Conqueror's Moon

I highly highly recommend this book and the entire series. I am shocked that it is not well known...it was well reviewed and is incredibly well written throughout. Ignore the negative reviews here, they almost put me off. I just can't believe some of the negative stuff that people get obsessed about! I am sorry to have finished the series today...it is terrific throughout, demanding of your attention and intellect yet entertaining, suspenseful and very rewarding. Enjoy!

In a genre marked by bloated, badly-written, and over-hyped series, Julian May's newest novel is a much-needed breath of fresh air; "Conqueror's Moon" is the real deal. Unlike some of her present-day contemporaries, she can actually write. And (note to said contemporaries): she also researches, infusing her world-building with truly original ideas. Her magic system alone is worth the price of admission. Also, she demonstrates that one can write solidly entertaining fantasy without being a clone of Tolkien or McCaffrey. The prose reminded me of a cross between Zelazny and Katherine Kerr (Deverry novels), who I consider two of the finest stylists in fantasy & SF literature. Forget Goodkind & Jordan; get this book now--then join the impatient wait for the next book in the series!

Conqueror's Moon is the first in a projected trilogy, returning to the epic fantasy worlds May is famous for in painting the story of an island divided into warring kingdoms. Add geologic unrest and the influence of outside sorcerers and seed this setting with the story of a prince's secret alliance with a beautiful sorceress and you have a powerful fantasy which is gripping and hard to put down.

It should have been a peaceful place, the isolated island in the Boreal Sea but the four kingdoms that inhabit it have periodically gone to war. In the kingdom of Cathra, the heir to the throne Prince Conrig wants to be the high king when his father dies and all the other lands would become his vassal states. He lost his chance to enforce the Edict of Sovereignty when his father refuses to commit an army to invade Didion and instead orders a naval embargo which the seafaring nation easily avoids.Now Conrig has made an alliance with the powerful Sorceress of Moss, who will help him in return for becoming the queen of her kingdom as his first vassal state. Her brother Prince Beynor is the heir and has made an alliance with Didion, giving to them what his sister has given to Conrig, the full use of the powerful magic they would need.Julian May, author of THE MANY COLORED LAND, is one of the best world builders in fantasy today. His latest sword and sorcery saga is of epic propositions and is told from the point of view of Snudge, Conrig?s snoop, assassin and the one called upon when something nasty needs doing. CONQUEROR?S MOON is the first installment in The Boreal Moon tales and readers will be hooked, anxiously wanting to read the next volume to find out how some of the dangling threads are sewn up.Harriet Klausner

Conqueror's Moon (2004) is the first novel in the Boreal Moon Tale series. In the far north, within the Boreal Sea, the island of High Blenholme contains four nations: Blencartha, Blendidion, Blentarn and Blenmoss. The richest in land and trade is Cartha, but Didion has thick forests and abundant shipyards. Tarn is poor in farmland, but rich in minerals. Only Moss lacks riches, but the Conjure-Kings control powerful magic. Before Emperor Bazekoy the Great conquered High Blenholme a thousand years afore and planted his colony there, the island belonged to the mighty Beaconfolk, the Great Lights and other magical people. The armies of Bazekoy drove out the Small Lights, the Salka, and the Green People, but didn't bother the Great Lights. Neither did the Beaconfolk seem disturbed by the invasion. Now times are hard on Blenholme, with the volcanoes of Tarn belching ash and gases into the air, poisoning the atmosphere and bringing twilight to most of the island. Crops fail in Didion and Tarn and fare poorly even in Cartha. Moss, however, is little affected due to its distance from the volcanoes and its dependence upon swamp vegetation for foodstuffs. Conrig Wincantor, the Prince Heritor of Cartha, conceived of reuniting the island into a single Sovereignty as it had been under Emperor Bazekoy. He convinced his father King Olmigon to proclaim the Edict of Sovereignty to Didion first, but the king refused to send a powerful force with the announcement. King Achardus of Didion didn't receive the proclamation calmly, however, instead putting all the envoys to death, throwing their bodies into the sea, and mounting their heads on pikes above Mallmouth Bridge. In this novel, Conrig calls a council of Northern lords at Vanguard Castle to propose an invasion of Didion to capture King Achardus and to force him to comply with the Edict. Conrig has brought his brother Vra-Stergos, a newly ordained Doctor Arcanorum in the Mystic Order of the Brothers of Zeth, capable of watching on the wind. He has also brought a lowly footman, Deveron Austtrey, called Snudge, a wild-talent who is his intelligencer. Both his brother and Snudge detect that someone is watching them. Conrig sends his brother to their chambers and slips out through a secret passage to the musicians gallery overlooking the banquet chamber where the lords are gathering. Conjure-Princess Ullanoth, his partner in recreating the Sovereignty, appears to him there in a Sending and announces that her brother Beynor has sailed south to the continent with Princes Honigalus and Somarus of Didion, probably to conspire with the corsairs of Stippen. Then she leaves and he prepares to meet the lords. While Conrig proposes his plan to the lords, Snudge searches for the watchers. As he expects, one is Ullanoth, but the other is an unknown, located somewhere within the castle near the stables. When Snudge tracks down the unknown watcher, he finds only a faint shadow thrown on the wall by something unseen. Snud