The Lost Runes (Runespell Trilogy) [Paperback]

Following on from the impressive debut, The Runes Of War, the story picks up pace as the author solidifies her characters and brings extra cohesiveness to the plot. Once again, the colour and descriptiveness of the writing is wonderful, making for easy suspension of disbelief and stunning mental imagery.

There is a natural and realistic flow to the development of the characters - and it begins to become apparent who the real heroine of the story is. The interaction of arrogant Hal, shy Casper and high priestess Brid is superb, with all the complexities of a 3-way relationship dealt with very skillfully.

The story develops nicely, all the while enjoyable and refreshing - with the lines between good and evil still bleary as the 'heroes' are confronted by a people dying of starvation, acting purely on the will-to-live.

A progressive follow-up effort from a truly gifted author. Excellent.

The main characters, while evolving somewhat, still seem essentially rooted to the characters established in the first book, with often the secondary actors, such as May or Cybillia, providing the greater character development and interest. The primary villains remain attenuated, serving only provide the occasional threat, and again we find secondary figures such as Gatto providing much of the conflict within the narrative, while more important characters, such as Gwion, remain largely as phantoms. And, after dragging himself around through much of the book to little purpose, the dragon simply swims away into the sunset.

There is an uncomfortable and seemingly random blend of various borrowings from myth and religion, creating a hodgepodge cosmology incorporating Nordic, Celtic, Christian, and Greco-Roman traditions that at times merge uneasily, such as with the Satanic rites revolving around the worship of Lokki. All of this seems baldly uninventive and derivitive, lacking the imaginitive strength of authors such as Hobb, Jordan or Tolkien, who, though they have borrowed, recontextualized their mythic sources enough to in large part recreate their own cosmologies, or missing the narrative purity of others such as Kerr, Marillier or Bradley, who have chosen to create their stories around the legends of a particular mythology. This blithe tossing about of mythic references seems contrived and carelessly constructed.

Finally, while descriptively rich, this alone is not enough to successfully carry the story. This tale needs greater and tighter plot development, as well as depth of characterization. Also, the author has a bad habit of inaptly using language: The repeated and inappropriate use of individual words--insipid hair and turgid air of apprehension but two of many instances, these words in particular problematic in their repeated usage--create unnecessary questions as to the author's understanding of language, unfortunate when considering the strength of her description narrative elsewhere, though, in fairness, her editor should have caught this.

While I would not dismiss this trilogy and, if allowed, would give it a half star more, the first two books contain persisting problems that do much to undermine and ennervate its narrative and emotional power. Tighter plot focus and greater character development will be needed in future for this author's work to rise above the ordinary.