“Stories not told are soon forgotten.”

This is a story told with love and I understood why when I read the Acknowledgements and realised JE Hannaford has been working on this series for years. This is a passion project which reads like a love letter to epic fantasy, a sense of craft and care woven into each and every page.

Hannaford works at immense scale in this novel, her world building encompassing the planet of Lieus and its two moons, Tebein and Mythos. The flora and fauna of each and their various properties are described in intricate detail. There are many strange fantasy magical creatures – some friendly and useful, others more inclined to eat you alive. We also have interplanetary space dragons, who took the decision to destroy the magical gates between this trio of worlds long ago to avert disaster as war raged. As a consequence these are dangerous fallen worlds, where outside the fortified settlements where humans now live survival skills are essential and no journey is undertaken lightly.

In addition, each chapter begins with an epigraph comprising excerpts from letters, books, poetry or songs. These serve to gradually expand the lore of the Aulirean system and help immerse the reader in the story.

This tale is told from the perspective of three different characters – Elissa, Darin and Suriin. Elissa is something of an outsider in her community, forced to disguise her lilac hair which marks her out as one of the Untouched. She is living in servitude on Tebein, scratching out a living, her people enslaved by the virtually immortal reptilian race known as the awldrin.

Darin and Suriin live in the land of Caldera on Lieus. Suriin is the daughter of So’Dal parents, the name given to magic users in this world. Her own lilac hair denotes she is magically talented and her parents send her to the town of Redpike to learn more. Suriin and Elissa therefore have similar gifts but their circumstances couldn’t be more different.

Darin has travelled separately to Redpike where he discovers he has the gift of being able to bond with a young moonhound called Star. This magical ability enables moonhounds to form a connection with their human partner, collectively sharing their experiences in the waking and dream worlds. Both Darin and Suriin learn more about their gifts from their various tutors at the magic school called the Black Palace in Redpike.

The magic system Hannaford has created is incredibly detailed and well thought out. It involves a fusion of herb lore, music and song, as well as the magical symbols you will find used throughout the book. Male So’Dal learn gardening, singing crafts and wefts. Female Soul Anchors use crystals and work with emotions and dreams. A partnership between a So’Dal and Soul Anchor enables them to blend and amplify their skills. However, following the closure of the gates the libraries and ancient texts have been divided along the male and female lines to deliberately limit the power of any one individual and avoid a repetition of the destructive past.

I thought it was interesting how the Soul Anchors use their crystals to focus the power of their emotions and the memories associated with them. Those emotions and memories fade in order to power their magic, thus coming at a cost. Darin’s relationship with Star was very relatable and amusing and any fantasy novel with an animal companion is going to be a winning combination. This is definitely a book for dog lovers and their various exploits were my favourite passages in the book.

There’s much to love in this novel and I’m sure it will have its legions of fans. However certain aspects of the plot and structure didn’t work so well for me. This is a story grounded in character rather than action or plot. The experience of reading the book is a slow unfolding of this world as we follow the adventures of Darin, Suriin and Elissa. I don’t mind a character-driven novel but Gates of Hope falls more into the slice of life style of writing. All three characters find themselves in difficult circumstances at various stages but there’s absolutely no character-driven conflict in this book, only a series of obstacles to be overcome in each chapter.

In addition, Darin and Suriin are both very young, so they are still discovering their abilities and purpose in life. Elissa is actually older and in her mid-thirties but her passages read as if she’s also younger than her years, perhaps due to her more limited life experience. Consequently they are all at the same general point in life and their stories don’t intersect during the novel. This approach to telling the story slows down the pace of the book considerably.

For all three of them this book is one about their self-discovery and personal growth. Events driving the wider plot don’t really begin to move until around 95% in. There’s a big shift in that last 5%, which is a lot darker in tone than the rest of the story. The end of the novel leaves things perfectly poised for the second book in the series, Gates of Sorrow. However, I think I would have preferred things to have developed a little more quickly in getting to that point.
This book will appeal to fans of JRR Tolkien and Brandon Sanderson, who enjoy stories rich in history and lore. Gates of Hope is an immersive story, where you can lose yourself for hours in Hannaford’s incredible imaginary worlds. It’s epic fantasy in every sense of the word and this was clearly a story Hannaford had to tell, ensuring her intricate creation and the characters she loves so much will not be forgotten. I can see why this book was selected as a finalist for the Tenth Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest and I predict it will do well in the competition.