| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low (at least for this first part, but watch out for the sequels) Violence level: Medium-High Back Cover: “They've survived the end of their universe... But now, nearly three hundred years after the time of Ragnarok—the death battle of the gods—humankind faces a new and potentially fatal trial. The balance between Law and Chaos has long been maintained by the rulers of Bearn, but with the current king dying, a new keeper of neutrality must be found among his heirs. And with an unknown enemy bent on destroying all who stand in line to the throne, King Kohleran has no choice but to decree that anyone with a claim to the crown must take the Test of the Staves. What the testing reveals, however, is the need to carry the search beyond Bearn. But all the king's envoys disappear without a trace, and deciding that desperate times call for desperate actions, a small band forms in secret to seek out the last possible heir. But can the king's granddaughter, a knight in training, an apprentice bard, a young and untested Renshai warrior, and a thief who may as easily prove their betrayer as their friend survive the perils of the wild, and enemies equipped with magical powers in a world long bereft of spell casters? And if any of them actually reach their goal, can they bring the one remaining untested heir back to Bearn alive?” |
The story-line is your basic journey-quest, with a bit of demi-god divine intervention thrown in, which if you have gone back and read the first three books is probably satisfying, since the demi-god in question is the main character of the first trilogy. (Speaking of journey stories, why is it always the small group of preternaturally skilled teenagers who end up going on these quests? It's like one of the rules of fantasy land that if you want people to successfully go somewhere and do something, the most likely to succeed is a bunch of inexperienced youngsters. I'm just saying.)
And the quest does give the young people each a wonderful chance to show off their various skills in things like battles, daring escapes, rescues, and poisonings. It's a good thing they decided to bring the healer-princess along, and especially good that she brought her telepathic cat. Seriously, one of the most useful quest companions in any book is going to be the really intelligent, telepathic cat, and Mior the calico is probably my favorite character in here. She couldn't do much by herself, but in terms of getting the silly humans out of trouble, she's like the swiss army knife of companions. Perhaps it is a nice bit of deus ex machina, but hey, she's cute so we forgive her.
Aside from the obvious story points involved in questing, a lot of the story is also taken up with the personalities of the characters, and the way their beliefs and world-views interact with one another. This particular group managed to team up at least three people with wildly divergent ideas of proper/honorable behavior, and in the course of working together, each of them takes a beating to their perceptions of the world. It's nice to see an author inviting readers to question their own thinking that way. Whether you end up changing your opinion or not, I think it's good to question yourself occasionally.
And finally, aside from the Marvel comic book characters, this is the only place I've ever found Norse mythology used as the foundation of a fantasy novel. I'm sure there are others, but this is the only one I've read. So if you want to get a slightly different perspective on Odin and Loki and Thor, this could be interesting for you. (Although all of those three have already died by the time of this book, you still get to know them by the other gods talking about what happened.)