According to legend, when a Stone of Power is stolen and crushed, little bits of it wound up in every human created from that point on. Normal people would have trace amounts in their system; great sorcerors had larger pieces and were, of course, only male. A young girl named Esmeree, despite having a larger than normal chunk of the stone within her, is bound for a life of servitude by those who fear her potential power. Against conventional wisdom and the standing threat of torture and death at the hands of the Inquisition, Esmeree fights to master the power of her stone. While I will admit to it taking a while for me to really get into this book, once it kicked in, I found it to be progressively easier to understand and enjoy. Especially enjoyable is Lawson's ability to load his narrative with highly graphic -- and sometimes disturbing -- images and beautifully visualized vistas.
Reviewed by Kevin Apgar, Kapgar.com, Goodreads.com
© All Materials Copyright John Lawson 2006