Elizabeth Bear's Running a Giveaway!

Elizabeth Bear is giving away two ARCs of The White City on her blog. Simply leave a comment amusing enough to make her want to give it to you and you could get a hold of a copy of this novella, which is being published by Subterranean Press in December. She is accepting entries until August 11.

I'm not going to enter because I think this sounds like a good one to have as a signed limited edition. It's Elizabeth Bear! And Subterranean Press! And the description makes it sound really, really good:

For centuries, the White City has graced the banks of the Moskva River. But in the early years of a twentieth century not quite analogous to our own, a creature even more ancient than Moscow's fortress heart has entered its medieval walls.

In the wake of political success and personal loss, the immortal detective Don Sebastien de Ulloa has come to Moscow to choose his path amid the embers of war between England and her American colonies. Accompanied by his court--the forensic sorcerer Lady Abigail Irene and the authoress Phoebe Smith--he seeks nothing but healing and rest.

But Moscow is both jeweled and corrupt, and when you are old there is no place free of ghosts, and Sebastien is far from the most ancient thing in Russia...

Elizabeth Bear Interview

Thanks to Joe from Adventures in Reading, I came across this interview with Elizabeth Bear over at tor.com. She's one of my favorite authors and I thought this was a great interview covering topics such as her books and what she's working on, how her background influences her writing, her author inspirations and diversity in speculative fiction. Reading this did make me sad that I still have a couple of books that I haven't read by her (as well as a few books by her that are missing from my collection).

Review of By the Mountain Bound

	By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear 320pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 9/10 Amazon Rating: 5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4/5 Goodreads Rating: 2/5

By the Mountain Bound is the second book in The Edda of Burdens series by Elizabeth Bear even though it is actually a prequel to the first book, All the Wind-wracked Stars (review). The series is based on Norse mythology and the first novel began with the end of the world. By the Mountain Bound fills in the backstory leading up to this cataclysmic event. The third book, The Sea thy Mistress, is scheduled for release in October 2010.

For over 500 years, the Children of the Light (other than the outcast Mingan, the Wolf) have lived together in Valdygard where they follow their leader Strifbjorn. In spite of his status with the other Children, Strifbjorn is rather fond of Mingan, who does visit Valdygard for major events including the wedding that the historian Muire recalls as the beginning of the end. For after the wedding, Strifbjorn found what appeared to be a nearly dead mortal woman washed up on the shore. However, it soon becomes apparent that she is no mortal as the woman defeats warriors with an uncanny strength. She claims to be the Lady they have been waiting for, and the Children of the Light are then divided, leading to the events the previous novel began with.

---

The narrative in By the Mountain Bound is divided among three perspectives: that of the Wolf, Mingan; the Historian, Muire; and the Warrior, Strifbjorn. Mingan and Muire's parts are both told in the first person, but Strifbjorn's sections are told in the third person. This seems fitting as Mingan and Muire both seem to be more central characters, particularly Mingan who was the most prominent one of the three and my favorite to read about (although Muire was a close second).

Bear is not easy on her characters and all three have it pretty rough, especially Mingan. Mingan is feared by all the einherjar and valkyrie with the exception of Strifbjorn. When he shows up at the wedding, Muire ends up having to serve him because nobody else will go near him, and even she runs away once she has given him his drink. It's hard not to feel sorry for Mingan when reading the parts told from his perspective. Although she is not an outcast, Muire does not seem to quite fit in with the other valkyries since she is more of a scholar than a warrior. Like most of the valkyries, Muire is in love with Strifbjorn, who is not particularly keen on choosing a wife even though he is expected to. Of course, those who have read All the Wind-wracked Stars know that it will only get worse for Muire at the end. Strifbjorn may seem to have it pretty good as a leader loved by his people, but even he is haunted by expectations and past mistakes.

The pacing is somewhat slow since there is a lot of time spent on the world and characters. It's one of those books in which one is thrust right into the story and may feel a little lost at first. There's a rare subtlety, and personally I love the fact that Bear treats her readers like they are intelligent people who do not need everything spelled out for them (and as you read more, it becomes much clearer). After reading this novel, I suspect that I'd get more from a reread of All the Wind-wracked Stars, which is another reason I love not being told all the details about everything right up front. All the layers make it far more interesting and a better candidate for reading multiple times.

