The Djinn: A Novel

J. Kent Holloway's novel The Djinn has all the right elements for a great fantasy novel. There are ancient magical powers secreted in a hidden tomb. There is a mystical being with curious powers to find and subdue his enemies. The story takes place in the Middle Ages during the Crusades. Yet the story is not so well written to take advantage of these elements, and the characters come off as simplistic.

Baron Gregory De L'Ombre is the leader of European forces in Palestine, sent there by the Pope to find some arcane artifact. But he has turned his attention to a new mission: to find the tomb that houses the twelve golems created by one of King Solomon's wives and turned against him. With this power he hopes to rule Palestine and the world. His brother William is a leper living in a nearby compound. He was adopted by a wealthy Christian Arab after being rejected by Gregory.

Then there is the Djinn, a powerful mystical being who has been wreaking havoc on Gregory's plans. He frees Gregory's slaves and attacks his thugs. He has terrorized the locals, though Gregory insists the stories are all just legends. One of the problems with the Djinn is that there are some big hints as to his identity early on, and his identity is revealed to Gregory in the middle of the novel but not to the reader until nearly the end. For most of the book the author plays coyly with the question of the Djinn's identity, and it feels forced and too awkward. Scenes are written in a certain way and concealing certain facts that don't feel right.

The characters don't have much motivation other than one-dimensional goals. One element that works is the Djinn's secret relationship with Gregory's daughter Isabella, however it is not enough to help the whole story. Gregory is single-mindedly focused on his power grab. The Djinn is somewhat more interesting, and probably the most developed character in the book. Gregory's subject Horatio plays the part of the knight who comes do doubt his lord's mission, but he also lacks definition.

The best parts of the story are the golems themselves, though they get little time. The ending is mostly satisfactory, if a little too neat and easy. The elements never add up to a compelling whole. The story was not written as well as it could have been. C-

Rereading The Hobbit

There are very few books that I ever reread. I guess there are just so many new books to read out there that a book has to be very special for me to reread it. I have read J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy several times, most recently as the movies were released. And while I read The Hobbit then too, I knew it would be exciting to read it to my children in anticipation of the first Hobbit movie being released this winter.

I won't go into a synopsis here since the story is very popular and there are summaries elsewhere. Instead I will go with my biggest impressions and things that I noticed this time around.

The most interesting facet is the character of Gandalf. The wizard serves several purposes. His first task is of bringing together Bilbo and the dwarves. Gandalf sees something in Bilbo that he thinks would make him a good adventurer (a Tookish element). After fulfilling his role as instigator, he then becomes the helper, showing the party the way and helping them out of sticky situations like with the trolls. Gandalf is absent when the troll encounter begins, allowing the party to get into trouble, but arrives just in time to save everyone. Later he serves as an intermediary between the dwarves and Elrond, and later with Beorn. He helps the dwarves get out of trouble with the goblins, but only uses a small amount of magic: enough to kill the goblin chief but not enough to completely remove the threat.

Gandalf's importance becomes most evident with his absence. When he leaves the party at the entrance to Mirkwood, Bilbo is enabled to step up and help the dwarves out of trouble. This is a common element in myths and legends. The special helper character must step away from the story and stop helping the hero to allow the hero to find his potential. (I am also reminded of Curious George, who was always separated from the man with the yellow hat in order to get in trouble.) In Mirkwood Bilbo's character arc goes way up and he start to see himself not only as a solid member of the party but as their savior.

Bilbo's importance reaches its peak when they reach the Lonely Mountain and he sneaks inside and talks to Smaug. Once he enters the mountain, the plot follows directly via a cause and effect chain. The final events of the story leading up to the death of Smaug and the final battle are plotted very neatly. My kids enjoyed the parts with the dragon and enjoyed following Bilbo through his adventures. My favorite part is still Mirkwood, especially the time when the dwarves are imprisoned and Bilbo must help them escape. I'm not sure whether this is my favorite because of Bilbo's ascendance as I described above, or because Mirkwood is dark and dangerous and the escape from the elves so ingenious. Still, as a whole the story is just a good on the third or fourth reading, through a child's eyes or through an adult's eyes. A

Throne of the Crescent Moon

Arabian themes have become popular lately. Books like Habibi and movies like The Prince of Persia have used Arabian settings, drawing on a rich culture of mystery and fantasy. In Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed uses the background of deserts and cities, demons and demon hunters, dervishes and dark magics. He creates a fantastic tale full of adventure.

The centerpiece is the city of Dhamsawaat, an ancient city where all sorts of merchants meet to do trade. There are vast riches in the city but also a large population of poor people. The city is run by the Khalif, a corrupt ruler who only cares about extracting wealth from his people. The demoralized citizens have found a hero in the Falcon Prince, a daring master thief who has led attacks on the Khalif's property to turn it over to the poor. In all this chaos, Adoulla Makhslood is a ghul hunter who has been hunting ghuls and other demons for decades. Adoulla is not just rough around the edges, he is rough all around. He is a cynical older man with a past, and he is one of the few men left who knows how to battle ghuls and use magic to dispel them.

Dhamsawaat is reminiscent of Lankhmar, and Adoulla has his counterpart in Raseed, a dervish. Raseed is straight-laced and devout, devoted to his single god and his holy book. He is a master swordsman, apprenticed to Adoulla to assist him in vanquishing evil. The plot starts when Adoulla is requested to help a young boy whose family has been slain by ghuls. When the he and Raseed travel to the nearby village to deal with the evil beings, they are attacked by more than they expected. Fortunately they are saved by a lion. Zamia is a shape-shifting warrior whose band was slain by ghuls. Like Raseed, she is devoted to her way and determined to get revenge for her family.

Zamia joins the two ghul hunters when they realize that a powerful magus must be creating all the ghuls. Before they can find any more information they are attacked by a shadowy being calling itself Mouw Awa. Only Zamia is able to fend it off but she is wounded in the attack. Adoulla's house is destroyed by fire in the attack, and he grieves for it and all the books lost inside. Here we see Adoulla as more than a demon hunter; he has a love of knowledge and a deep history of arcane lore. He is also devoted to his calling despite all his setbacks, driven to protect the people of the land from the ghuls as only he can.

