THE GOBLIN MIRROR

Fantasy set in an environment cognate with Cherryh's successful Rusalka trilogy (most recently Yvgenie, 1991) where magic works, ghosts and goblins are real, and everyone who matters is noble or wizardly or, preferably, both. Accompanying the wizard Karoly to investigate some threateningly magical goings-on are the princes Bogdan and Tamas, with too-young Yuri chasing behind after Tamas's runaway dog. Soon the party is ambushed by goblins; Bogdan is killed, Karoly vanishes, and the injured Tamas finds himself accompanied by a horrid-looking but helpful troll and by Ela, a willful and vengeful young witch who possesses a shard of the evil goblin queen's mirror and plans to destroy her with it. Complicating the picture are some noble goblins; led by Azdra'ik, who spares Tamas's life, they claim to be rebels against the queen and, thus, possible allies. Turns out that the mirror is an ancient magical device conjured by the goblin queen as part of an evil bargain with Karoly's sister; Ela and Tamas (he turns out to be a powerful wizard) somehow must wrest control of the mirror away from their foe. Above average; readers who enjoyed Cherryh's previous fantasies will certainly enjoy this. But, for all that, the construction bears signs of haste, the ideas aren't fully thought through; and the texture tends toward the lumpy: Cherryh clearly stands in danger of overextending her considerable talents.