The language and writing are lovely - it's not dense but it is still descriptive and packed with emotion. Bear did post some excerpts from the beginning on her blog so I'd suggest anyone who is interested check those out:

• Part One: The Wolf
• Part Two: The Historian
• Part Three: The Warrior

By the Mountain Bound is one of those books that appeals to me since it has so many of my favorite story elements - the basis in mythology, the broken characters, the beautiful writing, and the subtlety and layers. It was even more enjoyable than All the Wind-wracked Stars or even any of the other novels I've read by Elizabeth Bear, and learning about the events leading up to the previous volume added new depth to it.

9/10

Where I got my reading copy: I received a copy from the publisher.

Other Reviews:

• Adventures in Reading
  
• Graeme's Fantasy Book Review (where there is also a giveaway for this book running until November 29)

Monette and Bear to Write Sequels to A Companion to Wolves

Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette have sold two sequels to their wonderful novel A Companion to Wolves! I actually had missed that piece of news until I read a review of the book over at Adventures in Reading today. According to the post on Bear's Livejournal, the next two books are tentatively named An Apprentice of Elves and A Reckoning of Men. Since I loved the first book, I cannot wait to read the rest and am thrilled that they finally decided to write more (since Bear's site has said a sequel or two was possible for a while).

Review of All the Windwracked Stars

	All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear 368pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 8/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4/5 Goodreads Rating: 4/5

Elizabeth Bear's latest novel, All the Windwracked Stars, is the first book in The Edda of Burdens trilogy. As a big fan of her Promethean Age series as well as A Companion to Wolves (co-written with Sarah Monette), I was very much looking forward to this book. While I did not enjoy it quite as much as the other novels, it was still very good with a fantastic backstory steeped in Norse mythology.

The tale begins with the end of the world. The dead bodies of the children of the Light are buried under the falling snow - all except for the smallest one, the historian and poet Muire, who ran away instead of facing her fate with her sisters and brothers. Muire returns after the battle, where is she is found by the badly injured Kasimir, the last remaining valraven whose Valkyrie rider is among the fallen. The two keep each other alive throughout the night, and the next morning Kasimir chooses Muire as his new rider, despite her protests that she is unworthy because of her cowardice. However, Muire leaves him once he is healed, fearing the changes he underwent as he was forged into a metallic steed of war in preparation for the world to come.

Approximately 2300 years pass and the world is decaying once again. Two hundred years before, a mere two cities remained and now the final city is beginning to ebb, kept alive only by the efforts of the Technomage. Muire has survived throughout the years and now resides in this last city, Eiledon. One night she encounters a dying man and chooses him, which gives her some of his memories and a desire to avenge him. In doing so, she realizes that one of the tarnished children of the Light still walks the earth in these final days and determines to find this ancient enemy.

---

All the Windwracked Stars is one of those books that is not clearly science fiction or fantasy but some of both, although it felt more like a fantasy book to me. The setting is in a future more technically advanced than ours and when the second chapter mentioned humans using their science to destroy themselves, I expected it to have more emphasis on the destruction of the world by its residents than it actually did. There was more emphasis on the mythological elements and magic and the book reminded me very much of a fairy tale with its lyrical prose and the complete immersion in a fantastic world that is not entirely our own. Magic occurs all the time but it just seems to fit and is shown instead of being over-explained.

As with A Companion to Wolves, which also was based on Norse mythology, a lot of difficult to pronounce Nordic words are thrown around without a lot of explanation on their meaning, if any. Personally, I enjoy this style and find looking up details on the background of the various terms to be a part of the fun of reading a book by Bear, but some readers may find it jarring to encounter expressions such as "waelcyrge" and "einherjar" regularly. Usually there is enough context to get the general idea, though.

All the Windwracked Stars is not a light, mindless read, although it is not a particularly difficult book, either. It does require some attention since it is not as straightforward as many novels and does not always spell everything out (and contains a lot of unfamiliar terms, as mentioned previously). I suspect this is another one that would still be interesting to reread and that I'd catch many subtleties that I missed the first time around.

The characters are good but not great, which is mainly why I did not enjoy this book as much as the other books I have read by Bear. Reflecting on it, I liked all the characters - just not as much as some of the ones in her other books (even though the characters in A Companion to Wolves other than the main character and his wolf were not well drawn, I very much enjoyed those two). Kasimir, the valraven, was my favorite. His rejection by Muire immediately after the death of his previous rider made me feel badly for him, especially since he chose to serve her and did it so gladly. Muire's yearning for redemption was interesting and I did enjoy reading about her. There were a couple of other characters who had their own chapters but fewer of them than Muire, a gigolo and a cat-person in the service of the Technomage. The animal-people in general were fun to read about and the Technomage's view of their obedience or disobedience - that, as their creator, it was her own failing if they displeased her.

