Cast in Fury
Michelle Sagara
Luna, Oct 2008, $14.95
ISBN: 9780373802692
The abnormal size and intensity of the tidal wave that almost destroyed the city has ignited racial tension. Many in Elantra assume the Tha’alani deliberately caused the disaster as they were seen going to the water and almost immediately the water rose in what appeared to be a cause and effect. Though the Emperor wants to ease the tension before a race war explodes, the Swords have replaced the Tha’alani at key security posts and are stationed near the Tha’alani sector albeit to keep mobs out yet also to contain the accused.
To calm things down the Emperor commissioned royal playwright Richard Rennick to scribe a play about the Tha’alani. Lord Sanabalis orders Private Kaylin Neya and Corporal Handred to insure Rennick remembers his mission is to ease tension not enflame it. At about the same time Hawks Leontine Sergeant Marcus is arrested on the charge of murder. Kaylin is told to ignore her “Pridelea” superior officer’s plight and stay focused on the bigger issue; she believes in Marcus so she investigates not realizing the dark terror that awaits her and the Elantra Empire.
The fourth Cast in … fantasy (see SHADOW, COURTLIGHT and SECRET) is a superb investigative thriller as the heroine uses her special magic to prove her military mentor his innocent and to help abate the racial divide that looks almost certain to turn deadly. The story line is fast-paced yet focuses on the destructive nature of de facto (and to a lesser degree de jure racism) in a Rovian way of abusing the strengths of the Tha’alani and using them as a negative to emphasize their differences. Kaylin is at her best in this thought provoking cautionary tale.
Harriet Klausner
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