"A great end to this excellent fantasy series"

Growing up in an impoverished peasant croft family in the Chyrian lands of Mel'Nir, Gael Maddoc has no hope to escape from farm life. She detests toiling the land, finding it boring and costly especially when she looks at her parents and two older siblings. She sees nothing positive in her future though she dreams of adventure.

That changes when Gael turns seventeen as the priest Druda Strawn sees something in her especially after she gave to him last year the ancient map parchment she found. He arranges for her to train with the Summer Riders as a true battlemaid while her family's back taxes are paid. Gael leaps at the opportunity to train as a mounted soldier and easily adapts to the military regiment with her background helping her with a stoic acceptance.

The Shee Fair Folk also notice something special about Gael as they believe she is the legend, the Wanderer, "the chosen servant of the light folk". They begin guiding her for she is the hope to save the realm.

Though the great Cherry Wilder died two years ago, readers will agree that THE WANDERER is wonderful homage to her terrific fantasy series, "The Rulers of Hylor". Fans will not be able to delineate between Ms. Wilder and Katya Reimann who apparently completed this tale. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Gael becomes a soldier in training and never slows down as The Wanderer tries to make things right. Without any gimmicks, readers obtain a realm scarred by war and betrayal with a pinch of magic as a flavoring. This is a fitting tribute.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 14, 2004

Summary

Cherry Wilder's The Rulers of Hylor series established a detailed and intricate fantasy world. Katya Riemann completed and polished this last Hylor novel, a tale of warring kingdoms, treacherous advisers and generational conflicts, set in a world of rich physical beauty, vibrant life and a realism leavened with occasional and startling magic. Gael Maddoc, the child of struggling peasants, leaps at the chance when she is offered training as a kedran, a mounted soldier. She wins glory bringing her charges home safe across a huge desert, seeking aid from the Shee. But the Shee--the dwindling Fair Folk--then recruit her for their own purposes. Her nascent magical talents and her resourcefulness show her to be the Wanderer, a legendary figure for whom they've been waiting.