The Usurper's Crown / Sarah Zettel

The Usurper's Crown

category: fantasy, author:

Sarah Zettel

book 2 of Isavalta
original copyright 2002,
read in April 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

An interesting approach to the sequence of books in a trilogy. And it works. Very well!

Book one is A Sorcerer's Treason. Book one is the story of a woman who turns out to be the long-awaited daughter of a famous sorcerous couple. The back-story is provided as an integral part of the introduction to the fantasy world.

Book two -- The Usurper's Crown -- now goes back to the back-story! So we know that the ending cannot be entirely happy. Nevertheless -- the ending is entirely satisfactory. This is a very well crafted novel.

Book one introduces the reader to the world of Isavalta, its magic and its key characters. There are a few loose ends. Book two provides the more tragic introduction. There are no loose ends, rather, clear launching points for the final book.

Speaking of which: It is so good to read a book which promises to provide a complete story! I'm no great fan of the franchise approach, where the reader is expected to return for the world rather than its people. And to allow "character development", characters tend to be regularly replaced...

Terry Brooks is a one-man franchise author. He has managed to link two or more series of books into one large-scale mythology. Trouble is, you pick up a new book in the series -- and have to learn all about a new set of characters. Which often leaves me thinking, Why should I care about this group of strangers?! (Straken almost works. Possibly because it is the last book in a sub-series, so there is some plot conclusion.)

Zettel is providing a trilogy -- a complete story contained within three books. Better yet, each book is a complete novel on its own. Two books so far and two complete stories. No hero left hanging off the edge of a cliff... Just a satisfactory conclusion -- and the urge to read more.

Okay, Usurper is a whole new set of characters. Yet they are all familiar -- as memories from the past, from Sorcerer. In Usurper we learn the motivations and the facts behind the history of Sorcerer.

Meanwhile, we know that the familiar characters from Sorcerer are waiting... Not in some ridiculous side-track but in the future... at exactly the point at which we left them.

Usurper provides essential background reading -- without interrupting the flow of the story. I will go eagerly to book three: Looking forward to the grand finale of the Isavalta trilogy. And with the extra understanding of Isavalta characters and history which is provided by book two.

Oh. Yes. Zettel still writes as though she is being paid by the word. This time I was not surprised. I simply sat back and enjoyed the flow.

..o0o..

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