"An exciting romantic sword and sorcery tale"

The Skald warrior, The Arrow That Flies the Farthest, knows she is the last hope to save her people, but though she would prefer hand to hand combat, she realizes she needs something more mystical. She seeks the most powerful of the Athraskani wizards, Thraxis to stop Balthazar and the magic of his jewel.

However, Thraxis is no longer a practicing wizard because Balthazar has cursed him with a death spell. Any time Thraxis uses his power, he steps closer to death. Still the Council informs him that Balthazar has misused his power and turned renegade mage. They give Thraxis a "Lady or the Tiger" choice of facing certain death using his powers against Balthazar or sleeping with the Beautiful Melilandra. He opts to accompany Arrow even if the amount of power he needs to destroy the jewel and ultimately Balthazar will kill him too. The quest leads to respect, friendship, love, and death.

TYRANT MOON is an exciting romantic sword and sorcery tale that hooks the readers from the very beginning when Arrow recruits Thraxis. She is a courageous, intelligent fighter while he is an incredible character breaking the mold of Gandulf type wizards with his trepidation to even leave his sanctuary. The use of flashbacks enables the audience to understand what occurred to the heroes especially Arrow's people, but becomes overused and disruptive to the prime plot. Still Elaine Corvidae enchants sub-genre fans with a potent spell that the S&S audience will thoroughly appreciate and feel compelled to obtain her other novels.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 21, 2002