Sea Dragon Heir (Chronicles of Magravandias) Book

The lords of Caladore were once in contact with powerful elemental forces--the dragons of the sea; conquered by fire worshippers, they are forced to renounce those powers forever. Yet their women keep the faith in secret for two centuries... Thus far, Storm Constantine's first excursion into heroic fantasy is a standard combination of the religious and the military, portraying a world in which power is all, but its location never obvious. What pulls it out of the rut is the clarity with which she sees her characters--the neurotic incestuous Pharinet, and her brother Val, emotionally scarred by a ritual gone wrong. Above all, she makes us feel for Val's second wife Varencienne, a princess imposed on him by the emperor he serves, and in spite of being a foreigner and an enemy, the most loyal servant Calador's dragons will ever have. This is a heartless world--friendship counts, but love is a gambit; Storm Constantine's usual taste for the mystically perverse is on display here, coupled with an unusually strong sense of the ambiguities of most characters. Varencienne's brother Bayard is a destructive nuisance in the lives of her new friends, but is also the person closest to her. This is a satisfying start to an attractive series. --Roz KaveneyRead More