Changer of Days, Volume 1 | ||||||||
Alma A. Hromic | ||||||||
HarperCollins Voyager, 429 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Victoria Strauss
Anghara's mother possesses the gift of Sight (part prescience, part magic); she knows Anghara is doomed if Sif ever
finds her. Determined to save both her daughter's life and Queenship, she hastily arranges a coronation ceremony,
and then sends Anghara in disguise to relatives far away. Forced into exile, her true identity known only to a
handful of people, Anghara (already wise beyond her years) must grow up very fast -- too fast, perhaps, for her own
gift of Sight manifests precociously, and she hasn't the ability to fully control its strength. The tragedy
that results forces Anghara to flee once more, this time to the Tower of Bresse, whose Sisterhood, experienced
in the ways of Sight, can offer the training and the refuge Anghara needs.
But Sif is on her trail, and no one who shelters her is safe. On the run yet again, Anghara is offered sanctuary
by ai'Jihaar, a powerfully Sighted woman from the mysterious desert land of Kheldrin, little known by the people of
Roisinan. In Kheldrin, Anghara begins to discover at last the true potential of her prodigious gift of Sight, and
to guess that her destiny may be much greater, and much stranger, than the Queenship of Roisinan.
Changer of Days is an involving, intelligent novel. Avoiding the flashy high-concept premises and gimmicky
special effects with which many fantasy authors attempt to distinguish their works, Alma A. Hromic allows graceful
storytelling, solid world building, and fine characterizations to carry her tale. Many of the plot
elements -- the rightful ruler separated from the land, the great power rising to potential, the youthful
bearer of a fabulous destiny -- are familiar, but Hromic's thoughtful and sensitive treatment lends
freshness to these popular themes. Similarly, the settings -- the quasi-medieval kingdom of Roisinan, the
desert land of Kheldrin -- are places readers may think they've seen before, but the care and detail with
which they are realized provides them with a deeper originality.
Characterization is a particular strength of this novel. Anghara is utterly sympathetic and believable, first as
a child struggling to understand the loss of all she knows and loves, then as a young woman fighting to come to
terms with the tragedy she has brought on others and with the terrifying strength of her inborn gift. The painful
process by which she learns to understand not just power but its potentially devastating consequences is one of
the book's best-realized themes. Other characters are equally vivid, especially the villains -- Sif, who in the
end accomplishes great evil but whose journey to that point is convincingly drawn in shades of gray; and
Ansen, Anghara's jealous cousin, whose betrayal is despicable but also tragic.
This is the first volume of a duology; it doesn't end, so much as pause at a natural intermission point in
the tale. Fortunately, readers won't have to long to wait for resolution: Changer of Days, Volume 2 is out in May.
Victoria Strauss is a novelist, and a lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel The Garden of the Stone is currently available from HarperCollins EOS. For details, visit her website. |
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