Rating: 5 out of 5
I’ve been a fan of Janny Wurts for a long time now, but it was with some trepidation I took up an earlier work that predates the Wars of Light and Shadow. I would say that this was misplaced and though in many ways these are different works—the language is much easier for example—they are still very good and the introspection that one expects from a Wurts book is still there.
So, what do we have? A young boy, misled to his darkest desires. A young girl, who believes against all odds. And another young boy, who doesn’t think he’s up for much. In this sense, the cast isn’t very different to a number of other fantasies, but Ms Wurts does more: because the actions of these people are investigated to their deepest core, we find out the depths of the characters’ desire and the strength of their hope. In this vein of course the injustices, felt or real, that are dealt between the characters become an in-depth excursion (incursion?) into the minds of the characters we’re following.
Taen is clearly the sympathetic one (will this change, knowing the author?), but the journeys of Emien and Jaric are by far the more complex. These characters learn, and the reader learns with them, how to achieve their goals. Jaric’s progress is more haphazard—accidental—but by no means is it less compelling. In fact, for me, the quiet passages in a winter’s forest bring out a change all the more remarkable.
I will continue.
