In the Ruins

The sixth of The Crown of Stars series is the best one yet. I couldn't read it fast enough.

In the Ruins (2005) is the sixth Fantasy novel of the Crown of Stars series, following The Gathering Storm. In the previous volume, the Seven Sleepers raised the enchantment to thrust away the land of the Aoi, but three crowns were disrupted; yet Anne compensated for the setback. Then Liath guided the molten streams of lava up through the central crown, killing Anne and her retinue and the enchantment failed. Prince Sanglant and Zuangua killed the diamone within Henry and the freed Regnant named Sanglant as his heir. Both armies then acclaimed him as their ruler. Dragonback Ridge shattered and released the dragon. Alain and the dragon faced each other momentarily, but then the dragon flew away. A wave washed over Alain and then carried him back toward the sea; but the cart caught on the rocks and his chains held him back. His foster father Henri and the dogs found Alain lying amidst the ruins, released him from the chains, and took him home. In this novel, the land of the Ashioi rejoins the Earth at the same time as the current Feather Cloak, Secha, gives birth to twins. The restoral also has unforeseen consequences among those left on Earth. The violence of the unfolding spell raises volcanoes, generates tsunamis in the Middle Sea, causes rivers to run backward, and buries villages under mudslides. Great windstorms tear down trees and scatter the ever present ashes. Huge waves wash over the shore and sweep far inland. Then the widespread ashes and dust obscure the sun. King Sanglant has inherited the remains of two armies; both are at half strength after the fighting and the effects of the Cataclysm. After the virtual destruction of Estriana by tidal waves, Sanglant refuses to look further for Queen Adelheid. Nor does he send a party to look for Liath. Taking his survivors, Sanglant marches north toward Wendar. The hot windstorm blows down the tents of King Geza and Lady Eudokia. The Eagle Hanna wanders among the survivors, witnessing Geza's divorce of Princess Sapientia and his hurried departure to Ungria, but she is captured by Eudokia's soldiers and taken away in chains as they depart. Sister Rosvita waits for her return, but is forced to leave without her before the coming of twilight. Finding Sapientia as they exit the camp, Sister Rosvita takes her with them. Liath struggles across the devastation that she has created, coming to a ruined watchtower. There she finds Eldest Uncle with a skin of water. He takes her to the river to wash away the grime and ashes. Then she falls sleep, waking once with the arrival of two masked warriors, but falls asleep again for many days. Waking once more, she dresses herself in an ancient tunic and her mantle, then climbs the watchtower. From there she sees an army of refugees coming. When they arrive, Eldest Uncle and a younger version of himself embrace in joy; they are twins who have been separated in time. Unfortunately, Kansi is with the refugees and turns them against

Elliott still does not show her hand completely in what was to have been the last volume of this series. But some of the knots are becoming unraveled. Well written if you have the background of the previous five volumes.

It has been a long time since I read The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott and the author gives us her apology at the beginning. The last novel is so long it has been split into books six and seven. Luckily this should mean the last is out soon, not giving much chance for the story of Sanglant and Liath the chance to fade from memory before we end this epic. And an epic it has become, threatening to spill over into Jordan-esque longevity but without quite the intricate descriptions of mundane life. So, Liath has unleashed a cataclysm on the world, killed Anne, freed the Aishoi back to eradicate humanity and ended up carried naked by griffins back to Sanglant who leads a bedraggled army back to Wendar. Much of the next five hundred pages is taken up with the aftermath of the cataclysm as our groups straggle and struggle back to whence they came and try to restore order against the swathe of destruction. As such, Sanglant confirms his becoming regnant of Wendar and Darre though he and Liath are fighting hard against Mother Scholastica's vicious attempts to nullify their marriage. Blessing finds herself throwing more and more tantrums as she escapes a crown with Berthold and others, eventually being captured by the beautifully evil Hugh of Austra and being used as a pawn in the nefarious alliance with the Aishoi. Throughout a host of other supporting characters wheel and deal to establish a foothold in the new world order whilst the Aishoi prepare to invade, the most prominent of these being the alliance between Aheleid and the new power out of destroyed Arethousa, General Alexandros. Much of this sixth novel, as Elliott warns us in her note, deals with post cataclysmic upheaval. The real action can be condensed into a hundred key pages as we follow Hugh in those final hundred as he makes his move once Elliott has moved her pieces into position for the final book. The beauty of it is the fact that the one character who has become an ever deepening mystery is Alain. The opening character of the series, he ghosts in and out in a manner that is infuriating to the reader but used as a brilliant hook by Elliott to keep us moving forward ever faster to get our next glimpse. You can't help hope that the real climax of the books is going to arrive in Alain and that it won't disappoint. His destiny seems inexorable and he calmly accepts it whilst Liath dithers in powerful confusion, frustrating in her prevarication. Elliott's barely disguised early-medieval world that draws heavily on that social, geographical and religious structure is delightful drawn, excellently characterized and possessing of a heavily built plot in a Jordan-esque fashion. Effortlessly building suspense and engendering real empathy in her characters with Hugh, Alain and Liath the stand-out people, the author has created a fantasy world that resides in the top echelons of the genre.

Three millennia ago, the Horse People (centaurs) and seven sorcerers from seven different human tribes wove a spell that sent the Ashioi (elves) into the aether. Now that Liath, a half-human, half daimon of fire has stopped Anne and her agents from renewing the spell, the Ashai and their land has come back to Earth causing a cataclysm of epic proportions. Millions died in the resulting earthquakes, flooding of the seas and volcanic eruptions. The sun doesn't shine very much or as brilliantly, making it almost a certainty that famine is coming. The only reason Liath stopped the spell from being rewoven is that if it was; the very earth could have been destroyed. She makes her way back to her husband Sanglant who is now the king regnant of Wendor. They travel through lawless, lifeless and unstable lands making Sanglant realize that he wants to make Wendor a haven of peace and stability in a world gone mad. The old alliances are gone as rulers vie for even more power and land; there are those who would like nothing better to see Sanglant and Liath gone from the political scene. This book does not end the Crown of Stars saga but readers will find themselves glad of it because there is still much of the story to be told. Series fans will want to know what the Ashai will do and how Sanglant and Liath will deal with their enemies including the church who regards them as a heretic because of her use of sorcery amongst other dangling threads. Kate Elliot, an excellent fantasist, writes lush and lyrical scenes and uses her characters to scale down cosmic events to a human scale. Harriet Klausner