Fatal Tree

The Fatal Tree by Steven Lawhead
356 Pages


The final chapter of the Bright Empire Series, the Fatal Tree opens with the Ley lines beginning to fail as the universe begins to contract and undo itself.  People begin to be displaced in time as this happens and the main characters of the series are in a race against time to find out the cause of this problem.


While the book had some bright spots, for me it was an unsatisfying conclusion to the series itself. 

Shadow Lamp

Shadow Lamp by Steve Lawhead
388 Pages

The fourth book of the Bright Empires series begins to wrap up the series as the heroes try to find the link between the Shadow Lamp, the Skin Map, and the Spirit Well.   They must do this quickly as the Zetetic society has determined that the universe's expansion is slowing and quite possibly reversing which could mean the end of everything. 

Finally the books start to answer some questions and wrap up storylines which helps to reduce the convoluted plot.

Bone House

The Bone House by Stephen R Lawhead
385 Pages

This is the second book in the Bright Empires series following The Skin Map. The two main characters struggle against the forces of evil and while Kit finds himself stranded with a pre-historic tribe.  Mina discovers how to move through the lines better, crossing not only the timeline but her movements (something that gets a little bit confusing).  The series continues strongly and it is planned that there will be 5 books total.

Spirit Well

The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead
377 Pages

This is the third installment in The Bright Empires series.  Kit Livingston and his friends are traveling through the ley lines  which allows not only travel between places but travel between times.  They continue to look for the skin map which supposedly has a map of all the ley lines and the places they connect.  It was tattooed on the skin of the original ley line traveler and split up after his death. 

There are basically three parties looking for this map, 2 bad, one good.  We find out more about the backgrounds of the parties in this book and minor characters become more integral to the story.

The Bright Empires series is a good series and should be enjoyable to fans of science fiction and fantasy.  Since I've read the fourth book as well, the two are starting to commingle in  my memory so I won't go into a lot of detail on the plot.  The books definitely need to be read in order.

Shattering the Ley

Shattering the Ley by Joshua Palmatier  

484 Pages

In this book society thrives on the power of the ley lines that traverse the planet.  The Baron with the aid of Prime Wielders has taken that power to control the area and moved the ley lines off their natural path much to the chagrin of a group known as the Kormanley.  This group is determined to make the Baron move the flow of the ley back to its natural channels and a splinter group of the Kormanley is not afraid to resort to terrorism to get their way. 

One girl Kara Tremain finds herself starting to manifest the powers of a wielder at a young age.  As the story progresses Kara grows into her power just as the Baron and other factions start to clash in a battle for control. 

Clearly the first book of a series, most of the book is setting the stage for more action to come.  One thing that I found annoying was that just when you were getting into the narrative flow of the story, suddenly it would be 10 years later.  I picked up this book because Palmatier had written another series called the Cracked Throne that I had enjoyed.  At this point I'm not sure I would read a second book in this latest series.