I absolutely loved everything about Runelight, which is the first in the Aenigma Lights high fantasy trilogy by indie author, JA Andrews. The series follows the adventures of Kate, a Keeper (a blend of mage and historian) on a quest for answers to a 20-year-old family mystery.
JA Andrews writes character-driven, single POV stories with a wonderful sense of place. Her protagonists usually have a deeply personal objective that plays out amid larger, dramatic events. She writes wonderfully distinctive and deeply drawn characters, usually travelling with a bunch of interesting companions across a fantasy world with elves, dwarves and dragons.
In Runelight, Kate is 32, accomplished, determined and single-minded. She’ll do anything to find her missing brother/s — even leave the Keeper stronghold and head off into the wilderness with a surly elf, who claims to owe Kate’s brother a life debt.
Venn is a fabulous character. We don’t understand her when we first meet her; she clearly has many layers she chooses not to share with Kate. The two women grate on each other at first, neither particularly pleasant to the other. Gradually, Venn thaws and her layers get peeled back, and a beautiful trust and friendship grows between the two women. This is a real sisterhood story! Brilliant.
So, Kate and Venn go off on their quest, over hill and under dale… through forests and into tunnels. And here are more brilliant characters: Tribal and Silas, the incorrigible twin dwarves of dubious morals who initially create havoc for Kate and Venn. The pair are both similar and distinct. And the character of Crofftus, whose spirit exists within a series of wild creatures, is quite unique! JA Andrews write characters so amazingly well.
There’s so much more to love about Runelight: Kate’s talent for “remnants” (smells and sounds associated with specific people) that helps her track them and gain impressions; the setting of the mysterious ravine where her brother Bo was recently uncovering secrets perhaps better kept buried; the gradual uncovering of what happened to Bo as Kate and Venn talk to the locals and learn about a mysterious “shadow” that has been taking people’s memories.
I wouldn’t call Runelight a fast-paced, action-packed book. Andrews takes her time in telling the story (stories and storytelling are important to Keepers), steadily revealing complex histories, magical theory and past events. The tension builds and builds until the climatic scene that left me gasping (at 2am… I was like — whaaaaat?!). I did not guess what was coming at all. Magnificent.
Overall, Runelight is simply wonderful — both in execution and story. I listened to the fabulous audiobook and freely availed myself of the maps on the author’s website, which really help with the geography of the relatively small area in which most of this book is set.
Highly recommended for readers who love layered characters with life experience, mysteries, rescue quests, female friendships, immersive world-building, memorable side characters…
Ellen Gregory 