The writing is gorgeous and the opening lines really drew me in to the story. Actually, the entire first chapter had this wonderful cataclysmic yet melancholy feel to it when it described the end of the world and Muire and Kasimir's survival. The next two or three chapters, which took place far in the future, had a different tone completely and did not keep my attention quite as well. However, after that, I could hardly put the book down.

All the Windwracked Stars is not the strongest book by Elizabeth Bear, but it is still a very good story. I definitely look forward to reading the rest of the series.

8/10

Excerpts:

• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three

Other Reviews:

• Adventures in Reading
• Blood of the Muse
• Book Spot Central

All the Windwracked Stars - First 3 Chapters Online

Elizabeth Bear's latest novel and the first book in The Edda of Burdens series, All the Windwracked Stars, comes out tomorrow. This is her first hardcover novel other than A Companion to Wolves, co-written with Sarah Monette (which I think is fantastic since all her books I've read so far are ones I'd want in hardcover). Chapter One is available here and the next two chapters are linked from the bottom of the page. Happy reading!

Review of The Stratford Man: Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth

	Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear 448pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8.5/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.86/5 Goodreads Rating: 3.85/5

"The Stratford Man" is the title of the two newest books in Elizabeth Bear's "Promethean Age" series, Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth. These two novels were supposed to be one book, but the finished story was too long for that and had to be split into two. Although there are two previous books in the Promethean Age series (Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water), these take place after the newer two books and can be read either before or after as long as the first book in each duology is read before its sequel. I would recommend that readers interested in history and literature, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Elizabethan times begin with Ink and Steel and those who enjoy mythology or stories taking place in modern settings begin with Blood and Iron. "The Stratford Man" duology is the more polished, stronger set although I personally enjoyed Blood and Iron the most of any of the books in this series.

Ink and Steel begins with the death of Kit Marley, who was murdered for his service to Queen Elizabeth as a member of the Prometheus Club. Soon after he is killed, his roommate and fellow writer Will Shakespeare is tested for his allegiance to the queen and found worthy of succeeding Kit by writing magical plays to inspire loyalty toward her. Will is taken to meet the rest of the Prometheus Club and discovers that Francis Walsingham, believed dead for 3 years is still alive and part of the order. With the knowledge of his predecessor's fate, Will reluctantly agrees to write plays for them due to his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth.

Meanwhile, Kit awakens in Faerie where he has been saved by the Faerie Queen as a favor to Elizabeth. He is knighted by Morgan le Fey, who tended his wounds and gave him a drink - meaning he can not return the mortal world permanently. Kit now must trade his fealty to Queen Elizabeth to the Mebd, the queen of Faerie. However, in a world in which "All stories are true" the two faerie queens represent each other and supporting the reign of one strengthens the reign of the other. Kit returns to the mortal world when he can, reveals himself to the rest of the Prometheus Club, and remains influential in politics in both realms.

---

	Hell and Earth by Elizabeth Bear 432pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8.75/10 Amazon Rating: 5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.85/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.21/5

"The Stratford Man" is split up into five acts with each act containing a number of scenes. Ink and Steel contains the first three acts and Hell and Earth contains the latter two. Each section has a quote from Shakespeare's plays or sonnets or Marlowe's plays.

As can be expected from Elizabeth Bear, the prose is exquisite and descriptive without being verbose. The dialogue is often clever and speech is written in a way that feels like Olde English without being authentic (and is therefore not as difficult to parse). A few words that were not modern day English were included but there was normally enough context to guess what they meant. The other Promethean Age books also have a rich vocabulary and part of the fun in reading them is looking up the words or references I don't know or would like to know more about.

Although the afterword says that these books are not historically accurate, there are plenty of characters from the time period and Bear ties several theories about the life of Christopher Marlowe into the tale, such as speculation that his death was faked, he was an atheist, a spy for the queen, a homosexual, and a magician. The story also embellishes on real events, such as Marlowe's near failure to be allowed to graduate for possibly attending a Catholic college until it is revealed that he was performing a service for his country.

