First Truth

by Dawn Cook

Book Overview

Before she wrote as New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison, Dawn Cook wrote the Truth... This is the first novel of Dawn Cook's extraordinary coming-of-age fantasy featuring Alissa, a young... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 044100945X
• ISBN13: 9780441009459
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Quest for First Truth

First Truth (2002) is the first fantasy novel in the Truth series. Once upon a time, there was a Hold hidden deep in the Mountains where Masters taught magic to Keepers. One day, Talo-Toecan -- the Headmaster -- entrusted his student Meson with the book First Truth and the Keeper took it away and hid it. In this novel, Meson is a farmer from the foothills and is married to Rema, a woman of the deep plains. Meson tells his daughter Alissa stories of the Hold and his Master. When Alissa finds the hidden First Truth, he begins to suspect that she will be a Keeper and capable of finding the book wherever he hides it. Meson leaves his wife and daughter to return the book to his master and is never seen again. When Alissa starts acting strangely, Rema realizes that the Hold is beginning to pull on her Keeper daughter. She stows necessary items in a pack and gives Alissa a small pouch to wear from her neck. Alissa asks about the contents and Rema has her smell it. After she perceives the rank smell of the stinking substance, Rema knows that Alissa is truly a Keeper and must leave to find her destiny. Of course, Alissa doesn't believe in magic, but she knows better than to argue with her mother. With her kestrel Talon flying overhead, she starts off to find the Hold and her book. She has about a month until the snow starts to fall in the mountains. Strell is a plainsman, the seventh son of a well known family of potters. He is returning over the mountains from the coast after several years of wandering. His path briefly crosses with that of Alissa, but they pass with only a few hints of each other's presence. He continues onward to the foothills market, where he learns of the death of all his family. With disbelief and fear, he returns to his home place only to find all evidence of their presence and property washed away by a spring flood. Fleeing in his grief, Strell returns to the mountains and eventually discovers Alissa trapped in a ravine. After hearing his story, Alissa remembers the tragedy and tries to treat him with compassion. Still, their different heritages cause clashes and both are strong-willed enough to have grand and glorious arguments over almost anything. In this story, Alissa has moments when she hears the thoughts of another being, whom she eventually learns is Talo-Toecan, her father's old Master. While she is immersed in the memories that Talo-Toecan stimulates, she is totally absorbed in her internal thoughts and unaware of the outside world. During these times, Strell is addressed from Alissa's body by Talo-Toecan, whom he starts to call Useless. While she is possessed, Alissa relives other peoples lives. She relives her father's encounter at the Hold with his old acquaintance Bailic, who had been his friend and became his enemy. Later, she relives the meeting between Strell's grandfather and a shaduf -- a person who can foresee deaths -- that leads to Strell being allowed to become a minstrel rather t

Fantasy at its finest!

Before Alissa's father disappeared he would tell her stories about a legendary fortress called the Hold. It was a type of university where human Keepers learned magic from the Masters. They were just stories before bed. She never believed any of it was real. When her mother realized that Alissa had inherited her father's magical abilities, she sent Alissa away from their farm to search for the Hold and begin her training. Her small bird, Talon, went with her. On the way, they met a wandering musician from the plains named Strell. Even though the farmers and the plainsmen did not get along well, they traveled together hoping to locate the Hold before the snows began. Bailic was the only Keeper left in the Hold. The power hungry man had sent all the Masters, except one, away on a wild goose chase and then killed the other Keepers. The only Master left was trapped in a hidden dungeon. Bailic searched for a book filled with spells and power called First Truth. When two travelers appeared at the gate, he could sense that one was a latent Keeper, but could not tell which. Regardless, he would use them. Once no longer needed, they would die! ***** Here is an AWESOME new author and I expect her to become very well known fast! Dawn Cook has created a magical world with amazing characters. I quickly found myself engrossed in the the story line and was irritated every time I had to stop reading. I wanted nothing more than to dive back into this book filled with magic, dragons, and danger. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Entertaining Fantasy Story

