King of the Dead

Nazhuret is sent to his mistress, Arlin, to settle differences between warring factions in Rezhmia

In a remarkable sequel to Lens of the World , the wandering optician Nazhuret, who has renounced his birthright as a powerful noble, is sent from his native Velonya to the neighboring land of Rezhmia to forestall a disastrous war. Accompanied by his lover Arlin, Nazhuret sets off to see his great-uncle Sanaur Mynauzet, ruler of Rezhmia. Their arrival coincides with an earthquake, which shatters the city and offers an ominous portent for their mission. Nazhuret is greeted fondly by the sanaur and bitterly by Reingish, heir to the throne and Nazhuret's double. The Velonyans survive Reingish's attempts to kill or dominate them, and Arlin saves the life of the sanaur. They fail in their peacemaking attempts, however, and race back to warn their compatriots, along the way uncovering the truth behind the war-provoking incidents. MacAvoy triumphs again in his second chronicle of a man who seeks neither power nor adventure but finds himself in the center of events only he can alter.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The understated and unusual fantasy series begun in Lens of the World (1990) continues to delight in this second volume. The young student Nazhuret, who learned at the end of the first book that he was heir to a duchy, finds himself beset by assassins who want to prevent him from claiming his birthright (in which he has no real interest). But before he and his lover Arlin can discover who is behind the attempts on their lives, they are commissioned by King Rudof of Velonya to travel as his unofficial ambassadors into the Rezhmian Empire. Tensions have been rising between Rezhmia and Velonya, and Rudof hopes that Nazhuret and Arlin can succeed diplomatically where others have failed. Their journey takes them to the plains of the wild Nailish nomads, where they meet a wizard, weather earthquakes, and narrowly avoid being shanghaied into the Rezhmian army. At last, reaching Rezhmia, they fall in with a visionary eunuch slave and race against time to avert the coming war. MacAvoy's series has some of the flavor and subtlety of Gene Wolfe's modern classic The Book of the New Sun, but her own unique elements--a fascination with shifting genders and the mysteries of death--make this series distinctive in the often monochromatic fantasy field. Unlike many other series fantasies, each volume of MacAvoy's tells a self-contained story as well as advancing the larger saga, so readers will not feel cheated waiting for the next volume. The ``Lens of the World'' series promises to become a landmark of the decade, and no reader of modern fantasy should miss it. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Where most fantasy adventures deal out magic in bold strokes, MacAvoy's novels exhibit a more elusive quality. In this sequel to Lens of the World ( LJ 5/15/90), Nazhuret the lensmaker travels to the hostile kingdom of Rezhmia to prevent a war. Although magic (of a sort) figures in the plottings of both sides, this story's real strength lies in subtle characterization and attention to cultural detail. Nazhuret and his sword-wielding mistress Arlin are provocative, complex people--like the world in which they live. Libraries that own the previous volume will definitely want this.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.