Deryni Tales [Mass Market Paperback]

This collection also cleared up something for me, in that Ms. Kurtz explains that she tries to write her female characters closer to the way medieval woman actually lived. Her choice, of course, but, I have to say, if I wanted to read about the way women lived, I would read history, not fantasy. I also notice, interestingly, that she does not follow our medieval history by producing great female abbesses or theologians. Surely, the Church of Gwynedd could produce a Hildegard of Bingen, a Hilda of Whitby or a Catherine of Siena? Again, her choice, but I have to say one of the reasons I only get the Deryni books from the library instead of buying them is that the only women who actually hold real power are either misguided or evil, and that her most sympathetic and interesting characters are invariably male.

After 30 years, the issues of Jews in Gwynedd are addressed, albeit sparingly. Daniel Kohanski and Jay Barry Azner's tale "Arilan the Talmud Student" offers a delightful but brief glimpse into the people whose faith founded the Christianity that is so central in the Deryni universe and Ms. Kurtz' writings. We are left wanting more. If the Deryni, as Ms. Kurtz explains, "were the Jews of Gwynedd...taking the heat that would have been reserved for the Jews of our world"(p.26), the question begging to be answered is "What of the Jews who were also Deryni?"

Arguably the best story in the book is Lohr E. Miller's "Lady of Shadows": well-crafted, rich, and filled with love, loyalty, and fealty--but among the Haldane/Gwynedd antagonists! Charissa de Tolan, the villian sorceress of "Deryni Rising" and her border baron lover, the mercenary poet Christian-Richard de Falkenberg. This story alone is worth the price of the book.

We can only hope that these writers will continue in the craft, and that they and similar talent can continue to enrich the tapestry of The Eleven Kingdoms.