Well worth reading--anxiously awaiting the next volume, January 14, 2009

By J. Sherck (Saltsburg, PA United States)

Here in her first novel, Rule does a number of good things. The heart of much good fiction is its characters, and her characterization is pretty solid. The novel rests on the relationship between Kierce, the reluctant heir to the Lord High Magician of Shehaios, and Caras, heir to the chief of Oreath, a province within Shehaios. Each is strongly drawn with a realism that invites both sympathy for and criticism of each of these characters. Their relationship, from boyhood friends to major players in the politics of the country who seem at times to be working at cross-purposes, is portrayed well. Several other characters are strong, either in and of themselves or as studies of a type, though at times I did find myself wishing for even deeper characterization of some. Nonetheless, the characterization is a strength.

Rule also builds an interesting, complex, and believable world. Shehaios, the Fair Land, is characterized on the back of the book as a "self-sufficient agrarian culture," which is threatened by the Empire of the Sacred Union. The latter is extremely reminiscent of the Roman Empire, but Shehaios itself is more than simply agrarian or self-sufficient, it is--or at least aspires to be--radically egalitarian and largely peaceful. At the novel's start, Shehaios finds itself under attack from renegades on the fringe of the empire, as the "king" of Shehaios brokers a marriage between himself and the Empire that works to bring Imperial troops in to defend Shehaios while maintaining his land's independence and its essential character. These are the essential conflicts that dominate the action of the novel, and without moralizing Rule is able to address interesting issues about the structures, values, and biases of these very different cultures, one of which is hierarchical and war-like while the other is egalitarian and peaceful. How, though, does the latter maintain these qualities in the face of violence? How, too, are ways of thinking and perceiving the world shaped by our social structures?

Beyond these things, Rule tells a good story. She paces the story well, exquisitely balances exposition with action, and makes some unexpected moves. It is, at times, a dark novel, full of difficult-if-not-impossible choices, mistakes, and tragedies, but also of joy, love, and life. I have some small nits to pick here and there, some of which could have been fixed by better editing and some of which may turn out not to be nits at all when the trilogy is all said and done. On the whole, though, I quite enjoyed my first foray into Shehaios and look forward to reading the rest of this series as it comes out.