Everran's Bane
Sylvia Kelso
Five Star, June 2005, $25.95, 225 pp.
ISBN 1594143536

The Kingdom of Everran was a happy place where anyone who wanted to work could find a job and no family was homeless. The vineyards bring in enough money to keep the treasury full and the handsome king is beloved by his subjects, his military, and especially by his adoring wife. Everran's peace ended when the skybane (a dragon) came.

No army can defeat it; no champion can kill it. To stop the ruin of his kingdom, King Beryx sends hearthbard Harran to the dragon's lair to ask what it will take to bring about a truce. Terms are agreed upon but the dragon gives more to the king when he says the "weapon has not been forged" that could kill it implying something not yet invented could. When a jewel disappears from the dragon's cave, it goes on a rampage destroying the capital and the surrounding areas. Banished from his own lands the king and his advisors seek the weapon that would end the life of Hawge the dragon not knowing the answer will cause the king a high cost he must pay in order to save his kingdom.

Not every adult fairy tale has a happily ever after ending, EVERRAN'S BANE is a poignant and moving fantasy in which the real hero must choose between giving up much he holds dear or losing everything to the dragon.. There are clues sprinkled throughout the tense plot that hint at what must happen to defeat the dragon, but the king and readers will never guess what they reveal until the climax. That shocker will leave the audience stunned with the revelation that Sylvia Kelso is the real thing.

Harriet Klausner