Author: Sharon ShinnPublished: February 28, 2006 (Ace)
Category: Fantasy
Series: Twelve Houses #1
Rating: 8/10
Mystic and Rider is the first of Sharon Shinn's books set in Gillengaria, a land where some people are born with mystic powers. Senneth, a very powerful mystic, has the power to create and manipulate fire, and she's on a mission for the king to gauge the feelings of his vassals. With her are a couple King's Riders, a sort of elite guard to the king, and a few more mystics, among them shapeshifters and a mind reader.
Times are changing, and people are beginning to fear and hate mystics thanks to the whisperings of a fanatical religious order called the Daughters of the Moon. Mystics are being driven out of towns, beaten, or even killed. I find these sorts of plots the most disturbing because witch hunts really did happen, and people really did believe these kinds of holier-than-thou folks. During the group's travels, Senneth and Tayse fall in love so quietly you might miss it if you're insensitive and dense.
I find it funny that a lot of people think Sharon Shinn's stuff is so romantic and wonderful, but I don't find them very romantic at all. Just because two characters get together doesn't make it a romance. It's easy to assume that the Samaria books are romances because most involve an Archangel finding his/her mate. In the first book, Archangel the hero and heroine are fighting each other, and it's supposedly so romantic, which reminds me of how Lessa and F'lar, of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, didn't get along when they were made co-leaders. While they and a couple in each book get a happily ever after, I've never thought of them as romances. Couples get together in Dean Koontz horror novels but no one calls them romances either.
Anyways, my confusion on what constitutes a romance aside, Mystic and Rider is a fantastic first novel in the Twelve Houses series. It provides exposition of this new world without being tedious, and each character is well crafted. I've already purchased the rest of the series.
1 comment:
Sounds like a lovely book. I have 3 of her books in a series that I am looking forward to reading and if I like them I will branch out and read some more of her writing. I have the ones including The Dream-Makers Magic which caught my eye one day in a book shop.
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