Meredith & Jennifer's Musings : Journey Landaran by Judy Goodwin

Journey to Landaran (Sprit Maga Saga #1)
By Judy Goodwin

Aidah and her twin brother Tavish have always had a knack for getting into trouble. From pie stealing and pranks to hunting for magical creatures, they have always escaped notice in their tiny mountain village.

Until now.

Aidah begins seeing visions through her brother’s eyes. He’s a Firestarter, gifted with the Talent to control light and heat, destined to become a Sun Mage in the great city of Landaran. But he doesn’t want to leave without his sister. As storm clouds gather, Aidah dreams of a beautiful man, a frightening man, calling to her.

She fears the truth. That she may developing a Talent of her own, one that will change their lives forever.

The power to read minds. To possess bodies. To travel inside dreams. In the world of Ernid, Spirit is the ultimate power.

Nations will go to war over them.

***Warnings for mature themes including child molestation.***

Jennifer's Review:

Young twins, Aidah and Tavish Dernholt are not only siblings but best friends -- they do everything together -- including getting into lots of trouble. Their bond is strong and Judy does a good job of describing and getting the read to understand their relationship. We follow Aidah and Tavish in their world -- a world where "talents" exist. There are three different talents, Life (Spirit), Fire (Sun), and Storm. Not everyone has a talent: --some have varying degrees of potential and some have none. Once your talent emerges you goto the city of Landaran to become trained to become a "Mage" of that talent. I enjoyed the premise of the talents and Judy descriptions were wonderful. She is able to paint the picture with words.

So for the Twins:
Tavish’ talent shows up early and he finds that he has the Fire Talent, meaning that he has the ability to control light/fire/heat. At first it seems that Aidah doesn't really have a talent but wow....when it starts to come through its powerful and everything in their world changes as a result. She is a Life Talent -- she has the ability to control life and energy.

The bad guy:
Rangwar -- Life/ Sprit Mage. He is clearly using his powers for evil and he wants Aidah and will stop at nothing to get her. He honestly was a little too bad for me.

Because of Rangwar's wrath on the city, Aidah and Tavish are forced to travel from their home to the main capitol, Landaran in search of safety and training for Aidah. They set out with their Uncle and Guardian Lupa (kinda like a wolf/dog). They end up running into a band of gypsies and some extended family who help them along their way. I really enjoyed the characters that they met along the way -- I think they made the book for me and would love to see more of them.

So the question is -- Will they make it to Landaran and what will it cost them?

The only issues I had with the book is that I thought the characters should of been older than 14 years old. The book as it clearly states does have some "distrurbing" scences/concepts that were made even more disturbing given the age that characters are supposed to be.
The other issue I had which was minor is the journey took entirely too long -- I was kinda hoping for more with some of the characters they met along the way and possibly more once they got to Landaran. Perhaps that is to come in the next installment?
Overall a good read for a 16+ years old audience.