The sequel to 2006's Heir of Autumn
is another tangle of convoluted plots, age-old grudges and old-fashioned empire building seasoned with plenty of sex and violence. Eighteen years earlier, heroic young Brophy sacrificed himself to save the kingdom of Ohndarien, submitting to an endless sleep of terrible dreams induced by a curse called the black emmeria. Since then, the best efforts of sex-magic sorceress Shara have been unable to free him. But then Arefaine Morgeon, the ambitious teenage sorceress revered as a goddess in the kingdom of Ohohhim (the Opal empire), Ohndarien's rival—manages to awaken Brophy. She convinces him to come away with her to the ruined magical city of Efften, where he will finally be free of the taint of the black emmeria. If the Opal empire gains the magical powers of Efften, however, Ohndarien will fall. Carwyn and Fahnestock keep the plot and onslaught of characters churning forward; fantasy readers who missed the first book in the series—and even some who didn't—will find it a challenge to keep up. (May)
