The White Tribunal [Paperback]

What's good? The plot - not especially original, perhaps - is that of the innocent wronged. The difference is, unlike the Count of Monte Cristo, the innocent, when he comes to take his revenge, doesn't enjoy it. The first object of his vengeance (incidentally, I wouldn't have bothered with this one) never understands what she did, or why vengeance should be called for. In the second case, though the person involved originally behaved badly, Tradain misses the point of the man's personal redemption, but still feels guilty. As he should.

One comment here - I felt that Volsky could have done a great deal more with the redemption of a human soul here than she did. And Tradain missing the point, or ignoring it, weakened the denoument. It could have been done better, yes, but I was glad to see it done at all.

Another of those quibbles - our heroine, Glennian, somehow doesn't figure out that her guardian is the one who betrayed her family? Huh? This girl's supposed to be a genius, or close to it. Nope, sorry, Paula, you blew that one.

The ironic tone is nice. When your main subject matter is the destruction of the innocent under horrific circumstances, a little distance is necessary. The demonstration, through Aestine and Drempi, of how people end up coerced into supporting the witch-hunt is neatly done. Neither of these two characters is especially strong, and perhaps Volsky slights the process of deliniating character. I would complain that even our main character lacks complexity, except that Volsky deliberately demonstrates how stunted he becomes in solitary confinement. I'm not thrilled, but I enjoyed it so much that I decided that I'd just let it slide while reading it.

Let's not pretend that I didn't like it most because I detest mass hysteria, and the witch-craze makes me more than a little ill. The Tribunal is ugly and deserves its end. The premier jurist, a self-righteous monster, actually was fairly convincing.

The best moments are little sketches: in the years Tradain has been imprisoned, the number of sorcery-repelling charms on the gates of the city have increased from one to six. The fear doesn't diminish, but grows. The White Tribunal takes more and more, and is never satisfied.

Over all, recommended.

But these problems can be excused when considered against the sheer force of personality of the liGurvohl character (I was actually scared of him!), the vividness of the torture scenes (I could feel the heat of the cauldron and imagine the suffering), and the black mood the author conveyed with the surety of Tradaine's awaiting torment when the last grain of his power fell. The finitude of magic in this world was a nice touch, as it paved the way for a character forced to consider each move carefully, and who must be preoccupied by his own unavoidable personal hell. Anyone who has ever been bullied or impelled by circumstances beyond their control would appreciate a tale such as this, where a weaker character pays the ultimate cost for the mastery of his destiny, if only for a short while. While many of the deeper existential issues broached here are never really explored by the story itself, I continued to mull them long after I turned the last page. I'll remember this one for some time to come, and will try some of Volsky's other works.

Oddly, the best written scenes are those of the torture. They come to life in shocking vividness. While it is the best part of the novel (as far as believability) it is out of place in the vagueness that composes the rest of the novel.