Family Fantasy (rated 4 stars)
Acacia: A Novel by David Anthony Durham All I know of fantasy is “Lord of the Rings” and, I guess, Harry Potter but I’m talking about the sword wielding, sorcery bound, warrior fantasy. I started to read this b/c the author David Anthony Durham is black, I remember good reviews of his “Pride of Carthage” and this book, the first of a triolgy, was getting compared to Lord of the Rings. Maybe because I am a novice at fantasy or maybe because of the writing I had a little trouble getting into it. I had trouble with naming schemes and found myself getting confused about who was part of what “race”. About 150 pages into this 600 page door stop I was hooked. I found myself exciting about moving to the next chapter. Each chapter tells a different point of view and rotates through the 6 or so primary players. It is the story of a prosperous empire brought down by a surprise assassination of the king and then the use of biological warfare to wipe everybo...