Melanie Rawn

It's the first of a fantasy trilogy from the 80s, although it can work very well as a standalone. I enjoyed it, although I had some reservations.

The story deals with the political intrigues and war between powerful nobles in a feudal-like world. It adds to the mix a strong romance component between the two main characters, Rohan and Sioned. It also has an interesting magic system (the sunrunners, gifted humans who can use light to communicate and cause some physical effects). Apart from that, the worldbuilding is somewhat generic. There is desert. There are dragons, but although they feature in the story often (as wild beasts) they do not really play a big part, maybe they will in the next books.

I enjoyed the story, but I felt that perhaps the main characters triumphed against all opposition too easily. Roelstra is an good antagonist, but I never felt that he would succeed in destroying the heroes of the story, with all the powerful sunrunners against him.

Then the story went to strange places, with all the weird business between Ianthe, Rohan and Sioned. Ianthe's actions and motivations never make much sense. It seems she only exists to get the plot and main characters where the author wanted them.

The writing is adequate but not great. I enjoyed the characters, but didn't completely love them, and the same goes for the book in general. Possibly I'll read the next book in the trilogy, which happens 14 years later.… (more)

Sorcerer-painters frolic in a pseudo-Renaissance Italian city-state. The three authors split the book into three sections, and I liked each section about as much as I like each author. The first section felt repetitious and redundant; the second section combined candy-colored central characters with the wonderfully Machiavellian maneuverings of the villainous protagonist; and the third section was good but marred by wrapping up all the threads introduced in the first two sections. All together, it was...eh.… (more)