The Last Harbinger, by Jeff Wheeler

Goodreads Rating of 4.26 with 1,364 ratings.

I’m just beginning this book, so if anyone has read it, and think it a waste of time — or any other thoughts, please comment :)

Epigraph

Several years ago I went through a mirror gate to the city of Dawanju in the Bhikhu world. I saw an enormous creature I’d never seen before, which the people called da-xiang. They walk on all fours, but each leg is the size of a tree trunk. Large tusks protrude from their mouths, and their long, agile noses can grasp food or spray water. They are primarily used as beasts of burden, but some are trained for war. The da-xiang were kept in pens, with only a frail rope to keep them in. I asked the Bhikhu tender why these creatures did not burst the rope and escape the pens. He said that the da-xiang are trained with ropes when they are very small, when they are not strong enough to break them, and so they come to adulthood believing that ropes cannot be broken. It made me wonder how I might be held back by old beliefs that are no longer true.

Cettie Fitzroy Creigh, Harbinger of Muirwood