Louise Cooper (1952–2009)

In this second volume, Ygorla launches her rein of terror against the land, beginning with the dwelling place of the High Margrave, Summer Isle. The bard Strann has the misfortune to have been called to the island to provide music for the High Margravine's birthday party. He and the ship's company are first beset by a freak storm that damages the ship and forces them to dock, even though they can see through the captain's spylass that the dockside is littered with corpses of soldiers and dock officials, and then they are attacked by the malicious supernatural conjurings that serve Yglora. Dragged before Yglora and forced to witness the slaughter of his fellow captives, Strann draws on his bardic powers to flatter the sorceress' monstrous ego and wins a temporary reprieve, but at the cost of the respect of others and his own self-respect.

Meanwhile, Tirand, High Initiate of the Circle of magicians in the far north is at first disbelieving of his sister Karuth's psychic intuitions that Yglora is a threat, and then when he is forced to accept it by the arrival of supernatural visitants bearing Yglora's demands for capitulation and worship, he is only too eager to believe that the gods of Chaos have broken the pact called Equilibrium, the pact they had won with so much difficulty two generations previously. Tirand enforces a repudiation of the Circle's fealty to Chaos, replacing it with the sole worship of the gods of Order, and is increasingly hostile towards his sister. Unfortunately nearly everyone follows his lead and Karuth is ostracised, and actively threatened by Order itself.

I enjoyed the focus on Strann and his precarious position, and on Karuth's almost equally difficult situation. These are both characters who are sympathetic, although flawed with believable faults. Both have to overcome their own fear to act decisively. There were also cameo appearances by Yandros, chief lord of Chaos and his brother Tarod, who was the hero of the first trilogy. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as book 1, possibly because Yglora is such an insufferable character and Tirand, Karuth's brother, is increasingly annoying but then they are both keeping to their character briefs. So a solid 3 star rating.

… (meer)

So at last the eight book trilogy reaches its final volume. After enjoying vols 4 - 7 (I found 1 - 3 weak and disappointing) I was expecting another interesting read. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and there was a distinct sense of anti-climax.

Indigo and her sentient wolf friend Grimya are returning by ship to Indigo's island homeland where the tragedy which launched her long quest occurred. There is one more demon to defeat before she can be reunited with her beloved, Fenran. But things soon go amiss when the ship is caught in a storm and wrecked. Although they survive, the two friends are separated, Grimya is physically injured and Indigo suffers from amnesia. A sailor aboard the ship, who had nutured hopes that Indigo might come to love him and which she had been too soft-hearted to quell, then tells everyone that he and Indigo are betrothed. Luckily he is not such a sleaze as to take physical advantage, and he has a few qualms of conscience, but Indigo ends up depending on him and rejecting anything that might remind her of her true nature - including Grimya.

Grimya spends a lot of time with the true hero of this book, a witch woman from the forest, called Niahrin. It is she who drives the action and I liked her character and also that of the queen dowager, a tough older woman who has to sometimes use subterfuge to get round the pigheadedness of her son the king. Strange things are happening at the castle where they live, which seems haunted by hostile presences, and these presences are tied up with Indigo.

I wasn't expecting everything to be happy ever after with Indigo becoming queen, although she has more right to the throne than the existing family, being the sole survivor of the previous royal line, the present monarchy having been created by appointment when it seemed the first had died out due to a plague. (For some reason, never explained, everyone in the islands recalls the unleashing of the demons by Indigo's arrogant meddling, and the subsequent bloodbath as a deadly plague.) I wouldn't have minded if she had overcome the final demon, and perhaps been reunited with Fenran or not - a nice twist would have been that she had matured due to her experiences and found she had outgrown him. She and Grimya could have ridden off into the sunset and I would've been content.

But instead there is a really weird twist that Fenran is the final demon which doesn't make sense because the person it revolves around existed before Anghara/Indigo ever unleashed the demons in book 1. Not only that, but Indigo reverts to the really annoying person she used to be, especially in the first three volumes, where she never believes Grimya and does stupid things because of it - so I found it hard to accept the description of her as a mature individual who had learned from her quest - and in this book she does exactly the same thing again. Not only that, but she behaves like a lovestruck teen as if none of her previous growth had ever happened. And considering Grimya's previous injuries, I found it difficult to square the fact that she had been hobbling around with her feats of endurance towards the end of the story. So I would have liked a different plotline. I also see why a happy ending was reserved for Niahrin -I liked her too - but in my book that could have involved her and Grimya teaming up. Goodness knows Grimya deserved better!

For these reasons, making a weak ending to an enjoyable series, I can only award the book 3 stars.… (meer)

In this final volume, Ygorla is building her plans towards the domination of the realm of Chaos, having conquered the human dimension. Her arrogance and pride start to drive a wedge between herself and her demonic father. Meanwhile, Strann is continuing his undercover role, working for Chaos while continuing to pose as her abject slave. And for the reader it becomes clear that the gods of Order have their own agenda, which involves the manipulation of Calvi who has now become Ygorla's lover and a thoroughly unpleasant character.

The stakes become increasingly high as the story nears its culmination, and the resolution is completely satisfying. It was nice also to have Tarod, Yandros and Cyllan back from the Time Master trilogy. I really enjoyed the book, and the only reason I didn't read it more quickly is that I was also reading another book which I found a slog, but felt I should finish before this one. I would otherwise have stormed through this, and in fact finished it on the same day that I finally got through the other one. Hence I am awarding this a full 5 stars… (meer)

This is book 1 of a trilogy which follows on from the original trilogy about the conflict between Chaos and Order, and which told the story of Tarod, who was one of the Chaos gods in human form. At the end of book 3 of that trilogy, a hard-won Equilibrium was achieved in which Order had to concede a place in the human world to Chaos. They now share the day/night hours between them. As part of the agreement, neither can intefere in human affairs unless a direct appeal is made.

Some years have passed when the current story starts, and life has settled down to a comfortable and prosperous one for the people of the various provinces. Yet there is a glimmer of trouble when the dying Head Initiate at the magicians' castle, who held the post at the time of the first trilogy and was a sometime friend and later enemy of Tarod, indicates that the birth of a child to a visitor is an omen of something sinister. He soon dies and the problem is forgotten, by all except Karuth, serious minded daughter of the new Head Initiate, and possessed of an uncertain psychic ability as well as being a trained mage and physician.

The baby is adopted by her great-aunt, the head of the Sisterhood Cot, one of the triumvirate of leaders (along with the High Initiate and the High Margravine, the political leader, who lives on Summer Isle), and all seems well apart from the growing girl's headstrong, willful character until at her fourteen birthday party an event occurs which triggers off eventual disaster.

The story is possibly a bit drawn out until it becomes clear just who Jglora's father was and what his plans are for her and humanity, and for the gods of Chaos. However, I did like the character building which is natural and believable. Certain characters are very sympathetic and it is therefore a jar when tragedy strikes them. The growing disagreement and distrust between Karuth and her younger brother, who becomes High Initiate too early when their father dies suddenly is also believable, with the young man following the same rigid and hidebound outlook of those who have preceded him in the post.

(Minor note - gorgeous cover but wasn't sure if that was supposed to be the anti-heroine or Karuth - Karuth does invoke a fire elemental at one point but she is seated at a table, uses a crucible not being silly enough to hold it in a cup, and she certainly isn't wearing gorgeous clothing like that - not her style!)

I rate this at 4 stars and look forward to reading the next book in the series.… (meer)