Jacqueline Carey
Banewreaker
New York : Tor Books, 2004.
I liked Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel trilogy and so I snapped this up the moment I saw it.
Like her first three books, this is a pastiche of common fantasy elements, put together in an unusual mosaic, arranged around plot elements from a romance novel, and then painted with details of b&d. The combination works, at least for me.
What are those elements. There is a family of gods. They quarreled and one was cast out. He is then portrayed as evil, and the peoples of the earth are rallied against him. The novel tells the tale of three of this fallen god's chief servitors, and their actions when it appears that some form of prophecy is about to be fulfilled.
So we have a powerful wizard leading a company of nine on a dark and dangerous quest - including an archer, the last descendent of a line of kings, and a youth carrying a great burden that only he can bear. What makes it interesting is the perspective - the wizard is a manipulating git, the uncrowned king is vain and arrogant (but still heroic), the archer is female, and the burden-carrier is a teenager from a tribe of desert aborigines.
Events progress, tragedies happen, people change and grow, the whole thing is very satisfying. I read this months ago. I just now picked up the second in the trilogy and am looking forward to when it will come to the top of the reading pile.
Posted by Red Ted at August 23, 2005 02:21 PM | TrackBack