. It just flowed off the pages. Half way through though, the story started to irritate me. The dialogue became cheesy and I don't like the same scenario being explained twice, just to make sure the reader `got it'. Another problem was obvious spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. It also reminds me a lot of The Wheel of Time series but I can forgive that. The story is like most other fantasy novels, young man from small farming village, greatness being thrust upon him, ugly Broken (trollocs) etc.This book has a lot of potential to be an amazing story but it definitely needs fine tuning. I often felt like I've read certain parts before, Malach telling Bran that his use of the Art was brilliant for someone not formally trained (he created a mini shield, SERIOUSLY?) made me grind my teeth. Hopefully the second book will focus more on strong and intense dialogue, more macho acts in the fighting scenes, less obvious descriptions (we know what stars look like) and just rounding it off more (editing). The book would also have worked without Bran the main character, I find Malach more likeable.Great first attempt though and this is definitely an author I'm going to keep my eye on!

this is a good book. Sorry to say its not one that I am really a massive fan of. Wouldn't recommend to a mate. But saying that it is not a bad book and keeps you interested the whole way through. Maybe just not all the way there as a epic fantasy novel. So if want to buy it go for it. Just dont expect it to blow your mind away.

It is not a good book. Wouldn't recommend it if it were for free. I could write alot about what is wrong with this book but it will be a waste of my time.