The three get help from Adoulla's friends, a couple who know about mystic healing and spells. Together the five of them create a plan of attack. They struggle against the Khalif, religious fanatics, the Falcon Prince, hidden texts, hidden magics, and their own squabbles. They encourage each other to continue, not knowing where the fight will take them. The story is full of exciting fights and daring escapes. The dangers are what one would expect in an adventure story. The characters are interesting and different enough to cause friction and make the plot more complex. There's an intriguing mystery somewhere behind the events, and the story getting there is a lot of fun. B+

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin. The author builds a complex and fascinating mythology and then explores it through the interactions between the characters. The title refers to the vast world which the ruling class, the Arameri, rules over from their palace suspended over a city by a column of stone. In this mythology, a war between the three gods was fought thousands of years earlier, leaving one god dead and another imprisoned by the winner, Itempas. Itempas forces his brother-god Nahadoth, and Nahadoth's three children, to be enslaved to the Arameri elite, who use the gods' powers to control their kingdoms and maintain power.

This background comes out in the course of the story. The main character is Yeine, granddaughter of Dekarta, the ruler of the Arameri and king in all but name. Yeine arrives at Sky, the palace suspended by a column, summoned by Dekarta after her mother is murdered. She learns that she is designated one of her grandfather's heirs, but she and the other two heirs, her cousins, must contend against each other for the title. Her cousin Scimina is a ruthless woman who sends Nahadoth against her as a kind of initiation and schemes to have Yeine's kingdom attacked by its neighbors simply so she can have a bargaining chip. Scimina's brother Relad is a lazy hedonist who can't be bothered to take the ascension seriously, even though his life depends on it.

The most intriguing character is Nahadoth, also known as Naha. By day he has a human shape, but at night his form becomes darker and more ethereal as his dark powers grow. As his brother is eternally constant, Naha is the essence of change. Shadows coalesce around him. Part of his power is his sexuality, and he invokes in the young Yeine a strong attraction. Yet she knows that even though she is attracted to him he would be dangerous to take to bed. She may be able to command him, but his powers would overwhelm her as his nature overcomes them both.

Another interesting character is the godling Sieh, Naha's son. Sieh appears in the form of a young child despite being thousands of years old. Likewise he is playful and endearing, though his more wise and cynical side comes out at times. Yeine feels an attachment to him though she tries to keep in mind his true nature.

Yet she struggles to understand the gods at all. Dangerous characters, they are referred to as weapons because the Arameri use them against other to maintain power. Yeine receives a magical mark on her forehead when she arrives at the palace to signify her high rank and enable her to order the gods. Yet this power is itself tentative and paradoxical: she quickly learns that she must be very careful in how she phrases her requests and even her comments to the gods. If she makes a mistake in her wording then the god may find a loophole that enables him or her to leave the palace and wreak havoc on the world.

Yeine must find a way to survive the coronation, where one of the heirs will assume the throne and the rest will die. She also wants to find out about her mother, who had a very different reputation at the palace that in Yeine's memory. She has a hard time believing that her loving mother could be like the hard-hearted Arameri. As she learns about her mother and the Arameri, we learn more about Nahadoth and the other gods and the Gods War of ancient times. The myth builds and expands.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The world feels real and the myth is more than a background story, it's an integral part of the plot. The gods are interesting. Seeing powerful beings interact with humans is a good story. The gods themselves are very human, showing human emotions like greed, despair, and lust. We can feel Yeine's helplessness and uncertainty as she tries to navigate this strange world. The novel leaves the reader with the sense of having read a real life myth. A

Orcs

I've had a copy of Stan Nicholls' novel Orcs on my bookshelf for over a year waiting me to finally pick it up and read it. When I was about ready to go on vacation and needed something to read I picked it up and started it. The book is a fantasy where orcs--the standard stock bad guys--are the central characters. This is an interesting conceit, a twist on common tropes. Yet, I feel like it would have been done better by another author.

The first chapter starts out strong, with an exciting battle scene. The orc leader is Stryke, captain of the orc warband called the Wolverines. His sergeants are Coilla, a female; Jup, a dwarf; Haskeer, an argumentative orc; and Alfray, a wizened old warrior and healer. Jup is a mercenary, selling his services to the warband. He and Haskeer are always arguing and trading insults. There are about twenty other grunts who don't figure much into the plot. The group works for Queen Jennesta, a caricature of an evil character. She is completely greedy and selfish and cares nothing about her minions. She thinks nothing of having her leaders killed for not fulfilling the tasks she assigns them. She is part human and struggles for domination over her sisters and the land.

Stryke and the others take an artifact and head back to Jennesta, but are attacked by a band of kobolds. They fight them off but the kobolds escape with the artifact. Knowing that to return to Jennesat empty-handed is a death sentence, they go after the kobolds. They manage to sneak into camp and retrieve the artifact and rescue an ancient gremlin. The gremlin tells them that the magical item, which they refer to as a "star" due to its shiny gem-like quality, is one of many that are sought after for their power. After surviving an attack from a rival orc leader sent to bring him back, Stryke decides to go after the remaining stars.

There are many battles throughout the book, but they end up feeling all the same. The orcs are strong and great warriors; they cut down their enemies without breaking a sweat. There is really no suspense as to the outcome of each battle. It made me wonder how there could be any balance in this world if orcs could overpower everybody. They even infiltrate an underground troll kingdom and kill most of the trolls and steal their star. The one time it was interesting is when Coilla is tracking Haskeer after he starts hearing music and steals the two stars they have. Coilla is captured by three bounty hunters who decide they can get more money by selling her to slave traders. The orcs track them to the slave traders and for a moment it feels like they are trapped. Yet they get away with barely a scratch again.

The world is full of a potpourri of fantasy creatures, from centaurs to dragons to nayads. In this sense it felt like Narnia. Yet it doesn't have the heart of a good fantasy world. The only character with any real depth is Stryke. He is thoughtful and concerned about the world at large. He begins soon after finding the first star to have visions of an ideal world where orcs live in harmony with one another, without humans or other races to harass them. These visions start to infect Stryke with a sort of idealism, and he becomes driven to find all the stars and unite them, even though he has no understanding of the power. It all feels a bit strange and empty, as if the plot must keep moving so Stryke is forced to make inexplicable decisions.

