Barbara Campbell, Bloodstone

Bloodstone

Barbara Campbell

Daw, August 2006, $7.99, 320 pp.

ISBN 0756403553

Keirith is an apprentice shaman to the Tree-Father and he takes joy in joining his spirit with the eagles, seeing through their eyes and feeling the power of flight. He knows that this is forbidden ever since Morgath tried to cast out the spirit of a person. When the Tree Father catches Keirith performing the forbidden act he tells him he can no longer be his apprentice. When his father Darak finds out the two men get into an argument and the son uses his power to push his father away from him.

Not long after that Keirith sees raiders and warns the tribe but he is kidnapped and transported to the Zherosi city way to the south. There he is singled out by the Pajhit (High Priest) Malaq who believes he might be the son of their long prophesized god. He is taken under the Pajhit's wing and treated like a son but he has an enemy the Zeherosi priest Xevhan who wants to learn to use Keirith's powers and become the new Pajhit. Darak is heading to the city where his son is held but getting both of them out of there will prove impossible unless the Trickster God that Darak's wife Griane made a bargain with keeps his word.

Imagine The Crucible Trilogy by Sara Douglass crossed with the fantasy saga of Kate Elliott and the reader will have some idea what BLOODSTONE is all about. The main protagonist suffers and matures after being taken from his tribe and yet readers will feel he has done nothing wrong because his actions weren't evil but the law didn't recognize the different shades of gray concerning Keirith's power. Barbara Campbell proves she is no one shot wonder with the Second Trickster's novel which is ever better than HEARTWOOD.

Harriet Klausner