Laura Anne Gilman, Blood From Stone

Blood From Stone

Laura Anne Gilman

Luna, May 2009, $14.95

ISBN: 9780373802975

Magic in the twenty-first century is created by channelling currents the same way electricity powers machines. Wren Valere is a powerful Talent and an excellent Retriever who takes things her clients want for a colossal sum of money. Her business partner and lover Sergei find her next assignment which is to she snatch a boy who is the focus of a custody suit; the child has Talent so his parents sold him to a man who wants those powers. Wren put a compulsion on the lad's father keep the child and care for him.

She has no time to catch her breath because her friend the demon P.J.. has a problem. He was created to enable a Talent to discharge channelled energy. The people after him are descendants of his creators and plan to use him to create new demons for them to use. Sergei and Wren risk their lives to stop this dangerous fiasco from occurring.

This ends the Retriever saga with quite a climax that will hook fans interested in how several themes play out; will Sergei and Wren work out their differences and will they save the demon P.JI. are among the questions answered. Laura Anne Gilman proves once again she is a gifted fantasist over the course of the final tale (and the overall series) as her heroic lead couple evolves. Though it pays for newcomers to read the five previous Retriever thrillers first, fans of the novels will know that master enchantress Laura Anne Gilman can draw BLOOD FROM STONE.

Harriet Klausner