Auralia's Colors: Wow, it doesn't suck!

I finally finished reading the book 'Auralia's Colors' last night and guess what? It doesn't suck! This is a surprise because normally when I start to read a book several times and never finish, suckiness is pretty much guaranteed.

I suppose this book fooled me because it starts out kind of slow, when the main character is a baby, and then there is a rather overly poetic bit on the theme of 'colors'. But as you go on the book grows on you, like a fungus only not so icky.

The story is about a kingdom in which the former queen has made a proclamation forbidding the wearing or owning of colorful items. All such items must be given to the king to be locked up in his vaults.

Auralia is raised by Gatherers--- criminals condemned to life outside the walls. She spends her time in the forest, finding colors of her own. And this is what gets her in trouble.

Auralia creates colorful items which are more than just beautiful. They have power. In one case, one of Auralia's items cures a woman of blindness.

The world Auralia lives in is full of dangers, from the half-human beastmen in the woods to the tyrannical king and his agents. But she isn't afraid, and one reason she isn't is because she has dreams of a creature called 'the Keeper'. It is revealed the everyone dreams of the Keeper, at least in childhood, but that grown folk don't believe that the Keeper is real. But Auralia does.

The Keeper is about as close as the book gets to Christian content, which will displease some, but the book is very beautiful and artistic and may even please many who are not (yet) Christians and who would not be open to more overt Christian content.

I won't go into any more detail lest I reveal 'spoilers', but I'm very glad I took the time to finish this book. And I'm very glad the book has a sequel, Cyndere's Midnight: A Novel (The Auralia Thread). I hope to be able to afford to buy it someday soon.

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