EMISSARY: Book Two of The Percheron Saga
Fiona McIntosh
Eos/HarperCollins
Fantasy
ISBN: 9780060899066

EMISSARY marks the second installment of The Percheron Saga, Fiona McIntosh's daring shift from the standard fantasy that the majority of readers tackle, into the shifting sands of a more Middle Eastern-flavored world. Daring in the sense that she had proven tremendously capable with the classic formula and had found success. To take on a world so vastly different is brave, and to her credit it must be said that her abilities are not wasted in the endeavor. Percheron is a marvel to behold.

Young Boaz, the Zar of Percheron, is at a crossroads. The one person you'd think he could trust, his mother Herezah, is the one person he mistrusts. And with good reason. Herezah has her own plans for Percheron, and one of the first things she needs to do is eliminate Ana, the virginal odalisque of Boaz's harem. Herezah sees her as a serious threat to her objectives and teams with the eunuch Salmeo to bring about Ana's demise. Yet having caught the eye of Boaz, Ana is protected.

All the while, the gods pull the strings on their puppets as they mount their own battles against each other, and Percheron faces a new threat. Lazar, the Spur of Percheron and the friend and protector of Boaz, is secretly recovering from wounds everyone thought had killed him. He is key to the continued existence of Percheron but needs to recover quickly if he is to act in time.

The characters who populate EMISSARY are all intriguing. Pez continues to be the most impressive of the bunch, but Ana takes center stage for this one, in all ways. Every man wants her for his own animalistic desires, Herezah wants her humiliated and ultimately dead, others seek to use her to gain power, and the gods manipulate her for their own needs. All the while, Ana grieves for the death of Lazar, weighed down by the guilt of his loss. Boaz also shows signs of blossoming from immaturity to leader and beginning to understand on a more personal level the deceptions and machinations of those around him who seek only to further their own agendas.

EMISSARY is not filled with daring feats or blood-pumping action, but to say it is wholly devoid of action would be misleading. In the overall arc of the story, EMISSARY is the chess game; it is the manipulation of the pieces with careful precision that sets up an endgame attack of fury that your opponent never saw coming.

With all of the positioning, posturing and planning laid out here, Fiona McIntosh will no doubt have one explosive finale stamped onto the pages of the final volume of this worthwhile and fascinating series.

   --- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.