The Usurper's Crown (prequel to A Sorcerer's Treason) by Sarah Zettel

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The Usurper's Crown (prequel to A Sorcerer's Treason) by Sarah Zettel
pub: TOR. 524 page hardback. Price: $27.95 (US), $38.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-312-87442-1

check out website(s): www.tor.com

'The Usurper's Crown', a novel following Zettel's 'A Sorcerer's Treason', is very naturally assumed by many of its readers to be the second part in what is marketed as 'The Isavaltan Trilogy'.

You must have guessed by now that it isn't. From other reviews, I discovered that the readers who assumed this, very desultorily deigned to continue reading 'The Usurper's Crown'.

The Usurper's Crown The main reason was that Zettel had provided such a wealth of background information in her first Isavaltan novel, that for many 'The Usurper's Crown', similar in length to the first part, was just more detail of a story that was simply secondary to begin with. Fair enough.

But in my reading, having read them in the order of publication, I discovered an almost heartbreaking pathos as I charted back through the life of the woman, viewed for much of the time in the first part as the villainess.

'The Usurper's Crown', as the prequel, follows the story of Medeoan and her reluctant ascension to anointed Empress of Isavalta, alongside her hideously scarred husband Kacha.

Her consort in the book proves the sometime truth behind the neo-platonic doctrine of outer appearance matching inner reality. With mismatched eyes and a preternaturally aged hand, the reader is immediately wary of him.

We then see the love he inspires in the princess- who, so very afraid of her inheritance, needs his love and horrifyingly comes to depend upon him absolutely, ultimately dismissing her closest friend and tutor in sorcery, Avanasy.

Medeoan's realisation of her betrayal, when it comes, is heartbreaking and with it comes a legacy of madness and hatred that proves to have awful consequences in book one of the trilogy 'A Sorcerer's Treason'.

The formative years of this princess, wholly unsuited to ruling, not prepared for it and not wanting it, are painful to watch. The princess, indulged because she was not originally the heir, cannot shake off her old role and accept the onerous responsibilities that come with her new position.

I believe the reader can do nothing but pity her, despite her childish and sometimes spiteful ways and despite the position she comes to occupy in the previously published first part.

She is immature and this trait just appears highlighted against the awesome power and radiance that comes with the crown. Sarah Zettel achieves much here, intertwining the fantastical Isavalta with nineteenth century Lake Superior.

The novel suffers in its characterisation of Ingrid, who is sharply etched into the landscape of Lake Superior with a stoic pragmatism that just is not attractive. The resultant relationship between this very working class nineteenth century female and the eminent court sorcerer, Avanasy, from an alien world consequently strikes a discordant note.

Zettel's mythology however, resonates with the more exotic touches of Russia, India and the Far East, drawing on the wilder animal spirits like the Vixen- increasingly reminiscent of Reinard the Fox- and the bone witch Baba Yaga.

These spirits, wild in Isavalta, play their own games on a grander divine scale, often for a purpose, but just as often following the legendary capriciousness of mythological Gods- at once more sophisticated, yet less so than humans.

I would advise anybody who relishes details to read 'The Usurper's Crown'. It adds depth to the reality we are thrust into in 'A Sorcerer's Treason' and provides motives and reasons that are not as apparent in the first novel.

An enlightening read.

Sana Master

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