cover image THE SCEPTER'S RETURN: Book Three of the Scepter of Mercy

THE SCEPTER'S RETURN: Book Three of the Scepter of Mercy

Dan Chernenko, . . Roc, $14.95 (448pp) ISBN 978-0-451-46014-1

Like its predecessors, The Bastard King (2003) and The Chernagor Pirates (2004), the good-natured, leisurely final installment in Chernenko's Scepter of Mercy trilogy subverts the familiar fantasy tropes with its polite, understated swordplay and minimal, often mundane sorcery. In the kingdom of Avornis, an unseen array of Olympian gods and goddesses has ejected a disgruntled god known as the Banished One. He may also be unseen, but the Banished One is a noisy frequenter of the nightmares of his victims, whom he attempts with mixed success to suborn. The author excels at characterization, in particular of the pair of down-to-earth Avornis kings: Grus, the thinking man's head of warfare, and Lanius, the thinking man's thinker. The two rivals must set aside their differences if they are to regain the scepter that will thwart the Banished One's evil machinations. Some readers may be annoyed not to be let in on Lanius's secret plan to do so, though all should be satisfied with the natural, somewhat bittersweet ending that leaves the door open for further wise and humorous adventures. Agent, Russell Galen at Scovil, Chichak & Galen. (Mar. 1)