Finished it, finally! A beautiful and beautifully written story, riddled with exotic influences (other cultures, like Indian - not Native American -, Celtic, and so on...). Reading it, however, was not a walk in the park. At all. Stefan Platteau's style is not your ordinary, daily French. On the contrary. I had trouble to understand several words (French is not my native tongue, that's one explanation); other words' meaning could be derived from the context.

'Manesh' is the first book in the series, Les Sentiers des Astres. You must read them in order to understand what's going on and why, especially when this first book ends with a cliffhanger. Originally, this was supposed to be a trilogy. In 2016, Stefan told me that book 3 got so big, the trilogy would become a quartet. And on his Facebook-page, he even writes there will be a FIFTH book. See the comments of this post. Five? Seriously, Stefan?

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Book 1, Manesh, is a story that's shifts between Manesh's experiences, until he was rescued by a fellowship on a quest to save their country (duchy or what have you?), and the bard of that fellowship, Fintan of Calathynn. He is the bard of the crew, there to take notes of the voyage, sing songs and sooth the mind, tell tales, and so on. Fintan is also more or less second-in-command, after captain Rana, who guides the fellowship through heavy waters. Litterally. His brother occupies a smaller boat, as the entire fellowship must be large enough for a perilous and life-threatening quest as this one. Goal: to seek the Roi-diseur, an oracle who is said to be able to turn the tide of the civil war. However, this oracle is not easy to find. One does not find the oracle, the oracle finds you. Or rather, will provide indications of where to travel. If he wants you to find him, of course.

Along the way, there are creatures of the dark and exotic populations which will either do everything in their power to prevent you from continuing your quest, or provide help and shelter. Therefore, the crew consists of warriors and servants (a cook, a "surgeon", etc...).

Manesh is a bastard child, who has a sacred power: in his body, a fire burns, but he must learn to control it, so that the fire does not consume him. He, like several others, is the child of a giant who copulates with human females, who are abducted for this purpose. Afterwards, the children are dropped here and there, for other humans to take care of them. And so, Manesh grows up in a family at the head of which is a lord of a stronghold. But as children like Manesh are so special, there are dark forces and ferocious pig-like creatures that are instructed to eliminate them, sacrifice them. Manesh is a child, at first, who feels very much at home at night, as it's cooler then. He's very fond of nature, likes climbing in trees.

As I wrote above, Manesh is rescued by Rana's crew, but he's seriously injured and can't speak properly for several days. Any means necessary are good to heal him: spices, bandages, wine, and so on. Little by little, he tells his story, of whom he is, where he comes from, etc. But he takes his time, as if on purpose. Meanwhile, the crew is wary, suspicious, as they don't know his full tale and wonder why he ended up like that (before being rescued) and whether or not he has a role in the war and the quest for the oracle's advice.

After Manesh has told the rest of his story, thanks to being drugged by Fintan, more pieces of the puzzle come together. This also gives the surviving crew members - the small-boat-crew has been decimated and exterminated after having encountered an ambush - more and more certainty that Manesh is in fact a danger to the well-fare of the survivors and has betrayed them, one way or another. Therefore, he can no longer stay with the crew, as the nendous (evil creatures) are after him. Varagwynn, one of the ferrymen, proposes to decapitate him, as he rescued him out of the river. But does he really take this responsibility? Fintan also thought it took a bit too long. Will we ever know? Will [b:Shakti|28933844|Shakti (Les Sentiers des Astres, #2)|Stefan Platteau|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454611685s/28933844.jpg|49153122], book 2 and the name of the courtesan (with some medicinal powers), provide the answers?

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Stefan Platteau's first book is one that requires time and effort to read. This is not your regular Fantasy-novel. The wording is very advanced and intricate, but the author manages to take the reader on this quest and experience the story from the first row, (no) pun intended. But luckily you don't have to row the boat, as other characters were tasked to do so.

But not all is well, in my humble opinion. Some things that bugged me: typos here and there. Also, certain vocabulary was not (properly) explained (no glossary!), especially the cultural vocabulary. Also, no map. A book like this one MUST have a map. If only to understand who's waging war against whom, which itinerary the crew is following, where exactly they seek shelter and how that's related to their itinerary, ...

Despite these few problems, I can really recommend 'Manesh'. Do practise your French. ;-) ( )