Daughter of the Blood

Black Jewels Trilogy: 1

ISBN: 0-451-45671-8 Order from: Amazon.com

Another story of a prophesied heir growing up to do battle with tyrants, within a somewhat original world with a hierarchy of magical powers, sexual abuse, too many titles and reverse terminology.

Reviewed by David on August 19, 1998 (rev. 2)

Genre: Fantasy (High Fantasy, Coming of Age)

Synopsis: In a world ruled by a cruel and corrupt magic aristocracy, a young girl destined to be a ruler is growing up in a remote land. Her growing powers and promise attract deadly enemies and dedicated allies.

Full Review: Terreille and the surrounding countries are rules by the Blood—the magic-gifted aristocracy classified in their power by the Jewels mysteriously granted to them during rituals. The darker the jewel, the more power. The terminology smacks of Satanism: there are Witches, Black Widows, blood drinking, poisonous fingernails. Major characters are named Daemon the Sadist. One of the better guys is called Saetan and rules in Hell.

And indeed, the habits of the ruling Blood seem diabolical: casual murder, routine enslavement, murder and rape. In fact, rape is a major factor in the power structure: the female Witches dominate the gifted males through it; the males in turn drive adolescent females mad and controllable through especially brutal deflowerings.

In these realms of repression and torment an especially ambitious and cruel Queen is steadily increasing her influence and stripping other lands of dignity and strength. A few of the victims are sustained by the prophesy of a young Witch—one powerful enough to overthrow the Queen and, perhaps, restore the decency and honor to the rule of the Blood.

After centuries of pain, the prophesy seems to be embodied in the young Jaenelle growing up on a provincial island.

As a handful of bitter and tired allies seek out the young girl to protect and teach her magic, the others seek to destroy her. Unfortunately, some of her most dangerous enemies are all too close to the young Witch, for the evil Queen's insidious corruption has touched even Jaenelle's family. Some of these protagonists are both mysterious and powerful, such as some almost mythical beings, and vampire-like once-dead blood-drinking Guardians.

This beginning of a trilogy is both promising and somewhat frustrating. It has two flaws that have annoyed me in other fantasies.

First, there are improbably bright characters. Nearly everyone is a Warrior Prince, a powerful magician, a Queen, a High Priest or a King. The titles are not nearly as annoying as disproportional age. One character is 1700 years old. Other Bloods are clearly older. One character, a vamprical King of the Dead, is 50 000 years old; and there are beings older yet. All of these are well drawn, but they all behave like regular people, no more than, say, 70 years of age. Trying to describe beings of immense age is as difficult as truly alien aliens, or Vinge's supermen. However, my suspension of disbelief suffers when asked to imagine that bright human beings after centuries and millennia of life have the same motivations and reactions as normal 20th century adults. In addition, the ancient Guardians, a cross between ghosts and vampires seem to be no different than humans, with a few restrictions mentioned almost in passing. In fact, they seem to have normal bodies, lives and desires as normal humans, except they are almost immortal. This seems almost like cheating death—where is the price? It would have been better to give the characters less remarkable ages and titles—throughout history humans have been capable of immense achievements and immense suffering in their short, sometimes very short, lives.

The second peeve is the imbalance of power. The most powerful characters—the black-jeweled magicians, as well as the super-Witch herself, all seem to be on the side of the angels (dark titles notwithstanding). The evil guys (or gals) all seem to be less powerful, not particularly intelligent, almost petty. It is almost the good guys' ineptitude, lack of organization, and, in Jaenelle's case almost fatalistic passivity, which allows the evil to prevail. I know that the classic tragic plot is having the hero's own flaws cause his destruction. Occasionally, this can be used in irony, when the very strength of the character is the cause of his downfall. However, in an epic struggle, which I take this fantasy to be, the hero needs to be an underdog. The author should have either strengthened the villains, or made the heroes less powerful. As it is, the reader sometimes feels like smacking the heroes upside the head and yelling "why don't you just fry the bad guys".

These grumbles aside, the book shows remarkable deftness in portraying Jaenelle and her interactions with her friends. The magical hierarchy is original and worth exploring further. Other than the distracting and somewhat implausible theme of ubiquitous sexual abuse, even in seemingly neutral or decent characters, and misleadingly dark terminology, the book shows enough promise to make one anticipate a sequel with pleasure.

Note: the second book, Heir to the Shadows will be published in April). Reportedly, it starts about 5 days after the end of Daughter of the Blood and continues until Jaenelle is twenty.

The third and final book is scheduled for 2000, and describes about a year starting when Jaenelle is 27.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 6; Style: 5.5; World-building: 5.5; Originality: 6;

ISBN: 0-451-45671-8 Order from: Amazon.com