I was hoping for an interesting story that told of brotherhood and duty, and I did not get it. The plot and characters are too simplistic to really enjoy. The one big plus of the book is the dark humor, though sometimes even that gets old. I found Jennesta to not only be unlikable, but unbelievable. Stryke's interactions with the warband, and their interactions with the other races, are mostly formulaic. Perhaps someday someone will write a great book about orcs, but this isn't it. C

Stone of Tears

Stone of Tears is the sequel to Wizard's First Rule. It is the second book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The book begins where the first book ends. Richard Rahl, the wizard Zedd, and Kahlan are in the People's Palace, having defeated Darken Rahl. Yet they are not able to rest because they are soon attacked by an evil creature called a skrin, a powerful creature from the underworld. In defeating Darken Rahl, they have left open a rift to the underworld. Richard comes to understand that only he has the power to close the rift and save the world.

Richard and Kahlan travel to the Mud People to return one of their children, and there Richard insists on doing the ritual to speak with the ancestors, in order to get advice on how to close the rift. However, he falls victim to the wizard's second rule, which says that in deciding on an action, one may make the situation worse through unintended consequences. Too late, Richard realizes that his father Darken Rahl is his direct ancestor, so he has called him from beyond the veil. Darken Rahl marks Richard with a black handprint on his chest, which Richard bears as a constand reminder of his father's evil.

The plot starts to take shape when Richard and Kahlan are visited by three women who are from the Sisters of the Light. The Sisters claim that the headaches that Richard is suffering will kill him unless they put a collar on him and take him away to teach him how to control his magic. Kahlan, convinced by Denna's ghost that only this can save his life, persuades Richard to take the collar and go away with Sister Verna. Richard, though he complies, is bitter about Kahlan sending him away and is convinced that she no longer loves him. This break affects him for the rest of the book. It will take most of the novel for him to realize that Kahlan acted out of love. The way he realizes this is by adopting a gar after killing its mother, and being forced to send it away to keep it from being killed by civilized people. However this whole subplot feels a little forced, and Richard comes to his epiphany too easily.

With Richard being taken away, Kahlan takes three escorts with her to Aydindril, the seat of power for the Midlands. There she intends to help maintain peace in the land in her duties as the highest leader and peacemaker. However they do not get far before they encounter a city that has been laid waste and all its inhabitants killed. Here the author provides gruesome scenes of the viciousness of the attackers. We gain insight in Kahlan as she witnesses the devastation and must make a decision whether to continue to Aydindril to see to her duties, or help a small army of young men pursue vengeance against a stronger force. The overwhelming nature of the slaughter provokes her into action, and so the story takes another turn. Kahlan becomes a cunning leader, but also faces personal challenges, including a sudden betrayal. The betrayal is a true plot twist that changes the arc of the story.

The middle third of the book follows Richard as Sister Verna leads him to the palace where the Sisters of the Light train young wizards. Suspense builds as we we learn more about the Sisters, particularly with scenes of intrigue at the palace they are approaching. The contrast between the scenes of Kahlan's action and Richard's slow acculumation of knowledge and power blend together well. As Richard grows in knowledge he still has trouble controling his magic, and we wonder if he will be able to deal with whatever is in store for him. At their destination, Richard is still unhappy without Kahlan and determined to leave. This determination drives his actions in the last third of the story, where he becomes more confident and slowly starts to master his power. He learns that he has a power that has not been seen in three thousand years, making him a powerful and dangerous wizard. As he has accepted his role as the Seeker, he must accept the gift of magic.

Unfortunately after several hundred pages, the last few chapters feel rushed. Whereas the first novel was slow in the beginning and grew slowly to a crescendo, this installment is a little more spotty. There is a lot packed into the novel, and it's nice to see more of the world Goodkind has created. The resolution feels a little to easy after all the work building up to it. There is a nice twist at the end regarding Kahlan's fate, a prophecy that Richard tries to prevent.

The story revolves around the two main characters, their love for each other, and their attempts to reunite after forcing to be separated. They are drawn each other and this drives the story, each wanting to make the other's love worthwhile. Kahlan is the destination that Richard is always seeking, and he is her drive to succeed. The trope of the young wizard coming to accept his power is a little overdone, but I think the author does a pretty good job of building on it. It can be tiring to hear Richard deny his power or refuse to come to terms with it, yet in the end it makes a nice story. B+

Soldier of Sidon

Soldier of Sidon is the third novel by Gene Wolfe about Latro, an ancient warrior who loses his memory when he sleeps. Latro writes in his scrolls every day and reads when he wakes so that he can learn about his history. He is from Sidon, but is with a friend in Egypt searching for a way to regain his memory. This narrative technique provides for a curious sort of irony, where the reader's knowledge about the main character grows even as the character's memory keeps getting erased.

Latro and Muslak are traveling up the Nile on Muslak's ship on a mission from a king. They stop at a temple to hire two "river wives" for their trip. They bring others on the ship, including a healer who brings a sarcophagus containing a wax woman. Strange things start to happen when the wax woman begins to walk around the ship at night and a large cat talks to Latro. Mistrust breeds on the boat, but Latro is in the most precarious position, for even if he discovers something to trust or mistrust someone, he doesn't remember unless he writes it in his scrolls.

When a wealthy merchant joins the group telling of his missing son, they decide he might be found at the mines they are sent to investigate. There is a gap in the narrative, when Latro starts to write while a captive at the mines, and readers are left to fill in the missing parts.

As in many other Gene Wolfe novels, the characters are mysterious. I am reminded of The Sorcerer's House, an epistolary novel, albeit one in which the protagonist deliberately leaves out information. There is ambiguity about what happens in the story. However there is little in the way of conflict. The main focus is Latro's search for help restoring his memory, and the growing mystery of the happenings on the ship. It is barely enough to sustain a whole story. It is enjoyable mainly because the characters and the ancient lands evoke a great sense of ancient Egypt and its times. B+

Wizard's First Rule

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule is the first book of a high fantasy epic. The lands of D'Hara and the Midlands are ruled by Darken Rahl, a ruthless wizard bent on controlling the entire population. Rahl's goal is to open one of the three magic boxes that will give him ultimate power, but if he chooses wrong, either he will die or all humanity will die.

Richard Cypher is a woods guide in Westland, a land separated from Midlands by a magic veil. Richard knows nothing about Rahl but learns quickly when he helps a beautiful young woman named Kahlan escape from four assassins. For the first half of the story Richard is ignorant of Kahlan's powers and why Rahl would want to have her killed. Kahlan is the last surviving woman in a line of Confessors, who have the power to bring a person under their complete control. As such, she is a big threat to Rahl.

