Fans won’t be disappointed.
Another, perhaps the final, installment of the prequel fantasy series (Antiagon Fire, 2013, etc.) involving the unification of Lydar under a single ruler.
Imager Quaeryt’s crushing of Antiago and its vicious rulers came at great personal cost. His wife, Vaelora, lost the baby she was carrying, while Quaeryt himself was badly injured and his hair and fingernails turned white. Now, Quaeryt, Vaelora, the imagers (wizards) and armies head back to Variana, mending or building new bridges, quelling resentful Bovarian High Holders and greedy Factors as they go. Quaeryt is troubled by dreams or visions of the godlike imager Erion, who repeatedly warns him not to seek personal gain. Once they reach Variana, they face a difficult interview with Lord Bhayar, who is thrilled by Quaeryt’s successes but less than pleased that he has so far overstepped his orders. Still, of all Lydar, only Khel remains uncommitted to Bhayar, and the Khellans have agreed to consider terms. Quaeryt and Vaelora set to work as joint minister for administration and supply of Bovaria. Yet, Quaeryt is troubled that no dispatches have arrived from Submarshal Myskyl in the north, and he begins to suspect that Myskyl and Marshal Deucalon are conspiring with the Bovarian imagers who vanished after the battle in which Quaeryt vanquished Rex Kharst. Bhayar refuses to believe that old soldiers who served his father loyally could be conspiring against him, so Quaeryt must find solid evidence while persuading Bhayar to let him establish a Collegium where imagers can safely be educated and trained in the service of the state. Overall, workmanlike rather than spectacular, as Modesitt illustrates honor, dedication and estimable personal values through the words and deeds of his leading characters.
Fans won’t be disappointed.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3634-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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