Blackgod

I found this to be as strong as the first novel, and just as much fun. A reading adventure.

I read the previous reviews on this book before I decided to write one of my own, and the review that stated that the sequel was poor compared with The Waterborn was very different (not wrong-everyone's entitled to their own opinion)than what I concluded about The Blackgod. It was as good-if not better-than The Waterborn. For one thing- it was easy to pick up on after reading The Waterborn--only a few months had passed. The characters start out as being the same people you remember-but they change dramatically by story's end. Hezhi begins to grow into womanhood and starts to notice her physical and emotional changes. She also realizes her childhood is gone and that she has been robbed of the one place she felt she belonged-by her own father, the River. Perkar begins to understand that the mistakes he made--the people killed and the lives ruined--has forever severed him from the life he would have had among his people. But he also learns that pity and remorse for himself and the people deceased will do nothing but prevent him from moving on. This book is definite "gotta read" for people 13 (like me) to 99. If you like this book you gotta check out Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Series, Andre Norton's "Imperial Lady", and Jane Routley's "Mage Heart" and it's sequel, "Fire Angels".

this book is great!!! Keyes is good with suspense. But don't read it until you've read the first (Waterborn) book.

J. Gregory Keyes has done it again: a book that can be shared with an emerging young adult. For the young adult reader there is high adventure and the exploration of emerging relationships and friendships. For adults there is the story as well as the continued buildings of a belief system and religion. It a story that builds on itself, growing more powerful with its main characters of Hehzi and Perkar. Even though Keyes ends this book on calmer ground than "The Waterborn" we can only hope that he has more in store for us

After reading The Waterborn you think you understand the world of the Changling, but then The Blackgod reveals secrets you didn't suspect in the first book, and suddently the lines between friend and foe become blurred and you don't know who to trust. This is the experience of the heroine, Princess Hezhi, in The Blackgod. As she learns to wield her power it seems that everyone is trying to influence her. She even grows unsure of Perkar, the warrior from the cattle lands that she unwittingly summonned to aid her escape from the city of Nohl in the first book. Against Hezhi and Perkar there are a huge range of powers: a mysterious Mang shaman, various warriors trying to enhance their reputation, and, rising from the beheaded corpse of a man that Hezhi once considered a friend, comes a monstrous avatar of the River god; a being powerful enough to consume gods; a man who does not remember his own past; the man formerly known as Ghe. Keyes manages to introduce new twists and interpretations to the beliefs and social systems of this fantasy world. We learn that the priests are not what they seemed, and, as the Changling rises from his muddy bed and begins his inexorable passage across the land in pursuit of Hezhi, we see the hand the Blackgod has played in the saga, and learn why only Hezhi can defeat the Changling. This is even more of a page turner than The Waterborn. But, don't worry if you (shock, horror!) haven't read the first book, Keyes re-visits the formers' climactic battle to present us with the re-birth of Ghe and proceeds from there to take the story through new locations to the birthplace of the Rivergod--the only place he can be killed. Of course, readers of The Waterborn will enjoy meeting old friends such as Ghan and Brother Horse again. In short, Hezhi, a fourteen-year-old one-time princess, is truly one of the most interesting heroines in fantasy fiction, and the world Keyes has created is striking in its originality.