#fantasy

Age Range: 17 to adult Genre: Fantasy

It's been a tough day, but this is an easy book to recommend. "The Ladies of Mandrigyn" is the first book in the "Sun Wolf and Starhawk" trilogy. It's beautifully written; everything comes together in a way that almost seems inevitable, but is surprising and gripping nevertheless.

Sun Wolf is the captain of a free mercenary company. His second-in-command is Starhawk, a former nun. When Sun Wolf is kidnapped by a desperate band of women from Mandrigyn, a city recently conquered by the evil Wizard-King, Starhawk sets out to find him.

[“Starhawk,” Ari said quietly. The wind fluttered at his long hair; in the shadows she could see the sudden jump of his tensed jaw muscles. “What am I going to do,” he asked her, “if someone shows up sometime this winter, without you, claiming to be the Chief? How will I know it’s really him?”

Starhawk was silent. They were both remembering Little Thurg, speaking to Ari’s double in the square of Kedwyr.

Sweet Mother, she thought, how will I know it’s the Chief when I find him?

For a moment, a shiver ran through her, almost like panic; the fear of magic, of wizards, of the uncanny, threatened to overcome her. Then the face of Sister Wellwa returned to her, withered in its frame of black veils; she saw the hunched back and tiny hands and herself, as a curious child, helping to sort dried herbs in the old nun’s cell and wondering why, of all the nuns in the Convent of St. Cherybi, Wellwa alone, the oldest and most wrinkled, possessed...

“A mirror,” she said.

Ari blinked at her, startled. “A what?”

“Put a mirror somewhere, in an angle of the room where you can see it. A mirror will reflect a true form, without illusion.”

“You’re sure?”

“I think so,” she said doubtfully. “Or else you can take him out to the marshes on a night when there are demons about. As far as I know, Sun Wolf is the only man I’ve ever met who could see demons.”

They had both seen him do it, in the dripping marshes to the north of Wrynde, and had watched him following those loathsome, giggling voices with his eyes through the ice-bitten trees.]

In Mandrigyn, Sun Wolf is forced to train the women of the city to fight so they can rescue their men. Meanwhile Starhawk tracks him and his captors down. But the Wizard King is waiting for them, and the horrors he has in store and more than memorable.

Fair warning: there are some •very• intense moments in this book. It's not quite dark fantasy, I think, but there are moments that definitely stayed with me all my life. That's why I've recommended it for ages 17 and up.

Hambly is a truly gifted author. I already recommended her earlier book, "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld". In general, any Barbara Hambly book is worth a try.

"The Ladies of Mandrigyn" seems to be out of print at the moment, as is the collection of all three books in a single volume, under the name "The Sun Wolf and Starhawk Series". But they're available as ebooks from the usual providers. You may find physical copies in some used book shops, as well as online (but please, don't use Amazon). You can also borrow it for free from the Internet Archive:

archive.org/details/ladiesofmandrigy0000hamb

Happy reading! 🤓📖

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Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1975, "The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" is a truly lyrical, magical book. Back in those days most fantasy wasn't much more than retellings of "The Lord of the Rings" with a few gender or race-swaps; they were, pretty much without exception, awful.

Patricia McKillip considers this her LOTR copy, but I don't see that at all. This is the story of Sybel, a sorceress and the last of a line of wizards. Her sorcery consists primarily in summoning unique magical beasts to her service. They include:

"BOAR CYRIN Keeper of Wisdom, who knew the answers to all riddles... save one.

THE BLACK SWAN OF TIRLITH Who had carried a king’s daughter from the stone tower of exile.

GYLD Green-winged Dragon who dreamt for eons over the cold fire of gold.

FALCON TER Immortal Lord of Air, who had torn to bloody pieces the seven murderers of the wizard Aer."

All serve Sybel, who spends her time seeking lost knowledge of rare magical beasts...until she seeks in the wrong wizard's library, and finds herself the hunted rather than the hunter.

There's love, betrayal, revenge, death, and redemption here. It's a relatively short book, but very full and extremely well-written with a thoughtful depth of feeling to it. It's also, unusually (for those times and these) a singleton; no sequels were ever published. Nor written, as far as I know.

You can borrow it for free from the Internet Archive, but personally I'd say this one is well worth owning.

archive.org/details/forgottenbeastso0000mcki_x1p4

Happy reading! 🤓📖

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