Reviewed by Paul Johnson for Readers' Favorite

Marak is a Situ Clan soldier in Khadora. His mother is a slave and Soil Mage-one. Khadoran law does not allow Marak to speak to his mother. Because of this, he hates Khadoran culture and despises slavery. Marak attempts to see his mother but he is caught and brought before Lord Marshall Grefon. Thinking his punishment to be slavery, Marak is surprised when Grefon informs him of his recent promotion from Squad Leader to Cortain. As Cortain, Marak has rights to visit his mother. Marak's happiness is short-lived for the Lord of Fardale is killed by the Chula, a cat-like people.

Marak is soon designated as Lord of Fardale and given the responsibility of meeting grain contracts by harvest time. If the contracts cannot be met, the plan is to blame Marak. But Once Marak is at Fardale, he frees all slaves, assigns a new finance manager and teaches Air, Sun, Soil and Water Mages to use magic as weaponry. He cleverly and tactically makes peace with the cat-people and gets Vows of Service from three neighboring clans. Marak breaks from the Situ clan and forms his own clan in an effort to change Khadoran ways. But, the other Lords will do anything necessary to put an end to Marak`s reign of power, even if it means killing him, his mother and his entire Clan.

This is a fast-paced fantasy tale. "Young Lord of Khadora" is filled with excellent dialogue, exciting action, appealing suspense. The characters are well developed. The author has a gift for fantasy writing. The only drawback to the book was that the author chose to use a small font, which many readers may find a little hard to read. Although fantasy is not one of my favorite genres, this is a good story and I highly recommend "Young Lord of Khadora" as an ideal read for any fantasy lover.