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Todd Cheney grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and has lived in the southeastern Wisconsin area all his life. He has always been fascinated with art and different forms of self-expression. Writing, in his opinion, is one of the best forms of self-expression.
Cheney wrote his first novel, The Seventh Circle, when he was twenty-two years old. He has gone on to complete The Seventh Circle fantasy series consisting of four books: The Seventh Circle, The Rhythm of Nature, Emperors of Darkness and The Soulstone. He is also the author of a science fiction novel titled The Risen and a contemporary fantasy called The Bracelet.
Reviewed by Kathryn Bennett for Readers' Favorite
The Seventh Circle by Todd Cheney is an epic book that really includes 4 books. In this second edition are The Seventh Circle, The Rhythm of Nature, Emperors of Darkness, and The Soulstone. The fantasy world you are taken into is a wonderful one, a time before there was time, and a time of true magic. However, in any land that has a true core power like magic, there is war and darkness and it threatens to tear everything apart. This is a classic story of good and evil and even those grey lines that sometimes must be used in order to banish the demons.
The Seventh Circle is the perfect way to introduce readers into the realm. It lays a solid base for the rest of the books. You discover a rich wealth of characters and a full understanding of how the magic in this realm works. You might feel a bit conflicted with blood magic, such as the type that Mal Tarsis does when he makes a sacrifice, but when you have that full understanding of how magic works in this land, it makes sense.
The Rhythm of Nature shows us more of the rich darkness that is moving across the lands. The Guardians are still trying to find the missing member of the Seventh Circle, and now they have to add in the hunt for an ancient artifact. The evil characters seem to take on even more body and you can actually relate to them, maybe even fully understand the likes of Thaklar; and yet I still prefer the qualities I see in Aridhar. There were some parts of this tale that seemed to be lengthened just to get more words in, or a little muddled but, overall, still a good story.
Emperors of Darkness and The Soulstone round out this anthology and, for me, this is where I most connected with the Dreydan. The rich story telling that permeates all of the books continues with these final two “chapters”. There is so much detail in these novels that you will probably want to read them more than once to truly understand everything. There are many layers of plot involved that will keep you engaged and thinking while you read. I would recommend all four books to any reader who loves sci-fi and fantasy, because they meet and exceed expectations.
