Sara Douglass, Druid’s Sword

Druid's Sword

Sara Douglass

Tor, May 2006, $27.95, 606 pp.

ISBN 0765305437

The Troy Game, a work of sorcery that is supposed to protect a city, has taken on a life of its own in the form of a woman known as Catling. She wants to complete the game, and now that the creator Major Jack Skelton, who has been reincarnated through several lifetimes, has returned to London, that can now happen. Jack, once known as Brutus and who saw Troy fall, knows that if he finishes the game, The Land of Faerie and Great Britain will be under her evil rule.

Other people reincarnated in this lifetime (the fall of 1939) that are part of the game include Jack's former wife Norah, and his one-time enemy Asterion the Minotaur, now known as Weyland Orr. While Jack searches for a weakness in the game, he notices a shadow hanging over London's skies that only Norah and Waylin's daughter Grace can also see. Jack finds himself very attracted to Grace in a way he never was with her mother, but Catling has put a hex on Grace causing her great pain at certain intervals to ensure they will complete the Game. The shadow represents a new player in the land, one that Grace knows intimately, but whose identity will shock her and Jack, as neither is sure of its true motives. If they guess wrong, the lands of two realms are doomed.

In the conclusion to the Troy Game Saga, Sara Douglass ties up all the loose ends, and gives readers a satisfying conclusion to one of the best historical fantasy sagas to come along in ages. Brutus, aka Jack is finally at peace after almost four Millennia of turmoil, and the audience will like the man he has become. Great characterizations, a sense of continuity from the other three books in this series, and a great storyline make DRUID'S SWORD worthy of a place on the best seller list.