Blackgod

Keyes's epic sequel to The Waterborn unfolds in an animistic world of elemental nature gods and of humans and part-humans generally at war. Although filled with fantastic action, the novel is extraordinary for the force and originality of its descriptions of internal impressions. Keyes's writing is impeded near the beginning by massive references to the prequel, and the dissonance between his world's animism and our own rational worldview draws Keyes into tenuous theologizing here and there. But the dramatic flow is prodigious. Hezhi, the pubescent Nholish princess marked for horrific transformation by her lineage to the River, first hides from the River among the horse-worshipping plains folk, the Mang; then, assisted by shaman Brother Horse to evoke and control her own shamanic power, she seeks to confront the River at its source. Meanwhile, Hezhi's would-be lover and failed assassin, now a horrid undead creature named Ghe--a wonderful, Dostoyevskian character, at once repelling and touching--tracks her into the mountains at the River's bidding. The ancient priesthood of Nhol and its imperial rulers become caught in a strange, many-sided power struggle over Hezhi's fate. Dreams and visions turn into tools of war, and tribal conflicts complicate matters. The resolution of the many strands, though exciting, is vitiated by a sense of random invention. Still, Keyes's mastery of the internal lives of his characters and his artful, theatrical shifts of point of view give this huge tale an intimate feel, although remote, chthonic forces are everywhere at work. (Apr.)