Voice Of The Demon: The Second Book of Elita Book

Jacoby's fantasy sequence, the Books of Elita, has an attractive sense of the difficulties of reclaiming lost knowledge and of the sheer fag of getting around a medieval landscape on horseback and on foot. She neatly balances her hero's sense of honour--he has sworn not to oppose a foreign usurper--and his sense of duty to oppressed people; Robert has also to cope with the problems of massive sorcerous power and the temptations to use it. Meanwhile, the usurper Selah constantly pushes his luck and others' loyalty; the young witch Jenn explores her powers, and the hidden villain, Nash, the King's smiling confidant, who is older than he looks, pursues his own agendas and desires. Jacoby has a good eye for the physicalities of her set pieces--sieges, escapes, sorcerous duels--but is also sensitive to emotions, particularly those of an older generation who feel betrayed by children with radically different values and priorities. This is a world in which there are no good choices and in which the most overwhelming presence is that of regret; for reasons that the characters will never know, an earlier generation largely abandoned magic and the knowledge of magic in the false belief that this would solve the world's problems. --Roz KaveneyRead More