Season of Sacrifice (Paperback)

Here's the thing. Alana Woodsinger talks with other Woodsinger's shades, and does magic in an unusual way, basically through an old, gnarled tree. The tree is sacred to her people, and her job is not an easy one. Many Woodsingers spend their lives alone, partly because their jobs are so all-encompassing, partly because of tradition (if you aren't married before you become selected to become a Woodsinger on the previous Woodsinger's death, you just don't get married).

However, Alana was picked young, so she really didn't get a choice. Keep this in mind. As Alana wrestles with the "old guard," folks who really don't want anything to change, reivers come and carry off two young children, and cause massive upheaval in her village. Some are injured, and a few are killed. As these reivers had previously come in peace, no one tried to fight them until it was too late.

Alana vows to go after the children, and manages to first find them mentally, then go after them. Along with her are two men, Landon, and Maddock, and one woman, Jobina. Jobina's a healer, Maddock's a tracker, and Landon loves Alana chastely from a distance.

Meanwhile, the two kids, Reade and Maida, have been captured by the evil Duke Coren, who schemes to use them to bring back and older, deadlier form of the state religion. Reade quickly falls under Coren's spell, and Maida follows.

The two kids, after brainwashing, decide to do Coren's bidding, sort of because of something similar to Stockholm Syndrome. Thing is, the kids are so odious from the start that when they become threatened by a large snake called "the Mothersnake," which plays a part in the ritual that will kill them after they're about to become the most powerful (for a brief instant) religious figures in the world, I didn't really care as much about them as I think Ms. Klasky would have wished.

In addition, Landon dies, which was a shame; Alana had feelings for him. Maddock and Jobina had started a brief, tempestuous relationship, but Maddock ends up breaking it off for various reasons. When they get to the city the kids are being held at, they split up. Jobina gets taken by the evil Duke, and falls under his spell as well. It's not psionic; rather, it appears to be "the cult of personality," for lack of a better term. Duke Coren is charismatic.

The rest of the story I don't want to spoil for you. Which is why I'll stop the review here.

The main reason for the newly adjusted rating is that the characters' plight in and of itself is drawn well. I've been thinking about this review for at least a month, and realized that if a story can disturb me this much, maybe there's something to it. Maybe it means the writer didn't fail after all; I definitely saw the points she was making, that people change (as Alana does end up marrying Maddock), customs change, kids need to be protected because they often can't make good decisions, and about the loss of innocence in more than one way.

Which is why I've upped the rating after a re-read of this story. Bottom line is, Ms. Klasky made her points. No, this is not a comfortable book. It doesn't make you feel really good about many things at the end, but then again, Ms. Klasky's main strength as an author, as I know from the Glasswright saga, is in writing ambiguity. She did that very well here; her characters grow and change, and even though they don't always grow and change in the way I'd like them to do, that's honest. It makes them more life-like, not less.

And although it's not a book I'd ever seek out for a pleasure-read, I think it has strengths. People are worth fighting for, even if they're odious. Even if they've bought into propaganda, and even if they don't want you to fight for them.

And because of that, and because of me seeing that, I've decided to up the rating to just under four stars, and give it a recommended tag.

Barb Caffrey

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Season of Sacrifice tells the story of a group of very strong characters. Alana Woodsinger is the Woodsinger at the Headland of the Slaughter (a somewhat misleading name for a town). As the Woodsinger she is the People's connection to the Tree, a tree who is the people's connection to their gods, the guardians. When two children are kidnapped by a mysterious visitor the town leaders know that they must be saved. They send out a soldier, a tracker, and a healer to track down the twins and their kidnappers. Alana si forced to stay home although she has connection to the twins and the rescuers through the tree. Unfortunately by the time they reach the twins they don't want to be saved. They quickly uncover a sinister plot that involves the lives of the twins, and the throne to the kingdom itself.

As I said before this book has many good points and a couple of not so good. The story is suspenseful and the magic is unique. Mindy L. Klasky has so far not shown any magic in her novels before and when she finally shows it in Seasons of Sacrifice, it is a smaller, less showy magic. A couple error's I found was the characters are a bit too similar to some of the characters seen in the glasswrights Saga. Alana is a lot like Rani. Many other minor characters, such as the soldier Brent, represent a certain other soldier seen in The Glasswrights Apprentice. I also agree with the reviewer who remarked on the children. They irritated me to no end. But beyond that it was a good solid novel. I can't wait to see what Mindy L. Klasky comes up with next!

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This book is about Alana, a woodsinger and keeper of the Tree in her village. She's the person who keeps the Tree up to date on what's going on, and the Tree is the entity that not only watches over the village, but also contains the memories of the village, from previous songs sung to it. When two of the village children are kidnapped, she has to use the Tree's magic to assist the rescue party. In doing so, she find she has to extend herself beyond any capabilities that she's ever had before.

I found Alana an interesting character, well-rounded with intelligence and doubts about her abilities. She did tend to whine a bit, but it never overpowered her characterization, as Klasky doesn't make her go on and on about it. The other characters in the book are well-drawn as well, with a few twists adding to their characters that make them even more interesting. There are definite good guys and bad guys, but the good guys are not so "heroic" that there is no doubt they will live. They do have to make a bit of a sacrifice to save the day.

There are two things that bring this novel down to 4 stars. First, the kids. I know Harriet found them lovable, but I found Reade incredibly annoying. I realize that there is a reason he's presented this way, but this knowledge didn't make my teeth go on edge any less when reading his sections of the book. Still, overall, he wasn't *that* bad, and the novel is still good.

The second reason, though, is a little more of a problem. The ending feels incredibly staged and choreographed. There is no real reason given for the timing of the ceremony, thus no reason given why it takes so long for them to actually do it. Instead, though, it's timed incredibly well to coincide with when the heroes are ready to do something about it. That seemed a bit contrived to me.

Putting those two things aside, though, this is still a very good book, and well worth the time it takes to read it.

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