These two books were tighter and more mature than the two previous "Promethean Age" novels. I enjoyed the characters, mythological references, dark feel, and prose in Blood and Iron immensely, but felt that Whiskey and Water was weaker, particularly in the vast number of characters that had spotlight. As in the first book in the series, these two contain a vast number of characters including many Englishman from the time and well-known legends such as Morgan le Fey, Puck, and Lucifer. However, the main focus is on the two characters of Kit Marley and Will Shakespeare, which made for a much better story. Both of them are well-developed characters one can identify with and care about and their dilemmas are truly tragic.

"The Stratford Man" duology is not a light read but is an immensely satisfying one with rich prose, deep characters, political maneuvering, and lots of imagination. I hope the rest of the planned books in this series are eventually written and published.

8.75/10

Excerpts from Ink and Steel:
Prologue
Act I Scene I
Act I Scene II
Act I Scene III

Reviews of other books in this series:
Blood and Iron
Whiskey and Water

Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age Novels

The other day I was browsing Elizabeth Bear's website and found out that she plans to write at least a dozen "Promethean Age" novels. When I heard there were two books out and two more coming out this year, I figured that would be the end of the series. However, Bear would like to write a large number of novels that are either stand-alones or duologies that take place during various time periods within this setting. So far, I am loving this complex series with its vast blend of references to mythology, literature, and history, and I would really like to see the rest of these books published.

The first set of "Promethean Age" novels is comprised of Blood and Iron (review) and Whiskey and Water (review). These recount tensions between our world and the Faerie realm in 1997 and 2004.

Ink and Steel, the first book in "The Stratford Man" duology, came out last month and the next book Hell and Earth is out tomorrow (supposedly - I actually saw it in my local Borders today). The most recent pair of novels focuses on Elizabethan England and sounds as though it tells more of Christopher Marlowe's story that we're given brief glimpses of in Whiskey and Water. I'm looking forward to reading these two.

Information on the series including the first three chapters of Blood and Iron and Ink and Steel can be found here.

Review of Whiskey and Water

	Whiskey and Water by Elizabeth Bear 448pp (Trade Paperback) My Rating: 8/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 3.89/5 Good Reads Rating: 3.82/5

Whiskey and Water is the second book in Elizabeth Bear's urban fantasy series "The Promethean Age." It takes place a few years after the end of Blood and Iron, the first book in the series, which should be read before this one. The next two books in the series, Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth (to be released in just a few days on August 5) form the "Stratford Man" duology, which are prequels to the first two books set during the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Blood and Iron was fantastic, a dark fantasy containing many references to mythology, and I had hopes that the following book would be even better since the title promised more of my favorite character, the water horse Whiskey. While the (already lovely) writing had improved, I felt that the story told in Whiskey and Water was not as good as the one told in the first book and that was too much focus on a wide variety of characters instead of a few select ones.

Seven years after the war between the fae and the mages of the Promethean Club, Elaine Andraste still sits upon the painful Seelie throne and the mage Matthew has appointed himself as a protector of New York City. On Halloween night, Matthew patrols the city and finds the mangled body of a young woman that looks much like the body of a man Matthew once saw after he was attacked by Elaine's demon when she was a seeker for the previous Seelie Queen. Matthew determines to find out why this happened before his former mentor the archmage Jane can begin another war against the fae like the one that destroyed Matthew's life and ended the lives of most of the other Promethean mages. He and the dead woman's friends, a young Otherkin woman who calls herself Jules and a young man with potential to be a mage named Geoff, meet with the merlin and embark on a journey to Faerie.

The former Promethean mage Christopher Marlowe decides to leave hell to seek revenge upon Jane for the death of Murchaud, the duke of hell who was Marlowe's lover. First he visits Faerie so he can pay his respects to Murchaud by laying some flowers upon his grave. There he meets Whiskey, who is still carrying the burden of Elaine's soul so she can sit upon the Seelie throne without dying, and becomes entangled in the affairs of the fae.

---

Bear's prose is exquisite, detailed, beautiful, and just plain impressive. She uses a very lush, rich vocabulary to paint a vivid picture. The wide variety of rare words means I did have to look a few words up in the dictionary (most of them probably could be skipped without losing a lot of general knowledge of the story but I really wanted to know what they meant). Her dialogue is also wonderful and I particularly loved the discourse between Geoff and Matthew in which Matthew informed Geoff that all the fairy tales he had read had gotten it wrong when the happy children returned home after their adventures to Narnia or Oz:

Books are lies. All books are lies, but the books that say you can walk out of Faerie unscathed are more so. It's not that you come back and not a moment has passed -- it's that you're gone a moment, and fifteen years have gone, and everyone you loved has forgotten you.

