Overview
The world was desperate. Since the empire had fallen a hundred years ago, Gwin and her people had nearly given up hope that the Renewer would come? Gwin had lost everything. Her husband was killed in one of the wars. Her children died of Star Sickness. Even her work at the hostel was in jeopardy because the politicians had it out for her. The cursed Gwin, therefore, had nothing to lose? When she took in the girl, a survivor of the Star Sickness, it was a dreadful crime. Gwin was at the end of her rope, and possibly the end of her life if she was found out? But the Sickness had left the girl with certain magic, certain powers which could prove very useful to them both. Was it possible that this young survivor could save their lives and the empire? Was a new life for Gwin and her world finally at hand?Those who died from the star sickness plague were the fortunate ones. The survivors were cursed with the power to heal and destroy. Some saw the future and went mad. Some curses were even worse. Under the law, no one could shelter the Cursed, but Gwin took in a young girl. Who could predict that her simple act of outlaw kindness would change her life--and her world--forever?
Synopsis
The empire had been dead these hundred years and more, but its corpse still twitched now and again as petty kingdoms rose and bickered and fell. Common folk such as Gwin struggled on as best they might. Now a distant war had claimed Gwin's husband's life, and a plague of the star sickness had carried off her little babies. Left alone and desolate, she struggled on, nursing her neighbors through the foul disease. It was a thankless task, for wherever the plague touched, it either killed or cursed - and who could say which fate was worse? Each of the six stars cast a different spell. Each curse bestowed a different torture. The Cursed is an epic tale of mortal men and women swept up in the terrifying maelstrom of destiny, of kindness and its consequences, of love and loss and laughter, of unforgiving fate, and of new beginnings.
Publishers Weekly
This pleasant empire-building fantasy follows Gwin Nien Solith, an Innkeeper with the proverbial heart of gold, through her various political troubles, romantic alliances and fantastic escapades until she discovers her destiny. Gwin lives in the former empire of Quolia, whose inhabitants desperately await a Renewer, someone with the strength to bind together the local kingdoms being ransacked and decimated by petty squabbling and outbreaks of plague. Gwin has decided to take one of the Cursed-victims of the ``star sickness'' who have developed psychic powers-under her wing: a girl who has been transformed into an Ivielscath (one who can cure, or kill, with a touch). She also meets other Cursed, including Shoolscaths (who live backwards through time) and Awailscaths (who are shapechangers). When Gwin is threatened with a disastrous political marriage and the destruction of her livelihood, she escapes into the aged arms of powerful farmer and patriarch Bulion Tharn, foreseen to be the Renewer. Together, Bulion and Gwin must bring the reviled and feared Cursed to safety among their own kind and forge a new and better life for all their people. While his prose is pedestrian, Duncan (A Handful of Men) offers an amusing and well-proportioned blend of religion, prophecy and magic, as well as a touch of intellectual good humor in a lively, earthy tale. (May)