Something terrifying is happening in Camolen- magic gets warped in random places, destroying anything it touches. A group of prominent wizards goes to investigate- and the only known survivor of the encounter is a palomino horse. What infrastructure the magic world has starts to crumble; at first people don't know anything has happened, then widespread panic begins. Jess and her companions get heavily involved- Carey and the others decide their only chance to find out what happened is to turn the palomino into a person, and question him. Jess is upset by this idea- and only goes along with it because she can help the horse make the transition- finding suddenly that she relates to him far better than she ever did to Carey. She deliberately spends long periods of time in horse form later in the book- in part embittered by her recent human experiences, her trust shaken, her difficulties in understanding the human world exacerbated by current issues. There was a lot in here about how the magic worked, how different factions tried to control it, and even how new innovations and greed suddenly affected the environment in ways that threatened everyone. I found all the ideas very interesting- but getting through the middle of the book was something of a slog. The characters were still not very well drawn for me; the only ones I got a strong sense of were Jess and the palomino man- but in spite of his (unwilling) role in the heightened events, he didn't get a lot of page time which disappointed me. I found that when some of the longstanding characters struggled with loyalties, frustrations and even debilitating injuries I just did not care that much, did not get a real sense of them as people, and read impatiently for the story to get back to Jess and the palomino. Oh well. The ending was pretty good- and left enough intriguing openings for another sequel- if the author ever writes one I'll look for it.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

Another excellent book in the series, starring Dun Lady's Jess, the horse-turned-human. Most of the action takes place in Camelon, the sword and sorcery world. The problem is that magic is suddenly swirling things together, so trees, rocks, animals, and even people suddenly melting into each other, bubbling and swirling, then resolidifying, in small, localized places, and in larger meadows or forest glades. And then nearly the entire Wizard's Council becomes part of one of the mangled magic sections, with only a palamino stallion as witness.

Jess spends more of this book as a mare than she has in the previous books, and her reasons are quite understandable. There is a quest, a puzzle, and in some ways, Jess's coming of age as human and horse. One thing the author does very well is keep the people, and animals, real. A painful injury to Carey in the first book causes him problems in the second and third books. I fell into the world of these books, and immediately bought the following books in the series, and devoured them in a day. Loved it. ( )

I found this to be my least favorite of the three books, but that being said I still found it to be a good read. I disliked that she tore apart the characters that we routed for ,the love we saw bloom and survive in book one ,shattered in sequel at least for most the book. In the end she ties up loose ends and tries to right the wrongs along the plot, but I was left feeling bittersweet about the story that was so moving in the beginning. I will have to see the author rights this in a following book, since there are still so many things left open. ( )

Something or someone is warping the magic of Camelon. Spots of wrongness splotch the landscape; as the distortions grow and spread, nothing is safe from the deadly consequences. With the Wizards Council destroyed, Arlen presumed dead, and the country in disarray, Jaime, Carey, Jess and the rest are left to pick up the pieces. The survival of Camelon rests on their ability to figure out a solution, but their actions may split Jess and Carey forever.

The story hops between characters and locations fairly quickly, and the plot is not only a bit predictable, but the solution seems too easy once the underlying problem is solved. Most of the drama rests with Jess and Carey and Jess's continued struggle to understand human rationalizations. Still, this is a strong follow-up, and it will be interesting to see where Durgin takes Jess and her friends next. ( )

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