The story unfolds as Richard and Kahlan search for the third hidden magic book, to keep it from Rahl before the first day of winter. All the fantasy tropes are there. There's Zedd, an old man and friend of Richard who turns out to be a wizard with much knowledge of Rahl. There's the constant traveling from one goal to another as they get clues to the box's location. There's the helpers give the clues. There's a magic sword that is both boon and bane to the person who wields it. Richard can channel the sword using his anger, but he must be careful not to let it overwhelm him. The story is done well enough to keep the reader interested for the first two thirds of the book.

It is the last third that gets exciting. Richard and Kahlan's relationship grows even as they keep secrets from each other. They are caught in a trap between love and duty. But when Richard is captured by a mysterious woman the story takes a big twist. Richard must face new levels of physical pain with only the memory of Kahlan to sustain him. He is broken down and rebuilt as a slave, willing to do Rahl's bidding. The depths that Richard experiences and how he survives is the real center of the story.

The first several hundred pages are readable but nothing extraordinary for a fantasy novel. Outside of the complex relationship between Richard and Kahlan, it is full of moderately inventive fantasy plot. But the story gets fascinating with Richard's capture and transformation. There is a truly interesting plot development when he meets Kahlan and Zedd for the first time after his capture. The conflict between Rahl and the protectors of the world is crystallized perfectly in the last chapters. It is a fulfilling story. A-

Ship of Destiny

Final installments of a series can be tricky. The author has to wrap up the storyline for multiple books and also provide a story enjoyable in its own right. Ship of Destiny is the third book in the Liveship Traders trilogy. Robin Hobb does a great job with this final book. The threads of the previous two books come together in delightfully unexpected ways.

At the start of the book, there are several new circumstances that have an enormous impact on the rest of the trading world. The dragon Tintaglia has hatched and discovered she is the last of her kind. The sea serpents have gathered together to look for She Who Remembers, who is the only serpent who can lead them to their hatching grounds where they can cocoon themselves and turn into dragons. Wintrow has been scarred by She Who Remembers and is in a coma, while the pirate Captain Kennit has discovered that he has a power over the serpents.

Meanwhile, Althea and Brashen are taking the liveship Paragon to look for Captain Kennit and rescue Vivacia and any crew aboard her. After a short stint in Divvytown where they try to bluff their way as pirates, they sail around near the port waiting for Kennit. Kennit, already warned, is ready for them. With a little help from the serpents, he handily defeats Paragon, then sets the ship afire with the crew inside. Althea manages to survive and get picked up by Vivacia. But Althea is unhappy to be on her ship. It is no longer the Vivacia that she remembered and had such a close connection to. The memories of the dragon, who had been cocooned in the wizardwood before it was cut up to make the ship, have awakened in her, and Vivacia has rejected her incarnation as a ship.

Althea's niece Malta starts the story floating down the poisonous Rain Wild River in a boat with the Satrap, the ruler of the land. When they are picked up by a Chalcedean boat, she accepts that she must serve the spoiled boy in order to survive. Like the first two books, there is character growth throughout this novel. In the first novel, Althea realizes how childish she has been toward her family. In the second book, Malta gets her comeuppance and starts to discover her inner strength. In the third book, Malta continues to grow and realize her skills as a negotiator while she maneuvers the Satrap and the pirates who capture them. The Satrap himself finally begins to emerge from his self-centered personality just a little, and realizes how he as been manipulated and how much Malta is doing for him.

The threads of the story come together in a final climactic battle. The Satrap is a powerful man but he becomes a pawn in the hands of the pirates as the tide of battle sways back and forth. The relationships shift as Wintrow and Kennit become closer, making Kennit's woman Etta jealous; Vivacia is a wild card, shifting between her dragon identity and her Vestrit memories. Kennit doesn't so much grow as reveal his true self. Wintrow becomes disillusioned with the man he has come to idolize. But the true reveal is the relationship between Captain Kennit and the mad ship Paragon. This secret history proves to be a central driver of the whole series.

My only displeasure with the book is the way characters get lost in thought only to be suddenly brought back by another character's words. Aside from that, the characters do explore their innermost thoughts and feelings. The struggles they feel are personal and social, reaching across their society. The book has the distinction of dealing with existing story lines while introducing fun surprises along the way. None of the surprises seem forced but are integral to the whole story arc. As a whole, the series is one of the best I've read. A

The Amber Spyglass

The Amber Spyglass is the third book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The story is fun and provides a satisfying conclusion to the series. As the book opens, Lyra is being held by her mother in a cave. Mrs. Coulter keeps her asleep, and we learn that she has become attached to Lyra and wants to protect her, in her own way. Will is devastated at the death of his father, but two angels come to his assistance.

The angels provide background to Will and the reader. We learn that the Authority is an angel who has claimed God's name, and Lord Asriel and others have vowed to defeat him and declare a Republic of Heaven. This struggle ties the story to Paradise Lost, Milton's poem about Satan's struggle against God. Like Satan, Asriel and others are fighting arrogance and tyranny. The two angels wish to go to Lord Asriel's mountain stronghold to offer an alliance and information. Will refuses to go, instead insisting on finding and rescuing Lyra. One of the angels goes with him, and with Iorek Byrnison, the armored bear, they rescue Lyra. Will uses the subtle knife, but it breaks when he tries to escape. Fortunately, Iorek is able to repair the knife.

Meanwhile, Mary, the scientist they met in Will's world, comes to a new world where strange intelligent creatures called mulefa live. The mulefa tell her that the substance she knows as Dust has been dwindling and affecting their livelihood. Mary tries to find a solution to the ecological problem. But a priest from the Magisterium (which has rival factions) has entered the world to search for Lyra and prevent her from being tempted according to a prophecy.

The most fascinating person in the story is Mrs. Coulter. Captured by Lord Asriel, her loyalties are uncertain. She claims to love Lyra, then tells the Magisterium that she can't stand the girl and wishes she were never born. She uses her seductive powers to convince Asriel she is on his side, then steals an aircraft to fly it to the Magisterium. But they betray her and steal from her locket some of Lyra's hair to use for a bomb to kill her from far away. There follows a huge battle where Mrs. Coulter tries to stop the bomb from going off. Mrs. Coulter, despite all her devious plans and backstabbing appears to have come to truly love her daughter; whereas Lord Asriel is devoid of any human love and only sees Lyra as a part of his plans.

