About the Author

Sara Douglass was born in Adelaide but moved to Hobart in later life to write full time. She died in Hobart in September 2011. She was a lecturer in mediaeval history for La Trobe University for many years and was the first author to be published on the Australian Voyager imprint in 1995. She published 19 books of epic and historical fantasy with Voyager. She has won the Norma K Hemming award, the Australian Shadow's Award and was nominated three times for the US-based Reviewer's Choice awards.

Reviews

Apprenticed to his physician father, Garth Baxtor travels with him to the underground prison-mine complex known as the Veins. When Garth uses a healing magic that he inherited from his father on one of the prisoners, he discovers, to his horror, that the convict is none other than the rightful king of the realm, missing for many years. With that knowledge, Garth and his father take part in a dangerous conspiracy to rescue the king from a prison from which no one has escaped. The author of Starman and The Wayfarer Redemption crafts an unusual fantasy that has the feel of a folktale. Realistic in detail, with genuine characters, this belongs in most fantasy collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

In this stand-alone high fantasy set in the same universe as her Wayfarer Redemption series (Enchanter, etc.), Australian Douglass fashions a promising milieu of elemental Gnostic magic within a rugged coastal setting. Unfortunately, stock characters wending their way down standard plot-lines to a foregone conclusion obscure her world-building. Garth Baxtor, an apprentice healer who's inherited an extra helping of "the Touch" (the ability to feel-and, to some degree, alleviate-his patients' pain), journeys to the Veins, a complex of underground mines. While tending condemned workers in the shafts, Garth happens upon prisoner 859, whom Garth's Touch reveals to be Prince Maximilian, the missing heir to the throne of Escator. Later, in the Land of Dreams, Garth has a conversation with the ancient heraldic beast of Escator, the droll monster Manteceros, who agrees to confirm the identity of the true king if Garth can rescue prisoner 859 from the Veins and have him challenge the vile pretender, King Cavos. In an overly complicated finale Manteceros administers a moral test of worthiness to the two kingly claimants. Maximilian's near-instantaneous transformation after 17 years' hard labor from broken-minded wretch to dashing, lighthearted prince strains credibility, while a spate of hand-waving mystical exposition at book's end does more to confuse than resolve the story. Still, the atmosphere of maritime magic is diverting, and, for fans of the author's Redemption books, this may be enough. (July 21) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.