Book Review - Nightseer

Nightseer

LKH

First printed, March 1992

ROC Fantasy, Mass Market Paperback, 303 p.

ISBN: 978-0-451-45143-9

Author of the New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Laurell K. Hamilton has brought the supernatural to light - and has given readers a vision of a world aflame with electrifying suspense and violent passions.  In this, her debut novel, her rich imagination spreads its wings to fly - in a tale of a woman known as sorcerer, prophet, and enchantress...

The mark of a demon can open the door to undreamed of powers and possibilities - or expose a soul to the darkest and most forbidden forces of sorcery.  Now Keleios wears the mark - and the time of avenging her mother's death is at hand...

This was a chance find for me about 10 years ago.  I wasn't in to the paranormal/fantasy genre then, but I loved the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series, so I thought I'd give it a go.   Actually, it was the cover that caught my eye in the beginning.  There it sat on the bookshop shelf.  A medium sized book, surrounded by plain or boring looking covers, that stood apart with its image of a tattooed woman holding magical flames in her hands... beautiful.

The world LKH has created for Keleios is both beautiful and deadly.  Magic is a formidable weapon in the right hands, and the gods work in mysterious ways.  There are dragons, cats who can 'talk' in a fashion, and the elf and sidhe races aren't the beings from your childhood fairy tales.   Nightseer follows Keleios, a half-breed elf, on a quest of sorts.  Full of action, magic slinging, unrequited love (of a fashion) and good old fashioned revenge, it's a great introduction into the fanasty genre for someone who has read urban fantasy, but wants more.

Although it is one of the few stand alone books by LKH, Nightseer finished with so many unanswered storylines that it's just begging for a sequel.  I mean, what happens to Keleios and Lothor now that they are married?  Does Keleios get her revenge on Nesbit?  Who was the grey, green-eyed Black Healer that wanted a word with her?  So many questions and no answers!