Arrows in the Sun by Judith Tarr (First Edition) Review Copy

Judith Tarr returns to her created world of mages in this fourth volume of her Avaryan Rising series. The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the latest heir to the thrones of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. Estarion saw his father die in the golden palace of Asanion, victim of mage-wrought poison and the enduring hatred of a conquered race. On the very day of his enthronement, after long years of regency, Estarion is forced to agree to return to Asanion - and he vows that even if he must rule that accursed land, he will never love it.
With the new Golden Emperor travels his beloved, Vanyi, the mage-born priestess who can never be Empress. She was born a common fisherman's daughter, but gifted with great power - more, perhaps, than the Emperor himself wields.
And waiting for them In the Golden Palace of Asanion is plot and intrigue, conspirators who would kill the son as they killed the father. They would place their own creature on the throne of empires, and their own God in the seat of the Sunlord.

Tarr's fourth installment in the Avaryan Rising series takes place nearly a century after the union of the empires of Keruvarion and Asanion. When Prince Estarion's father was poisoned in Asanion, Estarion destroyed the mage responsible, in the process losing his own magic and gaining a profound loathing for Asanians. Now, a decade later, as Estarion comes of age to take the Imperial throne, a deadly challenge to his power rises again in Asanion, amid the flaring of rebellion and renegade magic. Estarion is obliged to visit the heart of hostile territory to avert civil war; as he navigates the bewildering protocols of this contemptuous nation, he must learn to embrace Asanion and forge a lasting bond between his two very different lands. With elegant prose, Tarr beautifully conveys splendid regal settings, realistic politics, convincing cultural details--and cultural clashes. Even when they wield awesome magic energies or manage empires, her appealing characters remain captivatingly human. This is a sweeping saga, spiced with exciting, unexpected plot twists.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sequel to Tarr's Avaryan Rising trilogy--concluded with A Fall of Princes (1988)--about Mirain the Sunborn and the forcibly united empires of Asanion and Keruvarion. Four generations have passed since Mirain, but Estarion rules Asanion, the western portion of his empire, with unease: his father was murdered there by mage-wrought poison, and so terrible was Estarion's revenge that he expended much of his godlike power. But the rift must be healed, so Estarion will marry an Asanion woman, and learn to understand a people he hates and despises. His lover Vanyi is a mage who knows she must give him up for the good of the empire; his opponents are the secretive and powerful mages of Asanion, and the mysterious Olenyas warrior-clan who guard the throne. Among the Olenyas is Korusan, last of the Asanion royal bloodline. As Estarion is soothed and befuddled by the Asanion mages, so he and Korusan become lovers. Slowly, a great conspiracy emerges: the Asanion mages belong to a hidden Guild that spans the magical Gates between worlds; the conspirators intend to force Estarion through the Gate leading to the Tower of the Sunborn, where Mirain sleeps: woken, Mirain's sun's fire would burn and shrivel Estarion. Even if Estarion can overcome his love and slay the murderous Korusan, Vanyi must still defeat the Guild-mages if Estarion is to survive. Other than the proper names, which sound as if they've wandered in from Tolkien's Beleriand: persuasively produced, thoughtful and modestly inventive, a considerable, newcomer- friendly improvement on the rather stodgy original trilogy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.