The central mission in the story is Lyra's desire to go to the land of the dead to visit Roger, the friend she rescued at the end of first book only to see him murdered by Lord Asriel. Using the knife and the golden compass, they find a way to the river that they must cross to reach the land of the dead. However, they must leave their daemons behind (Will learns that he has a daemon he cannot see). Throughout the three books, we have known the daemons as integral part of humans, and here the reader can feel the anguish in Lyra as she realizes what she must do. She must leave part of herself behind, making a betrayal as prophesied, a strong element of pathos.

The story wraps up the mysteries of the series pretty well. We learn about Dust and human history, about how the knife was made and its connection to the Specters. We learn about Lyra's destiny and why she and Will cannot live their lives together, despite falling in love. They must make a sacrifice that will improve their worlds, and all the worlds. Lyra and Will come to accept what they must do, even if it is tinged with sadness. The ending is not spectacular but it is good and satisfying. It brings the elements of the three books to a close. I appreciated how everything started to make more sense. Lyra ends the story with a view to her future, which she hadn't considered before. It is a fitting conclusion. B+

The Dragons of Babel

Michael Swanwick is always an exciting author to read. His stories are exciting and different and he is not afraid to shake things up, even half way through a novel. In The Dragons of Babel, Swanwick takes a fantastic short story and expands the central character into a more interesting protagonist as he explores the wider world.

The main character is Will le Fey, and the opening story is about how a war dragon is shot down and drags itself to Will's village, then proceeds to take control of the population. Through the dragon's powers, it forces the villagers to do its bidding. It selects Will as its lieutenant, inserting its mind into his. Will finds himself trapped, forced to do the dragon's bidding. The villagers turn against him, even though they know that they are all doing what they must to stay alive. Will is even forced to crucify his best friend. Finally Will runs away from the dragon and forces himself to stay away until he breaks the control. With some of the tricks he has learned from the dragon he destroys it, yet a piece of its mind stays in him.

Will is forced to leave the village since nobody there wants to see him anymore. The war drives him, yet he helps a young girl named Esme and they stick together. Esme is an old woman full of luck and made younger, but cursed to forget her past. In a refugee camp they find a friend in Nat, a carefree elf who is a two bit magician and con man. Nat gets them into Babel but they get chased by the authorities due to forged paperwork.

Here the story makes a complete change as Will descends into the underworld of Babel. He must draw on the powers of the dragon to defeat a challenger. He becomes second in command to an elf who wants to create an army of underworlders to rise up and fight for their place in Babel proper. Yet when the final moment comes, the whole army disappears and Will realizes that everything has been an illusion created by the elf.

When Will gets above ground, he finds Nat and Esme and they start a large con. It involves a dubious ring, a fancy party, and rumors of a lost prince's return. However, it appears that while the underworld plot appeared real but was all an illusion, the plot for the throne of Babel appears illusion but may actually be real. The final hectic pages involve chases and intrigues, as well as a large variety of creatures.

Swanwick is very inventive. In addition to the quickly changing plot, the story is filled with fascinating characters. There's the vixen who helps Nat with his cons, the toad who is stuck in a crack but keeps growing and now runs a bar that surrounds her, the lively elf who Will falls in love with, the police elf who keeps chasing after Will. Then there is the voice of Will's best friend that comes back to haunt him, or help him. And of course the dragon is still there, giving him strength but threatening to take over and destroy everything. Will's mission of vengeance against Babel takes a new turn as he comes closer and closer to the power of the city. The story is a growing up tale of a young man but also a story of the city itself, how it lives and projects power, how decadent is has become in the absence of its king. There is a deep mythology and the city feels broader than any of the individual parts. The city has its own life, and Will comes to understand it even as he understand himself. A-

Year's Best Fantasy 9

Year's Best Fantasy 9 was published in 2009, with David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer as the editors. This edition contains some nice fantasy stories.

Marc Laidlaw's "Childrun" is a fantastic tale of a bard finding his way to a strange town. The town gates are closed but the schoolmarm lets him in. All the children have mysteriously disappeared from the town, except for one large infant that the schoolmarm takes care of. The story gets stranger as the townspeople sneak up on the schoolhouse and the bard tries to figure out an escape. The baby changes from weird to sinister.

One of the most striking stories is "The First Editions" by James Stoddard. In this story, the narrator visits a wizard who turns him into a book. The wizard places him on a bookshelf with other books where he gets to know the others who share his fate. The story develops in unexpected ways, surprising the reader. Another gem is Richard Parks' "Skin Deep", about a young woman who inherits from her grandmother the knowledge of the healing arts, as well as a set of skins that she wears to do specific tasks. The skins are not just tools: they affect the wearer and can take strength to control.

Richard Bowes' "If Angels Fight" is a supernatural story about a strong spirit who inhabits the scion of a New England political family. The spirit leaves and the young man dies, but the matriarch asks the narrator to find him again. The story is a little creepy but still somehow moving. Another supernatural story is "The Salting and Canning of Benevolence D.", by Al Michaud. In a lighter vein, it details the haunting of a man after getting a replacement tooth.

The stories range from witches to ghosts, from supernatural to science fantasy. Some are structured differently, like "Reader's Guide" by Lisa Goldstein and "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica" by Catherynne M. Valente. Kim Wilkins' "The Forest" is a modern take on Hansel and Gretel. They are a wide variety of stories, all inventive. The best stories give a new take on life and the experience of being human, like "Skin Deep" and "The First Editions". There is enough action and fantastic places here for a lot of enjoyment. A-

The Sorcerer's House

The Sorcerer's House is a fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe that was released in early 2010. It features many elements familiar to Wolfe's readers: a first person narrator who is somewhat unreliable; mysterious forces that the characters must come to understand; partially human creatures; the faerie world; and at least one temptress.

The novel is a series of letters written by and to Baxter Dunn, or Bax. Bax is recently out of prison for defrauding his twin brother George and is trying to find a way to establish himself in the small town of Medicine Man. He squats in an abandoned home but discovers that he is named the new owner of the home. He is not sure of the fact himself but doesn't want to question is new luck. The house has two salient features: the rooms seem to multiply and he is always finding new parts of the house. Also, there seem to be other squatters or homeless inhabiting some rooms. He runs into a teenage boy named Emlyn in one room who is looking for a device he dropped while running from Bax--the triannulus is a sorcerous device that can help you receive what you ask it for. After Bax returns it he discovers that it works almost too well, when he keeps receiving money. In fact he learns he is also the heir to a valuable plot of land near the river.

