Guilt will always call you back…
Rhona is a faithful servant of the country Jémoon and a woman in love. Everything changes when her beloved sets the ravenous Vulture goddess loose upon the land. Forced to execute the woman she loves for committing treason, Rhona discovers a profound correlation between morality and truth. A connection that might save her people or annihilate them all.
You are a lie…
Varésh Lúm-talé is many things, most of all a genocidal liar. A falsity searching for the Phoenix goddess whom he believes can help him rectify his atrocities. Such an undertaking is an arduous one for a man with missing memories and a conscience set on rending him from inside out. A man whose journey leads to Hang-Dead Forest and a meeting with a Vulture goddess who is not entirely as she seems.
Prince of Woe…
Avaria Norrith is the adopted heir to the Ariathan throne. But that means little to a man who, for the better part of fifteen years, has sought and failed to earn his mother’s love. Fueled by pride and envy, Avaria seeks the means to prove himself and cast away his mental chains. When he’s tasked with the recreation of The Raven’s Rage he sees his chance, for with the infamous blade he can rewrite history and start anew.
Daughter of the Mountain…
Erath has not felt sunlight for a century. Not since Ariath condemned her people to a life of darkness with their misuse of The Raven’s Rage. But when an old friend comes seeking the remnants of the ancient sword, Erath cannot contain her curiosity and resolves to lend her aid. Is it true—can history be revised? Can her people be reclaimed?
Toll the Hounds…
They are hungry—and they are here
Luke Tarzian was born in Bucharest, Romania. His parents made the extremely poor choice of adopting him less than six months into his life. As such, he’s resided primarily in the United States and currently lives in California with his wife and their twin daughters. Somehow, they tolerate him.
Unfortunately, he can also be found online and, to the dismay of his clients, also functions as a cover artist for independent authors.
My thoughts: there is a strange dreamlike/nightmare quality to these two novellas, both consider themes of destiny, reincarnation, gods, revenge and failure. Failure to fix the mistakes of those who came before, failure to prevent the same mistakes happening again.
Parable features characters who live lives over and over again, under different names, but making the same mistakes. Characters who are sometimes gods or kings, other times merely carrying out the orders of others, but still carrying on the legacy of who they were before and their failures. Trapped it seems in an endless cycle.
Requiem almost seems to pick up afterthese events, showing the repercussions and the ripples of endless mistakes, with new people to make them. Recreating an ancient weapon in order to forge a new path might just be making more mistakes and condemning the future all over again.
Luke Tarzian’s writing has a woozy, hypnotic feel to it, drawing you in to the diseased and broken world he’s created, the nightmares of gods turned monsters, or monsters become gods. These may be short tales but they’re dizzying and at times disorientating reads which leave you wanting to believe next time the characters will do better but the evidence suggests it’s unlikely.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 
Great post!
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