Synopsis
In a world where technology is magic, and war is the only way of life, Talyn is a soldier...
…raised from birth to fight for her people and her country. She long ago embraced her fate: to die in battle. So when a shocking peace sweeps her land, she's cast adrift, and easily seduced by an outsider's touch, his new magic — but his passions are evil and run deep, and Talyn soon finds herself twisted by his touch.
Through him she discovers darkness within herself she'd never suspected—and the mistreatment of prisoners of war, the creeping blackness sneaking through her land, the insidious evil that no one even suspected their peacekeepers of bringing.
Now she must weigh her life against her honor if she is to help her people regain their freedom…
Publishers Weekly
Two-time Campbell Award-finalist Lisle (Midnight Rain) tries to show she can handle shifts between first- and third-person in her latest fantasy, but the mental channel-flipping only serves to distract from an otherwise extremely well-written story. It's fascinating to be in the head of Talyn of the Tonks as she deals with being a career soldier abruptly dismissed when the foreigners known as Feegash broker a cease-fire in the 300-year war between her people and the neighboring Eastils. It's intriguing to also see through the eyes of Skirmig, her deeply twisted and controlling Feegash lover, and Gair, the Eastil captain who helps her incite rebellion once they realize the mutual disarmament is a way for the Feegash to take over both countries at once. Anyone who can get past "I thought about him" suddenly turning into "he thought about her" in the space of a paragraph and the plot-spoiling that inevitably stems from head-hopping will likely be captivated by this stern and stirring treatise on the dangers of enforced peace and the virtues of paranoid preparation for the worst. Agent, Robin Rue at Writers House. (Aug. 18) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.