Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Elliott (Furious Heaven) opens a new series with this page-turning epic fantasy, throwing lowly deputy courier Elen and her nephew, Kem, into peril as they unexpectedly encounter the high and mighty of the Tranquil Empire. Elen's duties require her to make a circuit of backwater village Orledder Halt, keeping watch all the while for the deadly Spore, a contamination that mutates and kills all life it touches. Then Prince-Warden Gevulin arrives in town unannounced. He's on a secret mission northward--but an avalanche has blocked the imperial roadway, a fact that the prince's rival, Prince Astaylin, Exalted General of the Corps of Imperial Engineers, should have alerted him to. Gevulin is generally above noticing people like Elen, but she and Kem are the only two at Orledder who know a passable path. They join his party--and witness a bizarre change in Gevulin after he chooses to overnight at a haunted ruin. His unpredictability adds to the danger on the road, where threats abound in the form of the Spore, nonhumans, and human agents who seek to thwart their mission. Elliott builds an impressively complex world, combining a feudal social structure with a bio-magical threat and a history so ancient that much of it is unknown. Readers will be eager to see where this story goes next. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Elen is a deputy courier, traveling to villages with messages and news, always on alert for the deadly Pall. Upon arriving home at Orledder Halt with her nephew Kem, she discovers that a prince of the realm has arrived, brought by a dangerous royal rivalry that permeates the Tranquil Empire. When the pretentious prince and his entourage demand a new pathway to their destination, as their original route has been covered by a landslide, Elen is tasked with leading the group over the hills. She gladly leaves with them, hoping to outrun her past as an enslaved child and the secrets she carries. Overnight at a haunted Spire, the prince rejects Elen's warnings and enters the mystical space, only to return totally changed. As Elen continues to lead the tiresome prince and his entourage across the land, she's not sure she'll be able to keep them safe if they continue to barely acknowledge or trust her. VERDICT Elliott's (The Keeper's Six) fantastic first in a new duology is filled with rich worldbuilding, political intrigue, and themes of class and family secrets. Readers will anxiously await the second book in the series, which arrives later this year.--Kristi Chadwick
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