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The Glass Mountain by Jessica Rydill check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk
Once again, thank goodness a female hero in a world so lacking in role models. Annat is a young lady with an eye for the young ladies. She is a shaman and sexually responsive to both sexes which is probably no more complicated than our lives. When Annat follows her brother through a magic mirror and becomes trapped in the heart of the glass mountain it is Yuste and Bruce who must use all their skills to find her. For Annat and Malchik are parts of a larger scheme by the Shaman Semyon. He plans to use their souls to bring their old enemy Sarl to immortality also needs their father's living heart. This tale uses different groupings of protagonists employing various methods of travel, including airships, towards a final conflict. The fantasy world has certain resonances with ours and employs various familiarisation techniques including an opening that made me think of the Russian classic novel. The period is similar to pre industrial revolution but with trains. The airships belong to another culture the travellers encounter on their journey. Add a world in a suitcase with its own threatened People and you are dangerously close to Terry Pratchett territory. Instead, the People are Lilliputian in their responses at first survivalist and having no response to the humans they see them only as a threat. They also need to make choices of survival. Magic, when it is employed, is seen as useful but dangerous and the power of the Shaman can be compulsive leading to some dangerous decisions. Morality is important here and choice is everything. Human nature is answerable for any wrong decisions and there is no blaming outside evils. Although taken by the tale the characters are quite lightly sketched and physical appearance remained vague for me perhaps because of a tendency to race through these kinds of books. For me, the deepest characterisation is of Yuste the Aunt who has been stripped of her Shaman powers by her brother Yuda. Her reawakening to power and sexuality are through the ministrations of Boris. Her thoughts and feelings resonated with me as she is closer to my own age and no one likes to be written off over 40! This tale follows on from Rydill's first novel in this series 'Children of the Shaman'. I haven't read that book but there is sufficient detail here to get the gist of 'what happened last'. Not that I would want to discourage anyone from buying more than one book and indeed I would heartily recommend reading both. Despite being 469 pages, it nevertheless races along. Apart from the occasionally overly portentous language it is a tale well told and good for settling down with a glass of mulled wine over the long Christmas break. Sue Davies
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OTHER REVIEWS - January 2004
Books and Magazines By Moonlight Only edited by Stephen Jones The MasterHarper Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey The Complete Book Of Gerry Anderson's UFO by Chris Bentley Down The Bright Way by Robert Reed Dragon's Kin by Anne and Todd McCaffrey Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton The Third Alternative # 36 - Autumn 2003 Southern Fire by Juliet E. McKenna The Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton The Glass Mountain by Jessica Rydill The Gathering Storm by Kate Elliott Lord Of Snow And Shadows by Sarah Ash The Wind From The Sun by Arthur C. Clarke DVDS and Videos Terminator 3: The Rise Of The Machines The Tomorrow People 3:3 and 3.4: A Man For Emily and The Revenge Of Jedikah
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In another time and another place, yet another
tale of good verses evil. Something draws us back to the age old
conflict and the choices made by one human being that can make all
the difference. 
Her
brother, Malchik, is in trouble and sends a letter indicating his
dark forebodings of a return of bad magic. Annat has already seen
the crows circling and the same dark thoughts. She enlists her Aunt
Yuste, who is guardian to them both, and they hasten to meet with
Malchik. Yuste enlists some paid help from Bruce Grebenshikov, a
private detective also skilled in the art of the Shaman. 
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