Publisher's Weekly Review
Feist, author of the Riftwar Trilogy, and Wurts, whose fantasy novels include Sorcerer's Legacy and Stormwarden, have combined their skills to produce this absorbing saga. Mara is taking her final religious vows when a messenger interrupts the ceremony to report the deaths in battle of her father and brother. Now Ruling Lady of the Acoma, the teenager must rally its depleted forces against many enemies, particularly Lord Jingu of the Minwanabi, who sent her menfolk to their demise. Hampered though she is by the rigid traditions of her Oriental society, Mara replenishes her army with the masterless grey warriors and skillfully reaches a bargain with the cho-ja, insectoid aliens. Her most dangerous gambit is a political marriage to cement an alliance. Deprived of overt status, she finds it difficult to manipulate her brutish but cunning husband. This full-bodied dynastic fantasy has the sweep and drama of a good historical novel about an exotic time and place. (June 19) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
With her brother and father killed in the wars between the feuding houses of Tsurani, Mara becomes the ruling lady of Acoma and must shelve her plans for entering a religious order. Sworn to avenge her relatives' deaths, Mara secures the borders of the land by inviting the powerful, insectlike Cho-jo to reside there. By marrying the son of her family's killer, she forges an alliance with one of the strongest houses. After suffering her husband's continued cruelty and deceit, however, she plans and orchestrates his death. Feist and Wurts depict a violent yet moral world, where suicide by the knife is the honorable way out for disgraced warriors. While the novel is marked by a dearth of action scenes and the failure of the central character to ever quite come alive, the fantasy itself is carefully constructed and will please fans of the genre. PLR. [OCLC] 87-458