Only Peter Pan has ever told the truth, according to Matthew:

You can't have it all; you have to choose. The iron world, or Faerie. You can't have both, and once you visit one, you can't return untouched.

It's not your Disney fairy tale with happy singing creatures where everyone lives happily ever after.

As in the first book in this series, many mythologies play a role in the story in which it is often stated that "All stories are true." Heaven and hell are introduced with the roles of the archangel Michael as well as Marlowe's beautiful, smooth Lucifer and Milton's more brutish Satan. The legends of the British isles are still present along with some inclusion of Australian folklore with the character of the bunyip. Yet Bear still takes these elements and makes them her own, giving each character a distinct presence and some have their own twists, such as the archangel Michael being female.

There is so much packed into this book that it would be helpful to reread it to tie all the threads together. The first book had many characters but the story still focused on Elaine and, to a lesser extent, Matthew. While the earlier book was more Elaine's story, the sequel feels more like Matthew's story although it introduces so many new characters and perspectives that it loses that feeling of having just a main character or two. I felt that made this book weaker in spite of its stronger prose since it made it harder to grow attached to the characters. Elaine is still (rarely) present, but the story now includes the viewpoints of Matthew, Marlowe, Whiskey, a cop named Don, Jules and Geoff, Carel, a goth girl named Lily, the various devils, and various pagans who meet with the merlin's girlfriend Autumn. Matthew and Marlowe interested me and I loved all things fae, but I did find myself a bit bored with Jules, Geoff, Lily, and all the pagan/goth/Otherkin characters in general. I missed Elaine's point of view and the scenes with her and Whiskey that were so well done in the first book were few and far between. However, I did love some of the scenes with Lucifer and Satan, Matthew and Marlowe so there are certainly still interesting characters and conversations.

If you like dark, complex tales incorporating mythological and literary concepts and enjoyed the first book in this series, I'd recommend continuing with Whiskey and Water in spite of a few problems with too many central characters for one story of this length.

8/10

Reviews of other books in this series:
Blood and Iron

Review of A Companion to Wolves

	A Companion to Wolves by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette 304pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 8/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.24/5 Good Reads Rating: 3.51/5

A Companion to Wolves is a stand alone collaboration by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. Sarah Monette's "The Doctrine of Labyrinth" series is currently my favorite book discovery of this year, and Elizabeth Bear's dark mythological tale of faerie, Blood and Iron, was also excellent so I was very much looking forward to this book. Although I did not enjoy it quite as much as either of these separate works, this tale steeped in Norse mythology still had me riveted and turning the pages.

As the oldest son of a jarl, Njall is to become jarl himself one day. This changes when a man and his wolf come to visit Njall's father to ask for his oldest son to join the wolfheall, a society of warriors and wolves bonded to each other to better protect the people from trolls and wyverns. Due to the homosexual practices of the men within the wolfheall, Njall's father refuses to give his son as a tithe, even though the wolfheall needs young men around Njall's age to train and there are not many fit lads in the village of the right age. Fascinated by the wolf and aware that it is his duty to defend the people, Njall agrees to join the wolfheall even though he is frightened by the stories he has heard. Njall's father tells him he is sixteen now so it is his decision but tries to persuade him to stay.

Njall travels to the wolfheall where he and a few other boys begin to train. Once the new litter of wolf pups is born, the young men must begin to get to know the pups and let them each choose one of them to bond with. It soon becomes apparent that Njall will be chosen by Viradechtis, who will one day be konigenwolf (queen wolf) of her own pack. As a konigenwolf, Viradechtis will be choosing her mate and Njall's partner, who will be her mate's companion. Njall finds this idea unpleasant, but he is very attached to Viradechtis and joins the wolfheall as Isolfr (each man changes his name when bonded). Since it is obvious that Viradechtis will one day be queen wolf, many attempt to win the favor of Isolfr and his wolf. Meanwhile, the troll threat increases and the wolfheall is very busy battling the creatures.

---

Even though A Companion to Wolves was written by two authors, it reads as though written by one. It keeps the same voice throughout the story and the writing flows well.

The story is told from the third person perspective of Isolfr, who is an interesting character. His tale is a coming of age story, as he learns about it means to be dutiful and to believe in his own point of view instead of what his father has taught him. Isolfr has to discover for himself what his own perspective of the world is and what it means to be a man or woman in the patriarchal society in which he lives. Minor characters are not fleshed out nearly as well as the main character, but the strength of Isolfr and Viradechtis, whose flashes of thought are often amusing, make up for this.

