Jennifer Roberson, Deepwood

Deepwood

Jennifer Roberson

Daw, July 2007, $25.95, 336 pp.

ISBN: 0756404185

Alisanos is a separate world with two suns and no moon that exists in the DEEPWOOD separated by a no man's zone. The inhabitants consist of devils, demons, monsters and benevolent creatures as well as 1,000 gods who jockeying for position in the pantheon. Two dioscuri, the products of a mating between a god and a human, are in the mortal realm on a journey that if completed successfully will give them their best chance to fill their heart's leisure and be for one considered worthy of becoming gods.

Rhuan tried to save as many humans as he could when the DEEPWOOD moved but he and an adult pregnant female are trapped in Alisanos; Audrun gives birth to four months early but she's a full term infant. Alisanos claims her other children as part of that realm taking the offspring away from their mother. Audrun with Rhuan's help seek the children two of which are in danger while two are raised by a lonely woman who explains that once in Alisanos a person can never leave because they begin to change and are not accepted by humans. Audrun needs to find her children including the infant that was taken by a flying demon but first they must meet and accept the judgment of the 1,000 gods.

This second novel in the Karavans series is filled with action, pathos and spellbinding drama. Audrun's husband Davyn is desperate to find his family and though he is a supporting character he looks like he will be a major player in the next book in the series. Audrun is one of the mentally strongest characters to grace a fantasy novel because she endures so much hardship in her desperate search for her missing children. Jennifer Roberson has written an enchanting high fantasy family drama.

Harriet Klausner