MAIALEN

In Barrett’s fantasy novel, a young ruler attempts to keep the four realms of the kingdom from falling apart but faces enemies, both known and unknown, at every turn.

This second installment of The Keepers of Imbria series finds magic-wielding royal Maialen, the Keeper of Earth, still reeling over the death of her rebel half sister, Orabelle, the Keeper of Water, ten years earlier. While Maialen can control the element of earth, even she is powerless to make crops grow in the parched and struggling land of Samirra, one of the four realms of Imbria. As Imbria’s four constituent kingdoms desperately cling to a tenuous peace, Blaise, the Keeper of Fire (whose obsession with Orabelle lives on even after her death), wants nothing but war. The appearance of Thyrr, Orabelle’s brother from the lands of the savage Fomori (or “blooddrinkers”), throws an already unstable situation into complete chaos as he attempts to claim the throne of Lehar, another Imbrian realm, as the legitimate heir to Orabelle. (While Thyrr doesn’t possess the Pearl that would grant him elemental powers, he does have the mythical Warding Stone, which strips powers from others.) Orabelle’s young son also comes out of hiding to stake a claim to the throne, forcing Maialen to find a path forward to save Imbria from itself. To do so, she’ll have to join forces with an unexpected ally and face a shocking betrayal from someone close to her. Barrett once again weaves together heart-pounding action and complex characters to create an epic tale that tackles themes of grief, forgiveness, and self-determination. Naturalistic dialogue and descriptive prose combine for a fantasy world that feels completely plausible, even with such outlandish creatures as the Sirens: “They approached me almost timidly and I stared at their awful, beautiful faces, so amorphous, like liquid barely holding its shape. One of them tilted its head and made a mournful sound, reaching out to touch my face. I slapped its hand away, my fingers slipping through the seawater body and making me shudder in revulsion.”

A taut fantasy tale of bloodshed and politics with a complex hero battling her own personal demons.