In Concordia, each province has just one person who has a single magical blessing, an ability that is passed down genetically from one leader to the next, though one of them (the emperor) has untold powers that pass through his line. To celebrate the empire, its unity, and its magical powers, the 12 Blessed board a ship for a voyage to a sacred mountain. Unfortunately, one of the 12 people on board is Ganymedes (Dee, to his friends), the Blessed of the lowly Fish province, who has a BIG secret: he doesn't actually have a blessing, and it's most likely going to appear in one of his philandering father's illegitimate offspring. But before he can worry too much about that, the Blessed start dying off dramatically, and Dee has to figure out who's killing them before he becomes a victim and his lack of magical power is discovered.
This mix of mystery and fantasy is surprisingly light and fast to read, though there are some wild twists and turns that are both hard to see and not particularly necessary. However, White did an excellent job of creating compelling characters that are easy to love or hate — there's no in-between with this crowd. I'm intrigued to see what she'll come up with next.
No comments:
Post a Comment