From Publishers Weekly
This pleasant empire-building fantasy follows Gwin Nien Solith, an Innkeeper with the proverbial heart of gold, through her various political troubles, romantic alliances and fantastic escapades until she discovers her destiny. Gwin lives in the former empire of Quolia, whose inhabitants desperately await a Renewer, someone with the strength to bind together the local kingdoms being ransacked and decimated by petty squabbling and outbreaks of plague. Gwin has decided to take one of the Cursed?victims of the "star sickness" who have developed psychic powers?under her wing: a girl who has been transformed into an Ivielscath (one who can cure, or kill, with a touch). She also meets other Cursed, including Shoolscaths (who live backwards through time) and Awailscaths (who are shapechangers). When Gwin is threatened with a disastrous political marriage and the destruction of her livelihood, she escapes into the aged arms of powerful farmer and patriarch Bulion Tharn, foreseen to be the Renewer. Together, Bulion and Gwin must bring the reviled and feared Cursed to safety among their own kind and forge a new and better life for all their people. While his prose is pedestrian, Duncan (A Handful of Men) offers an amusing and well-proportioned blend of religion, prophecy and magic, as well as a touch of intellectual good humor in a lively, earthy tale.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Library Journal
After losing her husband and children to the dreaded "star sickness," which leaves its few survivors cursed with strange, uncontrollable powers, innkeeper Gwin Nien Solith casts her lot with a semibarbaric family whose ancestors once terrorized the old Qolian empire and whose legends tell of the coming of a powerful hero, the Renewer. Fantasy series writer Duncan (The Living God, LJ 4/15/94) embarks on a new epic set in a world filled with unpredictable magics, fickle gods, and warring kingdoms. The author's unique vision reinfuses an often cliched genre with freshness and gentle wit. A strong purchase for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
