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7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 An adventurous quest through an enchanted land. Nov 12, 2004
By E. Conley
"Betty's Books"
Ronald L. Donaghe's fantasy novel, "Cinatis", begins as the central character, Jeru, is preparing to leave his family's farm for the last time. A reported plague, spreading from the southern reaches in the land of Omoham, is threatening the people, most of whom, like Jeru, are earth gifted. Fear of the plague has caused people to leave their homes in droves. Jeru's parents, Megan and Wanu-té, and his brothers, Joshu and Samu, have already fled the farm. Jeru, a stone felder like his father, is aware of deep disturbance in the ground beneath his feet...only a stone felder would be aware of such sensations. He's troubled by the rumblings, but continues his preparations to leave for the two day journey to the city of "Cinatis", where he hopes to learn news of the plague. Spending his last night at home alone, Jeru senses a new presence, that of a stranger, but at the same time, he knows there is nothing to fear.
On the way to Cinatis, Jeru is attacked and injured by some men from the industrialized land, Ch'turk, to the north of Omoham. Ch'turk people are unwanted, unpleasant invaders, threatening and crude, spreading ever deeper into Omoham with their noisy, offensive, smoke spewing machines. Ostensibly, the Ch'turk entered Omoham to save the people from the plague, but they are taking over the abandoned homes and inns. Jeru is rescued from his attackers by Eríl, a Na-té.
Na-tés are an ancient race of people, living deep in the Miasma Forest, which runs along the eastern boundary of Omoham, beyond the unseen Na'ibel River. The earth gifted Na-tés wear no clothing, and are able to communicate over great distances through their mists. In a series of events, wonderfully told by Donaghe, Jeru realizes that Eríl is his ideal man--the stranger he's sensed, and seen in his dreams. Eríl, long smitten by Jeru--he had been watching Jeru as he worked in the fields--joins him on his journey to Cinatis. They become Té mates.
Once in Cinatis, Jeru and Eríl discover belligerent Ch'turk all over the city, their priests posting proclamations forbidding citizens to practice the art of felding, which they consider unnatural and evil. Other demands, counter to the Way of the Té, include no nudity (up to then clothing had been optional), no displaying of what Ch'turk believe to be unnatural affections, and other demands that, if not met, are to result in immediate execution.
Jeru and Eríl meet Ka-té, the sitting witch of Cinatis. Over one hundred years old, Ka-té, senses how special Jeru and his partner are and encourages them to embark on a quest to learn the truth of the plague. They are to travel to the other six major cities of Omoham, visiting the sitting witch in each of the cities. Jeru hadn't realized how powerful his stone felding abilities were until he and Eríl had an angry encounter with a Ch'turk priest, preventing him from setting fire to the Miasma Forest. Jeru was able to make the stone beneath their feet tremble. Further along in Donaghe's novel, Jeru's abilities strengthen. He becomes an exceptionally powerful stone felder... powers that may prove disastrous to the entire country of Omoham.
Before Jeru's family left home, Samu, his wood felder brother, had fashioned a staff for him. While in Cinatis, Ka-té left his hand print on Jeru's staff, gifting the staff with powers, thus allowing communication between Ka-té and Jeru. The sitting witch of each of the seven main cities of Omoham has an astral eye, allowing communication among the witches through astral mists. Ka-té senses evil in the mists coming from one of the other six astral eyes, but he has no idea what the evil is, or which city the evil mist is coming from. Ka-té keeps the information to himself as he encourages Jeru and Eríl to travel first to the city of Levi-dell, a moon wheel's journey to the south.
Their journey begins. Each night, Eríl prepares a nest where they consummate their love. Ka-té told them that Jeru's taking of Eríl's seed would enhance not only his stone felding powers, but would greatly enhance his mist awareness, and his Animas, or life force. Long before reaching Levi-dell, they realize something is very amiss in the land. They visit each city of Omoham, and all the sitting witches come to care for Jeru and Eríl. Almost all of the sitting witches, that is. Jeru and Eríl become fast friends with the fire felders of Nu-ed, who put on a spectacular fire show for their visitors; they meet the soil felders of Bender, and admire their beautiful glassine buildings. There is a surprise for Jeru in Bender when a person he cares for reenters his life. In each of the cities, Jeru and Eríl meet other earth gifted people, each with different felding powers, and they gain friends and allies as they come to the realization that the plague is not at all what they expected.
By the end of "Cinatis", the realization of why Donaghe's series is called "Twilight of the Gods" comes into focus. It's easy to see why "Cinatis" was a 2004 nominee for the Imagination Award from the Stonewall Literary Society.
Five stars to Ronald L. Donaghe's "Cinatis", a well-written and exhilarating journey through an enchanting land with new surprises on each page. His characters are richly developed, very believable and realistic considering the mysterious setting. Jeru and Eríl meet many people on their journey, the hes, the shes, and the shhes. I truly cared for the many likeable characters, hated the bad guys, and feared the unknown. The next book in the "Twilight of the Gods" series, "Gwi's War," takes Jeru, Eríl, and their friends into the land of Ch'turk and promises to be just as exciting a novel as "Cinatis."