I initially picked it up because of the gorgeous cover, but I wasn't sure I would like it, since I haven't been in the mood for fantasy lately. But I opened it and started to read, and I'm glad I did. I found this story to be greatly entertaining. The heroine, Alissa, is refreshingly realistic -- magically gifted, yes, perhaps even extraordinarily so, but still recognizably a nineteen-year-old girl, and subject to the impetuousness of youth. She makes mistakes, and she has a fierce temper, but she is ultimately an extremely likeable and sympathetic character.As far as world-building goes -- well, we don't see a whole lot of the world, just a small section of it: the plains and the foothills. (And this makes sense, for our viewpoint character, Alissa, grew up in the foothills and has never been far from home before. This area is the only one she knows.) However, that small section is richly detailed, and the prejudice and mistrust between the two groups vividly drawn. My only complaint about this book is that it ended far too quickly; the story wasn't finished yet! The resolution of the plot is delayed until the next book in the series comes out -- so if you're the type who can't stand an unfinished story, you might want to wait to read this until then. However, for everyone else, this was a delightful read that kept me turning the pages. I recommend it for every fantasy-lover who just wants to read a good story!

"Truth" is well worth it

Many fantasy books simply retread the cliches, with a too-large cast and an attempt at epic storytelling at the expense of personal characterization. Dawn Cook, like Kristen Britain, is one of the new authors who does not fall into this trap. Alissa comes from a mixed marriage of the plainsmen and the hill people; her father, a Keeper, vanished when she was very young and her mother has raised her alone. Alissa has long since stopped believing that the Hold, a place where magic is taught, is a real place. But her mother insists that it is, and one day she sends Alissa off with her pet kestrel, Talon, to be taught how to be a Keeper. Alissa soon meets up with a plainsman musician, Strell, who recently returned to find that his family is dead. The two grate on each other immediately, with Strell prejudiced against Alissa's hill upbringing and Alissa angry about what she sees as Strell's plains snobbery.But Strell has something that Alissa needs: A map, drawn by her father and traded away to Strell by her mother. Strell doesn't want to give it up, and agrees reluctantly to accompany Alissa on what she sees as a fool's quest. Except it isn't a fool's quest; a psychic power calling itself "Useless" possesses Alissa's body, and when the two arrive at the Hold, they find only one man in the entire building. Bailic is looking for a book known as the "First Truth," created by a powerful Master and put in the keeping of Alissa's father. And now he believes that Alissa and Strell can lead him to it...It was refreshing to read this book, in a market flooded with cliched sword-and-sorcery stories. Cook does not seem to concern herself with making this book an epic, or cramming it full of complicated cultures and peoples. She focuses instead on two cultures, different and divided, and the Keepers of the Hold, which encompasses both. The magic is low-key, despite a major explosion late in the book; the descriptions of the tracings and wards are very evocative.One interesting aspect of this book is the treatment of prejudice; both Strell and Alissa have prejudices and misconceptions about the other's culture, and these prejudices are comparable to Bailic's hatred of halfbreeds (like Alissa) and the hill culture. Very few authors could successfully pull off giving the heroes the same flaws as the villains, but Cook does so without a feeling of strain. The travelling near the beginning drags on a little long, with only camping out to break the tension; the dialogue is endearingly real to life, even if it is a little repetitive when the two protagonists are offended. And the dual nature of the raku is intriguingly thought of, and will undoubtedly be touched on again in future.Alissa is a pleasantly unconventional heroine in a genre of warrior women; she gets soggy, sulky, unhappy, irrational, and has no desire to leave her comfortable life for what she sees as a myth. Yet she overcomes many of these to become a more understanding person. Strell also is trying his

Move over Harry Potter

This is an absolute joy of a book to read. While it is set as a young adult fantasy, the world created and the well drawn characters make it much more. Mix a dash of magic and mystery, a young woman coming to grip with her gifts, and a budding romance and the stage is set for a magical, compelling tale. I can hardly wait for the next chapter of Alissa and Strell.