| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low Violence level: Medium Back Cover: “The mysterious reappearance of magery throughout the land has been met with suspicion, fear, and violence. In the kingdom of Lyonya, Kieri, the half-elven, half-human king, struggles to balance the competing demands of his heritage while fighting a deadly threat to his rule: evil elves linked in some way to the rebirth of magic. Meanwhile, in the neighboring kingdom of Tsaia, a set of ancient artifacts recovered by the former mercenary Dorrin Verrakai may hold the answer to the riddle of magery's return. Thus Dorrin embarks on a dangerous quest to return these relics of a bygone age to their all-but-mythical place of origin. What she encounters there will change her in unimaginable ways—and spell doom or salvation for the entire world.” |
Nonetheless, even with that understanding, I'm bound to admit that the whole thing feels slightly rushed and unfinished. It feels like the author was under some kind of time crunch, and perhaps didn't have as much interest in the story as she had when she started. For a book that was supposed to finish up the series, she certainly left quite a lot hanging, anyway. I'd call that especially true for two characters—Arvid and Camwyn. The others all seem to be more or less well in hand. Tsaia and her king are both coming to grips with the issue of magery (although there's one hint of something that might change that if anyone finds out), Fintha seems to have settled down and learned the lesson Gird wanted for them in the first place, Luap's sleeping mages are awake and settled in Lyonya, and the Lyonyan succession is secure. Kieri even faces up to his childhood tormentor and wins. (A little too easily, if you ask me. That's one of the dangers of making a character so very powerful. Same problem, incidentally, with the fate of Alured the Black.) All these are generally satisfying conclusions, but I can't help feeling that Arvid still has a really interesting destiny waiting for him, more than has happened yet. And Camwyn doesn't really have any sort of conclusion at all, just a hint at what he'll end up doing with his life. While I would be happy to think that this means Elizabeth Moon will be writing more books set in this world (there's enough material here for two or three separate trilogies about the various characters— I vote for Camwyn, Arvid, and Dorrin), I suspect this is as much as we're going to get.
I wonder if she'd let me write it for her, if I ask.