Book Info: Genre: Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: anyone
Trigger Warnings: Fairly graphic representations of sex acts (not a lot, but they are there); rape (minor and short scene, fortunately)

Disclosure: I received an e-book copy of this text through the LibraryThing Member’s giveaway in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Imagine a world without color, illuminated by a gray sun … An unrequited love... War... mystery... exultation... An epic fantasy of unspeakable wonder...

Lords of Rainbow

Imagine a sudden brilliant flash—an artificial orb ignites, filled with peculiar impossible light...

The nature of this light bears no description. It lingers in dreams, inciting an unrequited love for a goddess.

A corrupt city is shaped like a perfect wheel, and is ruled by a sister and brother, Regent and Regentrix, by perverse desires, and by a secret...

A loyal warrior woman swears to serve a mysterious lord. At the same time, an epic invasion is precipitated by a being of utter darkness, who is the one absolute source of black in a monochrome silver world.

And amid all this, flickers an ancient memory of a phenomenon called Rainbow and of those who had once filled the world with an impossible thing called color...

Lords of Rainbow.

My Thoughts: This is another book absolutely filled with lyrical and poetic language; it is very obvious that Vera Nazarian spent a lot of time on these earlier books honing her language skills. Reading them is a sensuous act in and of itself if you enjoy words, like I do.

Nazarian has an odd tendency to describe the color of things and people with botanical terms. I first noticed this in Dreams of the Compass Rose (review here where formatting allowed). Instead of “red” she’ll use “persimmon” or “amaranth”; instead of blue/purple she’ll use “heliotrope”. I noticed at least three separate instances in the first 20 percent of this book in which she described people’s hair as “dandelion” in texture (since this is a world without color, any descriptions of color are theoretical). There is also an underlying message that leads me to believe she is at least sympathetic to PETA.

The essential idea of the book itself requires a substantial suspension of disbelief, in that you must be willing to accept that the world’s colors are affected by an external element and not perceived by each individual, as in reality, for color vision is the result of the physiology of the eye, after all, and I cannot think of any specific thing that could cause the world to lose all color. This idea is actually mentioned in the book, but no real explanation as to why color perception was lost is explained. And, in fact, humans still can perceive color, in the monocolor orbs; but no color exists anywhere else. It’s a real stumper, really.

Ranhé is a most interesting character. Androgynous, skilled in almost everything, ambivalent to the world around her, and somewhat mad. Vorn is another interesting one. Nazarian does a great job overall of creating memorable characters in this book. If I were to list each of them, I would essentially need to list the entire cast, and there are quite a lot of them.

I do want to point out that hidden among all the rest of the story is a beautiful love story. It’s subtle (just the way I like it) but definitely there. Wonderful! Also, wonder of wonder and joyous days, a sequel is planned for this book, called Lady of Monochrome. I have no idea when, but I will be watching for it! Nazarian has some fun things associated with this book, like a quiz to show which Tilirr (Lord of the Rainbow) you serve at veranazarian.com/lorquiz (link where formatting allowed). Mine is Dersenne, Yellow. Find yours! Other info about the series can be found at Nazarian’s series-specific website, linked where formatting is allowed.

Another highly recommended work by Vera Nazarian. If you love a good story that is well told, don’t miss this one! ( )

A brave, daring story of a city in a world without colours.
Well-portrayed, developing main characters who won't give up until the end!
The author has an excellent writing style, despite some initial hickups in the Prologue, which, once you overcome this is definitely a great read.
I can definitely recommend it to those who wish for something different in the fantasy genre.

Although it took me a little while before I was truly captivated, I did enjoy this novel quite a bit! The plot was interesting and unusual, the characters were engaging, and the descriptions were detailed. I must admit I am looking forward to reading the sequel! Keep in mind, however, that this novel is definitely intended for mature readers! ( )

I couldn't finish this book. It was too descriptive and there were too many back stories/side stories, which I find annoying and they slowed the story down. Maybe it just wasn't the right time. I might try again another time.

I won this book through Member Giveaways.

I previously won another book through Member Giveaway by this author, which I quite enjoyed, so I was very much looking forward to reading this one. This review contains SPOILERS!

It took me about 150 pages to finally feel immersed in it, and not as though I was slogging though it. This was caused primarily by those pages being filled with back-story, side-stories, and what felt like one or two new characters being introduced every chapter. It took quite a while for the central plot to become apparent, and by that time I'd become rather overwhelmed with who was where and doing what. The lengthy descriptions continue throughout, but they're more manageable once you figure out how things fit together.

I enjoyed the strong female protagonist, and the rather lopsided love-triangle. I enjoyed the mix of fantasy and technology and felt a lot of sympathy for many of the characters. I liked the complexity of the city, and can see it as an easy stage for further stories (and fanfiction).

I was never really able to get into the visual descriptions of the world. I can't imagine a monochrome world, but it felt as though we were reminded too often that the world lacked colour. Every time a colour was named it was in italics and it just got to be annoying to me.

I was also left uncomfortable by the "bad guys". They were clearly "African" (for lack of a better term, in a world with no Africa), with dark skin and wooly hair, who bring the lord of darkness with them from the savage lands far away, to invade the civilized white society. I know that's oversimplifying things, but it didn't sit right with me, and the resolution/revelation of the cycle of colour and monochrome didn't help my feelings of discomfort.

Finally, the ending reminded me of [The Taming of the Shrew]. I know our heroine was excluded from society based on her appearance, and grew up tough because of that, but her completely unbelievable "seduction" (via disgusting name-calling) clipped her wings. Riding off to new adventures at the end of the book didn't really do much to restore her to her former kick-ass-ness.

There were a bunch of other notes I made while reading this, but I don't want to tear it apart. It wasn't awful; it just didn't do it for me. ( )