The townspeople warn Bax of the mysterious events surrounding the house and its former owner. He is helped by Doris, a real estate agent who falls for him, and a police officer named Kate. He soon discovers a fox who can turn into a woman, a werewolf, an old man who seeks to be his butler, and Emlyn's twin brother. With the revelation that Emlyn has a twin, there is a parallel with Bax and George that begins to color the events. George is a background figure for most of the story but his existence is an influence on all the action, especially as Bax is writing most of his letters to George. While Bax declares that George is the good brother and he is the bad brother, their actions seem to contradict his belief.

As the story progresses, Bax puts together the pieces of who the former owner was (hint: it was a sorcerer) and how he came to be in its possession. Different elements start to come together, though some mysteries are red herrings. The triannulus, which had so much potential turns out not to be used later at all, though the antique car in the garage comes to have significance. The end brings the questions to a satisfying end, though I was a little disappointed at some of the loose ends. And while the epistolary format works quite well for the story, what is lacking is George's point of view. He seems like a caricature, and has a barely credible turnaround in the last pages which is unfortunately not described or explained very well. Even though it is nice to have parts where the reader must read between the lines or furnish some imagination, this could have been developed more. It also would have been nice to read more about the house, though its presence is felt even when the characters are far away. Otherwise the story is a lot of fun, wild but not too dark, full of mysterious characters and places. B+

The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife is the sequel to The Golden Compass, part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In this book, Lyra finds a boy named Will Parry in a world that exists between the worlds they are from. Will shows her how he found a window from his world to the world of Ci'gazze, where Specters attack adults and leave them catatonic while leaving the children to fend for themselves. Will shows Lyra to his own world (more like ours) and she visits the Oxford there in an effort to learn more about Dust, which she learns is called dark matter. She is pleased to find a female scholar studying the subject and she helps her with the research. But Lyra is dismayed when a strange upper class man steal the compass.

But the primary story belongs to Will. Will is a prototypical hero in that he is (something like Lyra in the first book) searching for his missing father. However he lacks the appeal of Lyra to be a driving character. Whereas Lyra is brave, headstrong, and somewhat impulsive, Will is more reserved and careful. This does make them a good team. Part of the conflict is that Lyra can't accept that her mission is to help Will find his father instead of searching for her own. The golden compass tells her as much, but her unwillingness to follow through and instead continue her own search does not prove successful.

Lyra and Will approach the thief of the compass to get it back, and he promises to return it to them if they will retrieve a knife from the world of Ci'gazze that he desires. The knife turns out to be a valuable artifact. Acquiring it provides Will with great power but it also comes at a cost. The children of Ci'gazze become their enemies. The knife is a burden that Will must bear, and using it becomes painful. He uses the knife to cut a window between worlds and retrieve the compass for Lyra. Yet they learn that Lyra's mother is allied with the thief, bringing the evils of the first book into this one.

As the plot unfolds, we learn that there is a man plotting to wage war against the creator god, known as the Authority. Pullman brings in myths about heavenly wars and angels. Most of this is background rather than direct action, though this is fitting for a middle volume of a trilogy. However I was still left a little empty at the end, without seeing Will and Lyra accomplish an important goal. Will's search is satisfied, but only briefly. Lyra is still relegated to the background as Will's helper. Yet overall it is a satisfying story. The tension builds as we learn more about traveling between worlds, the building war against the Authority, Will's father, and the powers of the knife. The story comes together, yet there still enough conflict left for the next book. B

Mad Ship

Mad Ship is the second book in Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy. In this sequel, the Vestrit family's liveship Vivacia comes under the sway of Kennit, the pirate who captured her at the end of the first book. Instead of becoming resentful, Vivacia embraces her new captain. While Kennit and Vivacia come to admire each other, their emotions and memories entwined through the magic of the wizardwood, jealousy grows in Kennit's girlfriend and Wintrow--Vivacia's only family member on board. Though Wintrow is possessive of the ship, he comes to regard Kennit as a strong father figure, ironically with more compassion than his own father chained in a cabin. Wintrow urges Kennit to get rid of his father, and Kennit obliges by imprisoning him on an island. This part of the book is the most intriguing, with the characters growing and their allegiances shifting. Kennit uses his pirate tactics as part of a bigger plan to eliminate the slave trade and make the lives of refugees better, and Vivacia is drawn to him for that. Wintrow still sees him as a murderous pirate, but comes to see him more like Vivacia, partly thanks to the bond they all share.

Meanwhile back at Bingtown, Wintrow's sister Malta starts a journey from being a spoiled girl to a strong woman, much like Althea's transformation in the first book. At first she only wants her father to come home to give her everything that the rest of her family won't. When Althea come home on another liveship, Malta and the Vestrit family are scandalized. Althea agrees to live a more domestic life, but then Brashen comes to give the family the news that their ship has been captured and Malta's father and brother may or may not be alive. This is a wake-up call for Malta. At first she tries to use her feminine charms to convince her old beau to help her, then to convince the Rain Wild Trader man who has been courting her. She comes to realize the depth of the politics involved, and how little others can help her.

The Satrap of Jamaillia, who is nominally the ruler of Bingtown, is convinced by his platonic consort Serilla to visit the town to make peace. Serilla is tired of the Satrap's weakness and venality, and she hopes to escape from him in Bingtown. But on the voyage she discovers that the foreign ships he has escorting them are planning some sort of coup or attack. She manages to get the Satrap into Bingtown and in the care of the traders there, but a riot breaks out and the town is burned, presumably by the foreign forces. Malta's courter Reyn seizes the Satrap and takes him to the Rain Wild city up the river, though Malta is injured in the process.

Reyn has become under the sway of the last dragon in a wooden egg buried under the city. It is the dragon eggs that are the secret source of the wizardwood: the large eggs contain the memories of dragon ancestors, and they store the memories of Liveship families and crew then create an illusion of consciousness in the figurehead out of the memories. However, the serpents that track the ships and eat the bodies thrown overboard are in fact young forms of dragons that have lost their memories and their ability to transform into adults. But at the same time that Malta helps rescue the last dragon from her ancient egg, Wintrow rescues the serpent with memories from its prison.

While the story starts off slow, there is a lot of dramatic tension as the Vestrit family struggles even before discovering the fate of the ship. It is interesting to see Malta grow as her aunt did in the previous book, but even more dramatically. The relationship between Althea and Brashen continues to grow as they take command of the liveship Paragon, which has long been mad. We discover a clue to its madness in its creation: it was manufactured from multiple dragon eggs which must have added too many conflicting memories. There is a lot of interesting politics in Bingtown and between that city and Jamaillia, though the Satrap is not as interesting as he could be due to his weakness. It is good that Serilla is with him to be both stronger and more interesting.

