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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
something wicked this way comes...., 8 May 2006
Times are troubled in the lands of Taratamia and Karenia (the Opal Kingdom and the Pearl Realm). Old enmities surface and mighty battles are in the offing. Brave Captain Tallis escorts a royal bride to her wedding,but will the groom be present? Will he,too,find undying love along the way? And what of the feisty tomboy Barbel,who will stop at nothing to join the army and follow her Captain? All the while lustful young men meet their fates at the hands of the evil,power-hungry Queen Malkar,their life and youth stoking the very soul of evil....something dark,shape-shifting and drawn from the depths... Welcome to the world of 'The Captain's Witch',brilliant novelist Rosemary Hawley Jarman's stunning contribution to fantasy literature. One truly remarkable aspect of this densely plotted tale is how soon we forget,after perusing the map in the preface and diving into the prose,that it is set in a land of the imagination drawn from her vividly active psyche,and not some tract on a past time (in)glorious,so real do the events feel,it's as if we are reading an alternate history that never was,but should have been. Via descriptive writing of victory or violence,desires and dreams,devilry and dark deeds,even flower and fauna,landscape and light,we never question the truth. Her characters live,breathe,act true to their natures,follow their hearts,sometimes perilously,meet savage ends or work for a better future (well,most of them...) The first half sets the scene and canters gloriously,the latter hits a galloping stride and never looks back for two hundred pages,drawing us into a pure maelstrom of activity,battles and oft-shocking revelations there are a couple of carefully guarded secrets that,when detonated,feel like a bomb resonating through the text,and brace yourselves for the climax,as exciting and skilful as any novel in recent memory! Lyrical moments of love and grace,punctuated by scenes of unbearable cruelty (take a bow,Senor Zairopo),including one sequence of mass midnight-deflowering that appears to have tumbled from the pages of De Sade's 'Salo', or Pasolini's film of same! Truly,this exquisite tome cannot be recommended highly enough. Malkar sitting in her court of illusions,terrifying, ethereal...the beautiful Lilene,on trial and her life in danger (she speaks no treason).Sample Ms Jarman's great,earlier, 'earthbound' historical novels,and then see her move into this realm,imagination as detailed and rampant as the Lion of War. As novelist Tanith Lee describes this,'one of the greatest dark fantasies ever written in any genre',and who am I to argue? A sequel beckons,and not before time,please....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book has it all!, 12 April 2006
Written in compelling, imaginative prose, this book is a treasure. The writer introduces a new universe into which the reader is immediately plunged and experiences the terror of battle, the passion of love, and a dark occult wickedness.
This book would appeal to readers in a number of genres - fantasy, suspense, AND romance. I haven't enjoyed a book like this in years. I even passed my train stop more than once. The signs of a great book, of course, are becoming one with the characters and not being able to put the book down--all the while not wanting it to end. And as I said above, this book has it all!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heady brew of fantasy, romance and adventure, 26 May 2008
Like many fantasy novels, Rosemary Jarman's latest epic begins with a map. It details the geography of a group of countries with a long tradition of mutual hostility. The documentary cataloguing of national borders, mountains, rivers, bridges and other elements of landscape gives this fantastic world a strong sense of reality, with its boundaries established by an embittered history.
However, the map is flanked by the Sea of Infinity and the Far Lands, evidence of stranger, more mythical domains. This may be a fantasy novel, but it is frilled with dark terrain. As with her historical novels, Rosemary Jarman shows that major events - the very movements of history itself - are shaped by personal desire as much as international intrigue. Individual motives, sexuality and jealousy are forces equal to those of political ambition and the warring of nations, and absolute power can corrupt absolutely. For this reason, there are several jaw-dropping episodes in this book that you certainly won't find in a more traditional fantasy book!
Queen Malkar, who uses her control of magical forces to assert power over the tangible world of the map, is a breathtaking, memorable creation. Equally vivid are the tormented Captain and the Princess Lilene, whose affair is captured magnificently - their passion practically burns off the page! It's an intimate counterpart to the wider struggles of nations as they strive to hang on to an established but fragile peace. This is fantasy with a difference - dark, emotional, magical, tangible, and highly recommended.
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by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
by Kristin Cashore
by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
by Michelle Moran
