The Black Jewels Trilogy

Author: Anne Bishop
Published: December 2, 2003 (Roc)
Category: Fantasy
Includes: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness
Quote of Choice: Daemon snarled in frustration and muttered a few uncomplimentary things about female stubbornness.
"It's not stubbornness when you're right," Jaenelle snapped.

I first found Anne Bishop when I was working at B. Dalton. I was stocking the fantasy shelves and there was this book by a new author, and it sounded really interesting, so I bought it and devoured it. I waited impatiently for the second book in the trilogy. However, the second book took quite some time to release, and I even wrote a letter to the publisher asking for any information regarding the next title. In return, I got an order form from sales to purchase the FIRST BOOK. Well, I never gave up and snatched up each book as it came along. Since that first book came out in 1998, I've read the Black Jewels Trilogy at least once a year.

The trilogy tells the story of Jaenelle Angelline, an extraordinary child who was misunderstood and mistreated by her family. They thought she was difficult and made up stories about unicorns and mythical lands. To their eventual misfortune, they were too close minded to realize that Jaenelle was the long-awaited Witch, dreams made flesh.

It's hard to explain the system quickly, but magic is ranked by a jewel color system, ranging from the White to the Black Jewels. Witch traditionally wears the Black when mature, but Jaenelle was born already with that ability, which is a great burden because that's a lot power for a kid to handle. She needed love and support, and her family gave her none. Besides the Jewels, there are classifications of witches. You could be just a plain witch, or you could be a priestess, healer, black widow, or queen. Jaenelle had the triple gift: healer, black widow, queen.

She is what Kaeleer, the Shadow Realm, has been waiting for to unite the known and mythical territories and bring the kindred (animals who are Blood, therefore wear jewels and can speak telepathically with humans) out from hiding.

Enter the High Lord of Hell, Saetan SaDiablo, hanging around for thousands of years because of a promise he made long ago. He was told that the daughter of his soul would be born and he had to wait for her, and Jaenelle was that little girl. Despite the threatening title and name, Saetan is a charming man, a great father figure and made me chuckle more than once. He has a troubled past, where two of his sons, Daemon and Lucivar had been taken from him and had to grow up in the cruelest of conditions. Daemon is destined to become Jaenelle's mate, and Lucivar becomes the protective older brother.

Bishop created a beautiful world, where this dance of protocol and rank allowed the characters to have this wonderful male-female dynamic:

In Kaeleer, service was an intricate dance, the lead constantly changing between the genders. Witches nurtured and protected male strength and pride. Males, in turn, protected and respected the gentler, but somehow deeper, feminine strength. Males weren't slaves or pets or tools to be used without regard to feelings. They were valuable, and valued partners. That was the leash the Queens used in Kaeleer—control so gentle and sweet a man had no reason to fight against it and every reason to fiercely protect it.

Every time I open these books, I lose myself in them. I love the characters and there is a big helping of poetic justice to close out the trilogy nicely in Queen of Shadows. I love me some poetic justice! Even though Jaenelle is the most powerful Witch in the Blood's history, she's wonderful and quirky, never losing her sense of humor to the most harrowing parts of her life. And with all the wonderful characters comes wonderful dialogue.

For me, you can have the most interesting story, but if you don't have good dialgue between your characters, I will give up on the book, like I did with Fellowship of the Ring. You have these powerful females and these powerful men who are constantly befuddled and howling in frustration over what the women say and do. Of course, they're only complaining because the ladies are always right and they're always wrong... almost :)