There is a shift in power from the older generation to the younger, as Reyn starts to take some control and Malta takes charge of her life. As the story progresses, different elements start to coalesce to make a satisfying conclusion, as well as a strong hook to the next book in the series. B+

Rides a Dread Legion

Rides a Dread Legion is the first book by Raymond E. Feist I've read. It is the first book in the Demonwar Saga, however I discovered while reading it that it draws heavily on Feist's previous series. There are constant references to characters long dead and battles decades old. While this gives the novel some depth, some of the references feel superfluous and irrelevant.

The Clan of the Seven Stars are a race of elves who are being slaughtered by armies of demons that overwhelm their worlds. They are making a last stand on their last world but have discovered a world through a portal that they believe to be their ancient home. Gulamendis is an elf who is treated as an outcast because he works with demon magic, and others are suspicious that such a magician is the cause of the demon attacks. Gulamendis travels to Elvandar, where he finds a large settlement of elves who stayed on the home world, Midkemia. While awed by the beauty and power he finds there, he knows that his people will see all the other peoples of the home world as subjects for their dominion.

Amirantha is a human magic user in Midkemia who makes a living by conjuring demons and banishing them for a fee. When one of the demons he conjures turns out to be too much for him, he realizes his brother is trying to kill him. He determines to tell someone of authority about this, and ends up on an island of magician school. Pug, the leader of the magicians, is an old man who had been in a big fight with Amirantha's other evil brother. Sandreena, a Knight-Adamant and former lover of Amirantha, arrives on the island to give her testimony about a band of thieves she encountered and the magic users with them who conjured a demon. It is clear that there is an interlacing of histories here, and nearly everyone is tied to everyone else in some way.

While Pug and his son travel through a portal to another world for research, Gulamendis returns to where his people are coming through their portal to make a homestead to retreat to. Tomas, the Warleader of Elvandar, flies a golden dragon to the homestead to make peace overtures to the returning elven people. Meanwhile, Amirantha and Sandreena and some other magicians try to stop Amirantha's brother, but end up caught in an ambush.

The book suffers from a feeling that it is largely exposition and building up to something. The events at the end are a tragedy that strikes the group, but it is clear that this is just the beginning of a larger story. The novel doesn't stand up well as a single story. I know that trilogies are tricky, especially trying to make each installment satisfying as a complete story while building towards something else. This worked very well with the Fire Logic series.

While the history of the world felt complex, otherwise it felt shallow. I didn't get much of a sense of the cultures of the world. The observations of Gulamendis as he enters Elvandar are a strong point. Most of the characters are drawn one dimensionally, with the exception of Sandreena and Gulamendis, and to an extent Amirantha. I wonder if the author was relying too much on a history that he would expect his readers to remember. The book has good potential but it doesn't quite live up to expectations. C+

Farewell to Lankhmar

Farewell to Lankhmar is the last installment of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. The two heroes Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have settled down on Rime Isle with their sweethearts Afreyt and Cif. There is a bit of nostalgia throughout the book as previous adventures and lovers are revisited, and the two heroes become reflective.

The first two stories bring mysterious and supernatural forces against the duo and their friends. The third story brings in their former magical patrons Sheelba and Ningauble to try to bring them back to Lankhmar and glory (Sheelba is turned into a female in this book). The god Loki awakes with a fire for vengeance against the Grey Mouser for vanquishing him. And two high ranking citizens of Lankhmar send assassins against the heroes. The two assassins become shadows of their targets, assuming the names Death of Fafhrd and Death of the Grey Mouser. When the assassins show up, the two heroes (under a curse that accentuates their distance from the world) haplessly lead them around the island until the assassination attempts are foiled. This largely involves a lot of luck and the help of their lady friends.

The final long section, "The Mouser Goes Below," is full of descriptions of previous adventures and characters from earlier stories. It comes across as a recap of the adventurers' lives, except with added commentary. Their past comes to life in the form of a love child for each of them, the backgrounds being revealed slowly and with great timing. The Mouser gets sucked underground where he watches his former Hisvet "discipline" her maidens in a pornographic scene. After being tortured by Death's sister Pain, he comes to and watches the Lord Quarmal give a lesson in treachery to his son. Meanwhile Fafhrd and the others continue to dig in the group for the Mouser. But soon Fafhrd is himself swept away to his past and finds himself floating up to a cloud ship captained by his former lover Frix. These former loves and suddenly appearing offspring provide a bit of comic relief and also dismay to their current lovers.

As a story it is a bit thin and lacking some of the fantastic elements of the first books. However the mixing of past and present provides an interesting contrast between the wild antics of their early years and the quiet businesslike attitude of their "retirement". Leiber even makes a comment about how adventurers in their retirement are often pulled out of it by others. The book is an interesting take on how the past can come back to haunt you or help you. B+

Return to Lankhmar

Return to Lankhmar is Fritz Leiber's third installment in the Lankhmar series. It consists of two previously published books: The Swords of Lankhmar, a short novel, and Swords and Ice Magic, a collection of short stories.

It was refreshing to read a novel-length adventure of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Leiber excels in the short format, and I was a little unsure whether he could pull off a longer story. But The Swords of Lankhmar is an exciting story from end to end. It starts with the two rogues taking a job as guards on a flotilla taking loads of grain in payment to Movarl of the Eight Cities for removing the sea of pirates. The mission is complicated by a young lady named Hisvet and her dark slave girl Frix. Hisvet is transporting twelve white rats as an additional gift to the foreign ruler. In fact, it soon becomes an issue whether there are eleven rats or twelve in the cages, after one of the ships in the flotilla sinks amid a swarm of rats--one of them white. Both Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fall under the sway of the alluring Hisvet. Hisvet's father Hisven arrives to lead the rats to their takeover of the ship, but the rats are foiled by a traveler from another world.

Even after they see the rest of the grain safely transported to its destination, things continue to go wrong. Hisvet and Hisven have hurried back to Lankhmar's ruler Glipkerio with stories of how they saved the ships from the rats. The Gray Mouser has to play a careful game with Glipkerio and Hisvet and the rats. After taking a potion given to him by his magical mentor, he shrinks to rat size and must navigate the rat underworld to figure out what is going on in Lankhmar. After avoiding trouble over and over, he finally is backed into a corner when Fafhrd returns at the last moment to save him. I enjoyed the trouble that the Gray Mouser gets in and out of, and Fafhrd's long trek from the Eight Cities to help him. It's a great adventure with alluring characters in tough situations.

