Flesh and Spirit (The Lighthouse Duet)

Carol Berg's Flesh and Spirit is another triumph by a master of fantasy! If you sample no other fantasy this year pick this one up. Go ahead. Read the first chapter (full of promise, tension, full-circle plotting, a main character you want in your life - and as always in her books - HUMANITY). After reading that first chapter, you will not be able to resist reading more. If this is your first taste of Ms. Berg's writing, mark my words, you will be compelled to read all of her brilliant work. She continues to amaze me with her sumptuous feasts!

...in all senses of the word: great story, splendidly realized, full of wonder. Carol Berg, with Patricia McKillip and Guy Gavriel Kay, is a writer who keeps real fantasy alive and compelling. (Note to publishers: sick to death of fantasy chick lit and vampires!) Berg's stories are always rich and emotionally moving. "Flesh and Spirit" is, too. Yet it's also a refreshing departure for Carol Berg, a bit racy, and with a delightfully decadent anti-hero who is as amusing as his times are perilous (you could read this book quite happily just for Valen's sly observations). But there's so much more here ... genuine mystery, a touch of what, for want of a better word, I'll call faerie, and really scary villains--scary because they are so real and understandable, so much like us. How Berg balances Valen's cheerful spirit with the increasingly dark and dangerous times in which he lives, is marvellous. As ever, the world Berg has created is a real place, full of extraordinary beauty, but it lies under a terrible threat, part of which has to do with the unique take on magic that this story centers around. Charming, selfish Valen, a young man on the run from his abusive family of sorcerers, gets caught between ambitious, warring princes, conflicting religions, and sorceries beyond his understanding. This is part one of Valen's tale, and it finishes in a satisfying cliffhanger. If that seems a contradiction in terms, you'll just have to read it to find out what it means. For this reader, what it means is, I can't wait for the conclusion!!!! This is fantasy--or any storytelling--at its best.

Berg always manages to thoroughly capture me by her tales, even though not all pan out as well as the promise... This one is also engrossing: Valen finds himself wounded, near death, abandoned by his friend/partner, who searched him and took everything of value... left in the mud and the rain in the dark of night. Valen is an admitted n'er-do-well who is running from his past and from anything that looks to entrap or curtail him in any way. He has deserted from a losing battle and had been doing a bit of stealing and looting before his present misfortune. Now all he's left with is a book that his partner figured wasn't worth taking. However, Valen knows the book and knows its worth. Of course, he doesn't die in the rain in the mud... the Monks of a nearby monastery find him and heal him. And it turns out they are interested in his book. Valen has little use for monks, but the monastery is well-off, the food good, he's sheltered from the mud and rain and dangers of the road and marauding armies (the King is dead and the sons are savaging the land vying for supremacy). Gradually a fascinating world with an unusual society and intriguing magic (and beings) ad characters are revealed. Valen is of course, more complex than he first presents himself as, with a strange life and past. The monastery hides a secret that could affect the future of mankind. A noble girl masquerades as a Squire, and is part of the conspiracy. The book and Valen himself may hold the key to another world and beings who may be able to stop the world from sliding into utter ruin. The mysterious third Prince, worker of dark magic, may or may not be the horror he is purported to be... There is so much to explore! I can't wait for the story to continue in the next book!

Can a scoundrel become a hero? This is the last question Valen wants to answer. A fugitive simply because he didn't fit into his ancestral role, he does what he can to survive without being hauled in by other purebloods. It doesn't help when he's abandoned half dead near a community of religious monks. In possession of a priceless book, yet unable to read, Valen finds his new place among the brothers both intriguing and depressing (what man in his right mind would swear off sex for the rest of his life?!). An addiction to an insidious drug spikes even as Valen faces the danger of exposure. Accustomed to putting himself first, he suddenly faces a dilemma that could mean saving the world at the cost of his freedom. Author Carol Berg introduces readers to a highly complex character in Valen. A morally corrupt drifter at the beginning, readers will be eager to see if he can grow past selfishness and his avoidance of the past in order to serve the greater good. Events having to do with the surrounding world will further pull readers in. Are the monastery monks crazy fanatics, or do they have a clearer view of the future than it seems? In a land divided by tyrants, extremists, war, and a fair bit of insanity, very little is certain. What IS certain is that this first half of Valen's duology will delight readers eager for a taste of something darkly different. Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer 05/19/2007

For those of you who've already read some of Carol Berg's work, the following comments will come as no surprise. For those of you who haven't... what in the world are you waiting for? Ever since Ms. Berg burst onto the scene back in 2000 with _Transformation_, the first novel in one of the best fantasy series of all time, she has been writing consistently excellent books. Her newest effort is no exception. The protagonist is a young man named Valen who abandoned his home in order to escape the rigid and often cruel society of pureblood sorcerers in which he grew up. He was also interested in getting away from his family of origin, for a number of very good reasons. After taking refuge in an abbey, Valen--in spite of keen self-preservation instincts which keep telling him to run--becomes caught up in efforts to preserve Navronne's cultural treasures and history from an apocalyptic bunch of lunatics called the Harrowers. Interesting events follow, the nature of which it would be a shame to give away here. So I won't. Suffice it to say that the plot twists are not telegraphed in advance, there are various mysteries to ponder as you read, and the characters drive the action rather than the other way around. Unlike Ms. Berg's other novels, this one doesn't tell a complete story. It stops right in the middle of things, which means if you want to find out what ultimately happens you're going to have to read the sequel. Not that this should be too onerous. _Flesh and Spirit_ is good, solid fantasy that you're likely to enjoy. Give it a try. (Note: the previous reviewer has so many facts wrong about the plot that I doubt this individual even read the book.)