FUGITIVE PRINCE

by Janny Wurts.

Voyager £6.99 P/B

The ‘Alliance of Light : Book One’ it proclaims on the cover , ‘The Wars of light and Shadow Volume 4’ says the inside cover. This book is not the start of a new story following on from a trilogy but a continuation of the story begun in ‘The Curse of the Mistwraith’ and continued in the other two books of the trilogy.

This story follows Lysaer (Prince of light) beginning a Holy war against Arithon (Master of Shadow and Half Brother of Lysaer) to destroy him and his followers. The Enmity between them is a result of a curse laid on them by the Mistwraith. Against this backdrop the head of the Koriani Sisterhood hatches a plot to capture Arithon and use him as a lever against the Fellowship Sorcerers.

The first chapter deals with the birth of a child somewhere remote. After this the child only appears in little ‘just to remind you’ chapters over the six year span of this book with the only explanation for his existence given by way of a Prophecy in the fist chapter. But for this the plot is intricate with a large number of threads following the groups and individual characters. It would be recommended to read the previous trilogy first, the Glossary at the back of the book provides help, but the large number of references to previous events makes reading the first books a must.

The characters are well defined and behave consistently, though the repeated stating of one of Arithon’s particular traits, ‘The gift of compassion’ , does wear a bit thin. Having said this the story is well written and a good read. Excuse me I must go now, the bookshop said my copies of the first books of this series would arrive today.

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