Jacoby's fantasy sequence, the Books of Elita, has an attractive sense of the difficulties of reclaiming lost knowledge and of the sheer fag of getting around a medieval landscape on horseback and on foot. She neatly balances her hero's sense of honour--he has sworn not to oppose a foreign usurper--and his sense of duty to oppressed people; Robert has also to cope with the problems of massive sorcerous power and the temptations to use it. Meanwhile, the usurper Selah constantly pushes his luck and others' loyalty; the young witch Jenn explores her powers, and the hidden villain, Nash, the King's smiling confidant, who is older than he looks, pursues his own agendas and desires. Jacoby has a good eye for the physicalities of her set pieces--sieges, escapes, sorcerous duels--but is also sensitive to emotions, particularly those of an older generation who feel betrayed by children with radically different values and priorities. This is a world in which there are no good choices and in which the most overwhelming presence is that of regret; for reasons that the characters will never know, an earlier generation largely abandoned magic and the knowledge of magic in the false belief that this would solve the world's problems. --
Roz Kaveney