In Legend Born

Resnick, who has written 11 romance novels under the pseudonym Laura Leone, breaks into historical fantasy with this lengthy chronicle of the land of Sileria's quest for freedom. This island nation has been oppressed for a thousand years by one conquering neighbor after another because the various segments of its population can't unite against a common enemy, currently the merciless Valdani Empire. Rising from his humble hovel to challenge the Imperial Roman-like overlords, the messianic Firebringer, Josarian the peasant, allies with the exiled arch-warrior Tansen, the cunning courtesan Elelar, the fire-Guardian Mirabar and the wizardly waterlord Kiloran. Gathering steam for a united Silerian rebellion requires enough pages to allow Resnick to concoct a rich brew of conspiracies, simmer several juicy romantic entanglements in a heady broth of blood feuds and massacres, and baste her conventional sword-and-sorcery plot with spicy rituals and trendy psychobabble. Resnick's most convincing figures are Josarian and Tansen, each haunted by shattering past mistakes and losses, but her principal women, the mouthy teenager Mirabar and the all-for-the-cause leg-spreading Elelar, come off as contemporary romance heroines whose fantasy costumes seem to be chafing them raw. Big and brawly, this first installment of Silerian history dangles in midair, screaming for its announced sequel. (Aug.) FYI: Resnick, daughter of award-winning SF author Mike Resnick, won the 1993 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer.