Janny Wurts, Stormed Fortress
Nov. 22nd, 2009 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienBook the most recent in an involved series. OK, I went into the other room to check; it's Book 5 (and last) of the Alliance of Light Series, but before that there were three books (starting with "Curse of the Mistwraith") in the "Wars of Light and Shadows" series, and things carry on fairly seamlessly through all eight books. (Seven in the US, I think, but my 2 and 3 were the UK editions, which came out separately.) The series has had a checkered publishing history; the book before this was published (late, with sub-par graphics) by the ill-fated Meisha Merlin, and this one didn't get a US publisher at all.
Wurts's prose has always been idiosyncratic; my usual comment on it as that no noun is left without its duly sanctioned adjective. Or alternatively, that the books would be a great deal shorter if she could confine herself to one adjective per noun. Also, she has a habit of using "if" where most writers would have "though." All that makes the reading go rather slowly, and it seems to have grown denser and more opaque over the years, as well as developing an infestation of random italics.
Lysaer, the self-styled Avatar of Light, and his half-brother Arithon, the Master of Shadow, have been fighting one another, driven by the mistwraith's curse, for what must be decades by now, much to the detriment of the world of Athera and its fragile balance between humanity and the supernatural Paravians who were there first. In this volume it comes to a head when Lysaer lays vicious siege to the coastal fortress of Alestron; a young clanswoman's rash action forces Arithon to come to the citadel's aid, and the meddling Koriani sorceresses only make things worse. There are also dead/undead/ghost dragons involved, at which point things get really confusing. Arithon takes some desperate measures -- and also, finally, gets to spend some quality time with his beloved Elaira -- and finally everything comes to a conclusion that seems to be at least a pausing point in the series, if not the end. (The next volume, first of the next sub-series, is out soon in the UK.)
Wurts's prose has always been idiosyncratic; my usual comment on it as that no noun is left without its duly sanctioned adjective. Or alternatively, that the books would be a great deal shorter if she could confine herself to one adjective per noun. Also, she has a habit of using "if" where most writers would have "though." All that makes the reading go rather slowly, and it seems to have grown denser and more opaque over the years, as well as developing an infestation of random italics.
Lysaer, the self-styled Avatar of Light, and his half-brother Arithon, the Master of Shadow, have been fighting one another, driven by the mistwraith's curse, for what must be decades by now, much to the detriment of the world of Athera and its fragile balance between humanity and the supernatural Paravians who were there first. In this volume it comes to a head when Lysaer lays vicious siege to the coastal fortress of Alestron; a young clanswoman's rash action forces Arithon to come to the citadel's aid, and the meddling Koriani sorceresses only make things worse. There are also dead/undead/ghost dragons involved, at which point things get really confusing. Arithon takes some desperate measures -- and also, finally, gets to spend some quality time with his beloved Elaira -- and finally everything comes to a conclusion that seems to be at least a pausing point in the series, if not the end. (The next volume, first of the next sub-series, is out soon in the UK.)