ISBN: 0-345-42432-8 Order from: Amazon.com
This "science fantasy" pits humane magic against ruthless power-hunger and technology in the struggle of an intriguing girl, with elements of romance and swordfighting.
Reviewed by David on January 02, 1999 (rev. 1)
Genre: Fantasy (Romance, Space Opera, Swordfighting)
Synopsis: Malka, a magically gifted angry young girl hiding from the cruel interstellar Enforcer Police, runs into a ship of misfits commissioned to monitor and restrain the worst abuses of the police force. When star-spanning conspiracies threaten the ship as well as the law in the world-spanning Web, the witches of the ship are badly outmatched, unless one counts the hidden skills of Malka. Unfortunately, while harboring hidden strengths, Malka also suffers from more dangers than the crew realizes, and her help carries a high price indeed.
Full Review: In this book which takes place in the universe of Nameless Magery, the many worlds of the Web are menaced by the growing grip on power by the office of Enforcement. At first content to control and condition the witches who created and operated the network of magical ship engines and communications, the Enforcers have now created their own, magic-less technology. Independent of the troublesome witches and their semi-sentient magical artifact, the Enforcers have started to destroy the magic-wielding worlds.
Some of the action takes place on the world of Nameless Magery, with the main characters of Magery making an appearance near the end of this book. Most of the action centers on Malka, a puzzling girl, full of anger and hidden strengths, and her perplexing relationship with the Monitor ship's charming captain and diverse and emotional crew, a familiar of a dead witch, and her painful and unwanted destiny. Most of all, this is a story of becoming human, the cost and rewards of humanity, the choices on the narrow path between freedom, danger and duty.
This book elaborates on the cruel and 2-dimensional nature of the Enforcers. It also makes the natives of Mennenkalt, featured in Ms. Turner's first novel, more intriguing and sympathetic. Much of the plot development is an unusual romance. The character of Malka is detailed and appealing, with some of the self-deprecating edges formerly seen in Lisane (in an early chapter, she names herself "Malka the Mighty, the Nemesis of Soup"). As in Lisane, the self-deprecation hides enormous power. Many fantasies describe the process of coming of age, often accompanied by coming into power. This book concentrates on maturity in the use of power, with consequent cost and constraints.
On the whole, the book is a fun read. One quibble is that most characters outside of Malka herself seem somewhat faded. A bigger problem is the flatness associated with villainy of the Enforcers, together with the "master villain" syndrome: one evil mastermind who can't resist showing up everywhere and twirling his mustache while sneering at the hero, thereby putting himself in the harm's way. The Enforcers' cruelty does not appear to be matched by efficiency: an organization destroying whole populations and operating interstellar fleets still resorts to hand-wavy "shock cannon", swords and overly-elaborate traps. The bad guys seem highly reluctant to use things like explosives or distance weapons, perhaps another symptom of mustache-twirling.
The positives are the pleasant and very intriguing character of Malka herself, together with the fresh, possibly unique, look at magic as a collection of semi-sapient forces, sometimes like obedient and trusting dogs, other times like enigmatic cats, and occasionally like vicious wolverines.
Universe: Web
Overall: 6; Plot: 5; Characters: 6.5; Style: 6; World-building: 5; Originality: 7;
Copyright date 1999, Ballantine Publishing Group (Del Rey), January 1999, Mass-market, 218 pages
ISBN: 0-345-42432-8 Order from: Amazon.com