THE BELLY OF THE WOLF

The multi-talented lensmaker Nazhuret, now living in exile in Canton with his daughter Nahvah, learns that his old friend King Rudof of Velonya is dead—perhaps murdered. As civil war breaks out in Velonya, and nearby Rezhmia threatens to invade Velonya to protect its own interests, Nazhuret and Nahvah journey home, encountering along the way the artist-assassin Count Dinaos, a trio of wolves, and various ghosts; Nahvah becomes attached to Timet, a mountain herder who uses Nazhuret's meditation techniques (per the title) to perform astonishing psychic feats. Intending to kill Benar, the new king, Nazhuret instead becomes convinced of Benar's innocence, and urges him to seek reconciliation with the rebels, led by Jeram the demagogue (whose justification is Nazhuret's own letters and journals) and the fierce old general, Mackim. Quiet, unpretentious, vivid, understated, succinct: an object lesson for other, more verbose fantasists in how to produce more from less, and how to write an appealing and gratifying trilogy by offering a self-contained story each time out.