The Four Forges

by Jenna Rhodes

Daw, 547 pp, $23.95

The Four Forges is the first volume of The Elven Ways. Kerith is a land without magic. The Magi Wars killed the Magi, and only their Galdarkian warriors created to fight the Magi wars remain. The Galdarkans, the peaceful Dwellers, Kernan tradesmen, and brutish Bolgers had all coexisted after the wars until the arrival of the Vaelinars, who arrived on the winds of a spell storm with no memory of their past. Gradually they pieced together a past and resumed old feuds. They also brought elemental magic with them. Now, years later, the accords that ended the feuding are in danger of being shattered. Illegal arms are being forged. Assassination attempts on the Queen, and numerous attempts to shift the balance of power are rife. There are attacks on the Dwellers, and pollution of the sacred river. Those who would stand against the evils are led by Lariel Anderieon, her brother Jeredon, and the Dweller family, the Farbranches who adopted Rivergrace, a Vaelarian child brought to them as a babe tied to a kindling raft who came with no history and hidden talents of her own. Can this dedicated group find a way to prevent a devastating Civil War?

Rhodes has built a fully realized world with engaging characters with a dangerous manifest destiny. The characters are complex and real in perilous times and leave you waiting anxiously to see what is resolved. A bright beginning for a new light on the fantasy horizon. - Pam Allan