THE SEVEN STONES

A military general and a thief become unlikely allies in unmasking a would-be assassin in Mussbacher’s SF/fantasy novel.

A peace treaty will hopefully pacify two warring countries on the continent of Kalyn. General Leona Almadzi leads a military escort for Lamora’s empress, who’s meeting with the king of Uvar. But before anything is signed, an unexpected gunshot, hitting Leona, turns the ceremony into chaos. The general somehow winds up on an airship with skilled thief Leas Steele, who’s in Uvar to swipe one of the legendary Seven Stones (which she’s been steadily collecting). In the meantime, the Lamoran Senate, wary of further aggravating Lamora and Uvar’s conflict, brands Leona a traitor who failed in an attempt to assassinate the empress. Since the now-wanted Leona certainly can’t return home, she hunts the true assassin, with help from Leas and new comrades Tainean (a pilot and Leas’ partner in crime) and blacksmith Farid Lu. All the while, an investigator doggedly pursues Leas, master of the infamous Thieves’ Guild. Mussbacher develops enthralling characters, particularly Leas and Leona, who are both physically and intellectually capable women. Leona grows even more intriguing after a midway narrative shift that opens up her backstory but also generates myriad questions. Mystery surrounds those much-desired Stones, as well as the Assassins’ Guild and the godlike Immortals whose incredible power some humans can evidently channel. Some of these questions receive answers, while other conundrums remain for sequels to address. The narrative’s masterful worldbuilding entails gradually filled in descriptions of Kalyn and its different regions; they’re distinctive and memorable, from the barren desert land of the Red Sands to moody Uvar, where it’s perpetually cold and raining: “It comes down in sheets of icy water. It reminds Leas why she hates the cold and the wet. When she slips through an open window in the royal palace, she leaves small puddles on the sill, on the floor, on everything she touches.” Delectable genre elements abound, including hovering vehicles, a variety of weapons wielded by the cast, and a potential romance between Leona and the often-inept but consistently likable Farid.

An indelible world and characters animate this riveting adventure.