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Midwest Book Review, February 2005 Issue Jan 27, 2005
By Lori L. Lake
"Author of Like Lovers Do, Buyer's Remorse, Snow Moon Rising, The 'Gun' Series, & more"
As with many good fantasy novels, this story begins with a youth who must set out on a Quest. Sixteen-year-old Jeru, the youngest of three brothers, finds his life is turned upside down by a plague that has beset the land of Omoham. Before the onset of the panic, Jeru worked the family farm and dreamed at night of a shadowy man. His life was fairly simple, though it didn't feel complete. Now everyone in the region is fleeing in fear. Jeru's brothers and parents have already left the farm, but Jeru has chosen not to accompany them. Instead, he goes south, to Cinatis, in an effort to discover what is causing the plague and to try to discover why he feels such a disturbance in the earth. Jeru's special gift is as a stone felder. He can feel in the stones under his feet that something evil is quite literally affecting the land.
One thing that becomes apparent as Jeru makes his pilgrimage south is that as fast as his countrymen leave Omoham, the neighboring Ch'turks come in and take over their land and holdings. This doesn't seem right. Then on the road long before he even reaches Cinatis, Jeru is attacked by Ch'turk rogues. Jeru is saved from death by Eril, a mysterious young man who Jeru soon realizes is the one who has been haunting his dreams. The two discover they are soul-mates and form a strong bond. They continue on the journey to Cinatis only to find that things are worse than they had imagined. The Ch'turk's religious orders have posted new rules for the society that can only be described as joyless, discriminatory, regimented, and fundamentalist. They've outlawed relationships like Eril and Jeru's, as well as disallowed the use of any sort of earth gifts, stonefelding included. Jeru's abilities are not ones he has ever had to hide-or refrain from using-and everything about this is wrong and unnatural for him. The penalty for not following these new rules, though, is death.
At the urging and with the assistance of other powerful characters, Jeru and Eril set out on a quest to learn the truth, and it is this journey of exploration that encompasses Book One of the "Twilight of the Gods" trilogy. The next book will be called GWI'S WAR and is due out very soon, with the third book, WAR AMONG THE GODS, to come later in 2005.
I've been meaning to read this book for a long time, but it is a big one - 585 pages - and that seemed a little daunting. Once I started it, however, it rolled along smoothly, revealing layer upon layer of information about a captivating world at the precipice of change. Jeru is a worthy protagonist, and his relationship with Eril is richly drawn. The villains are appropriately villainous, the "good guys" are engaging, and the land in which this epic plot takes place is fascinating. I very much look forward to the next installment of this series. ~Lori L. Lake, reviewer for Midwest Book Review and author of the "Gun" series
3 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A daring, complex fantasy novel Oct 20, 2006
By Ventura Angelo
I don't like the label "gay book", if this is supposed to mean "For gay people only". I think complex, imaginative, strikingly actual fantasy novels like these deserve to be considered for their literary merits. I think the bloody, bigoted and power-hungry ch'turks resembles some of reactionary forces that spawns their supponent intolerance and hatred in this world. The paragon is more subtle than it appears because Donaghe explores the imoplications of induced fear, and the complicities between oppressors and certain oppressed. The oppressors aren't an undistinguished pack of marauders, but their personality vary from the mindless fanatic to the sly politician. The victims of the Ch'turks power-hungry bigotry is the gentle Omoham-EYE, a magical people tolernt of diversity, in syntony with nature and full of lovely charachters, like the protagonists, Jeru the "Stone Felder" and the lovely Eril, member of an ancient race With the helpof "Witches" hey will investigate the reality of the rumored "Plague" and find a mean do defeat the invaders. But even among the gentle Omoham-Eye still lurks the possibility of evil, as said in a rather cryptic passage of their sacred book.
I find this first book exquisite, the fantastic world Donaghe has buit at par with Tolkien's Middle Eart" and Storm Constantine's Wraeththu.
I can't wait to read the following books!This is all Grimsley's "Kirith Kirin" wanted to be- and failed.
 so easily put down Feb 27, 2007
By Furio
Loving gay-themed fantasy novels as much as I do I am awfully sorry to give such a low rating to one of them, especially this one.
The world created here by Mr Donaghe is interesting and the plot really has potential. Moreover it is extremely clear how much care he put in his work, giving us a novel that is neither short, nor vain, nor hurried.
Unfortunately it is also lenthy more than just long, excruciating more than slow and wordy more than meaningful.
We are given a whole paragraph when a simple sentence would suffice, long explanation instead of hints and this happens again and again.
I had to abandon it after little more than a hundred pages, displeased with the author and with mysel, not a nice feeling.
By the way, one could legitimately feel displeased with the publisher too: the book is massive, hard to read, printed with a very small font and badly bounded so that pages tend to fall out.
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