The society and politics of the wolfheall are also an intriguing aspect of the story. The animal companions in this story are not cute little pets - the wolves truly control rule within the wolfheall and the humans mainly follow the lead of their sister or brother wolf. The dominant trellwolf female chooses the male who will lead with her and determines both human leaders by deciding who to bond with and selecting the person bonded to her new mate. It can be a rough society; it's not all happiness and fun. When a female wolf is in heat, life in the wolfheall can get particularly brutal as the male wolves fight for the female. There are some rather intense sex scenes as a result (between the humans in addition to the wolves since the human companions to the wolves copy their companions, Pern-style), so those who are offended by sexual content that is not watered down should not read this book.

The one complaint I have about this book is that the names can be very confusing. Partway through the book, many of the character's names change once they join the wolfheall and these names all have some variation of 'olfr' or 'ulf' in them. It can get hard to keep track of the minor characters since many of their names are similar and their personalities are not terribly unique to begin with.

A Companion to Wolves is an engrossing animal companion story about growing up and becoming your own person that manages to avoid many of the common fantasy tropes about animal companions.

8/10

Other reviews (which were influential in my choice to read this one):

• Fantasy Book Critic
• OF Blog

Review of Blood and Iron

	Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear 448pp (Paperback) My Rating: 8.75/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.05/5 Good Reads Rating: 3.63/5

Blood and Iron is the first book in Campbell award winning author Elizabeth Bear's urban fantasy series, "The Promethean Age." The third book in the series will be out on July 1 and a fourth book is scheduled for release on August 5 of this year. With its lush prose, gray characters, and interweaving of mythology, Blood and Iron was a very enchanting story with enough complexity that a reread would be beneficial.

Unknown to most, the world of Faerie co-exists with the modern world. However, there are some mages with knowledge of this other world who have formed the Prometheus Club for the purpose of eradicating it. When the story begins, the mage Matthew feels the presence of a faerie and chases after her to find it is the Seeker of one of the two faerie queens, who is bound to serve her queen by bringing her half-faerie children. He witnesses Seeker's binding of an ancient powerful water horse intent on capturing the same girl the faerie servant is after - a feat that should have been beyond her abilities. Matthew manages to give Seeker his contact card before she rushes back to her realm but he knows she is forbidden to use it and couldn't even if she wanted to.

Once Seeker returns to faerie, the queen informs her that a new merlin, a being that does not just practice magic but is pure magic, exists and charges her with convincing this merlin to join their side in the war against the humans. Seeker goes to find this man, who to her great surprise, turns out to be the first female merlin in history. Soon she and Matthew are both vying for the merlin's trust as they both attempt to get her to see the sense of joining their respective groups.

---

I don't want to say too much about the plot other than what is revealed in the first three or four chapters since this is one of those books where part of the fun is figuring out all the connections. Bear throws you right into the story and how everything fits together is not immediately apparent. It is more subtle than a lot of fantasy novels and readers will need to pay attention to understand it - the author doesn't always come right out and spell it out for you. There are a lot of references to various mythologies of the British Isles in this book and the legends of Tam Lin and King Arthur are both prominent. Minor characters include King Arthur, Morgan La Fey, and Puck, and some historical figures have significance to the story as well. Although I knew quite a few of the references in this book, I still feel like I was missing a lot of them. It's one of those books that would probably come together better on a reread.

The characters in this book were realistic (well, as much as magic users and faeries can be). By realistic, I mean that they were neither good nor bad, although many of the character's actions are decidedly worse than what most of us would encounter in every day life. The Prometheans had an understandable motivation for their hatred of faerie and many of the faeries were doing what they did not through evil but because it was necessary for survival. Both sides committed horrific acts but both of these groups also had a reason for what they did. I loved the characters, though, especially that of Whiskey, the water horse.

This is a dark fantasy - hard choices are made and it's not a happy Disney story where everything works out for the best in the end. It's more along the lines of the original Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.

There is one part of this book which is a little jarring - at one point the point of view switches from third person to first person rather suddenly. It makes sense somewhat in context of the event, but it is a bit confusing since it's a few paragraphs from the end of a chapter. It also does take a little bit of time to really get involved in the story since it is not clear from the start exactly what is happening, but once it gets going, it is hard to put down.

For anyone who enjoys dark fairy tales, mythology, and books that slowly reveal connections between characters and events, I highly recommend this book. Once I get the sequels, they are immediately going to the top of my to-read pile.

8.75/10