The stories in Swords and Ice Magic start off short and get longer. One of the memorable ones is "Under the Thumbs of the Gods", which has the adventuresome pair encountering a vision with all of their lost loves, courtesy of the gods who feel miffed. The last two stories form a pair. "The Frost Monstreme" provides two women from the Rime Isle who claim that their island is soon to be attacked by the Mingols. They offer gold to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to each bring twelve barbarians or thieves to the island in three months. As the fateful day approaches, the two men sail their ships through a great fog, not realizing that a powerful spirit is plotting evil and conniving to get them to fight each other.

The final story is a "Rime Isle", about the two adventurers' struggle to protect the island against the invading Mingols. But first they have to deal with a town full of folk wary of them, two wayward gods, a vast whirlpool, and the invisible flyers from Stardock. Fafhrd must deal with the women of Stardock when his past comes to haunt him. The Gray Mouser finds himself in the strange situation of being a leader of men, when he's used to being a loner and somewhat of an outcast at that. But he excels in his role, including in a hilarious scene when he blacks out and can't remember what he said in his speech to rally the villagers.

Leiber is playful in his fun plots. He's not afraid to bring in a strange element from outside the story, or sometimes two or three. Finding Odin on Rime Isle is both a pleasant surprise but also just part of the story. And in many ways Loki and the Gray Mouser are two parts of the same element. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second part, though both were fun. B+

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales is an anthology of short stories published in 2003. The stories are somewhat thrilling but of mixed quality. They have elements of alternative history, science fiction, and westerns.

One of the highlights is Elmore Leonard's "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman". The story follows the title character in two episodes: the first when he witnesses a mobster kill a police officer, and then when years later when he sets a trap for the mobster and gets the drop on him. The main character is a tough young man who becomes a capable and crafty lawman.

Another interesting tale is Glen David Gold's "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter". It is about the death of a circus elephant, and the history of one of the clowns that may have been involved with the elephant for years. The story is a tragedy with a strange twist. I enjoyed reading "Catskin" by Kelly Link, even when I realized I had read it once in another anthology. It is a very weird tale of fantasy, in which a murdered witch's cat leads the witch's surviving son on a mission of vengeance. The story is full of transformations and strange powers.

Neil Gaiman's "Closing Time" is a gem of a story, told inside a framing story by someone at an English club. The narrator tells of an eerie old house and the spooky woods, where three boys end up getting lost. It evokes the dark side of childhood, when mysteries are everywhere and dark things are just around the corner. Michael Moorcock's "The Case of the Nazi Canary" is a fun alternate history story concerning Adolph Hitler and the death of his niece in 1931. Another fun tale was Michael Chabon's "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance". It's another alternate history story in a Wild West where Queen Victoria still rules and General Custer is a rebel fighting for freedom. It follows two sons of one of Custer's rebels as they escape and are caught and try to survive in a tough group home.

Some of these stories were fun and imaginative, with interesting historical twists. The characters are strong and well-drawn, within the confines of a short story. But some of the stories fell a little flat. I was a bit disappointed in the stories by Stephen King and Michael Crichton's stories. Other stories were adequate but hardly what I'd call thrilling. They certainly had a fantastic or strange setting but the story didn't quite come together. The stories cover a wide range of settings, moods, and characters. B-

Ship of Magic

Robin Hobb's Ship of Magic is a family drama set in a fantasy world where ships made of wizardwood quicken after three generations and gain sentience. The magic ships can sense their crew and cargo and the winds and the current; they can communicate with their "family" and sail better than an ordinary vessel. The novel is about the liveship Vivacia and the Vestrit family that sails her.

Althea Vestrit is a young woman whose family liveship is close to quickening. When her ailing father dies on the deck of the ship, the figurehead comes to life. Althea and Vivacia have a strong bond thanks to the years that Althea spent on the ship with her father. However Althea's brother-in-law Kyle Haven, who is in charge of the family fortunes, has different plans for the ship. He sees Althea as a spoiled girl who should stay at home and take care of family business instead of doing men's work on a ship. Althea is heartbroken that she cannot be with her ship, and angry at Kyle for keeping them apart. She swears that she will prove herself as a sailor, ending up posing as a ship's boy to get experience and validation in the form of a ship's ticket. This proves to be a big lesson for her. She realizes how easy she had it as the daughter of the ship's captain. She changes from being a spoiled girl to being a wary young woman.

Wintrow Haven is the thirteen-year-old son of Kyle Haven and Althea's sister Keffria. At the start of the story Wintrow is at a monastery. He was sent there against his will four years earlier but has settled well and believes he has found his calling. After coming home to be with his family at the death of his grandfather, his father Kyle forces him to abandon the monastic life and live aboard the Vivacia, who requires a Vestrit to be aboard her. Wintrow is devastated, and Vivacia is distraught at having an unwilling family member aboard her instead of the loving Althea. Wintrow cannot please his cruel and demanding father. He finally adjusts well to the ship (Vivacia is his only friend on board), but decides he must jump ship and try to make his way to his monastery.

Ronica Vestrit is the widow of Ephron Vestrit who finds herself in an awkward position. She is dismayed at Kyle's treatment of her grandson but is powerless to act. Moreover, she must help her daughter Keffria raise Keffria's adolescent daughter Malta. Malta is headstrong and ready for the benefits of being a young woman, but has no understanding of the commitments she is involving herself with. Malta realizes how she can manipulate her father, yet she must live with her mother and grandmother while Kyle is sailing the ship.

Kennit is a pirate captain who has grand designs that include the capture of a liveship. He makes a deal with his first mate Sorcor that they will pursue a slave ship for every liveship they pursue. Kennit becomes a hero to the slaves that they free. And in the Vestrit's home of Bingtown a mad blind liveship sits and waits in solitude with occasional visits from friends and strangers.

This story is about these characters and others. Althea and Wintrow and their family are complex and growing. Even Vivacia is a complex character who changes throughout the story. The story is more dramatic with the constant theme of slavery, which moves from the background to take a central role in the story. Kyle's decision to use the liveship as a slave ship has serious consequences. I hadn't expected such a hard look at the evils of slavery but the story swept me up and kept me involved. The troubles of the Vestrit are engrossing and make for a great story. The story mixes fantasy and ships in a fresh new blend. A-