The Griffin or the Agate

     As the veteran of many a Fantasy trilogy ruined by a less than thrilling fourth installment, I greeted David Drake's Mistress of the Catacombs with some trepidition. Lord of the Isles has been an excellent series, with involving plotlines and three dimensional characters, not to mention an ever changing parade of villians to fight. Mr. Drake has, much to my relief, managed to brilliantly sustain all of these elements, successfully making the jump from trilogy to series with Mistress of the Catacombs.
     For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Lord of the Isles starts with a group of four friends on the edge of adulthood, all of whom are sure that they'll spend the rest of their lives in the tiny town of Barca's Hamlet. When Garric discovers he's the descendent of the last true King of the Isles the four are caught up in a web of wizardry, deceit, and passion that threatens to tear them apart. Through the first three books, Garric learns to share his mind with his long-dead ancestor and takes over the kingdom in all but name; Sharina discovers loss and love and helps to shoulder her brother's new burden; Ilna travels to Hell and back, enhancing her already formidable weaving skills but endangering her soul; and Cashel learns not to fight the powers that sometimes course through him, even if he doesn't like to think about what they might mean. Other friends are gained and lost along the way, but this quartet stays with us throughout the series.
     Mistress of the Catacombs continues in the vein of the previous books - there is no one specific foe to be fought and conquered, but the turn of the millenium is encouraging evil in many forms. This time, a blood cult is being revived and several of the Isles are preparing for war on Haft. Garric's mind is sent forward across the centuries and we become better acquainted with the dead king, as his mind becomes the only on in Garric's present body. Ilna, too, is pulled across time and after many trial and tribulations becomes involved in a weaving contest for her life with the thousands of captive spiders known as the Pack. Cashel is lost in the same incident that separates Garric's mind from his body, taken back to the time of the last millenium change to protect a girl that is destined by her religion to be joined to a present day lord. Sharina is left to fight the human rebels in the Isles and decides to take the war to them instead of waiting for it to come to her.
     All in all, this is another fine example of what a Fantasy series should be. There is love, loss, sorrow, happiness, and enough change that the books aren't homogenized by being set in the same place and time. The only complaint I have about Mistress of the Catacombs is that the multiple characters traveling to different times and places was just a bit too reminiscent of the device Mr. Drake used in the last Lord of the Isles installment -- it was occasionally a bit jarring in a déjà vu way. Still, highly recommended -- though please, do yourself a favor and read the entire series in order. You'll enjoy it all the more.   §

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Author's website: http://www.david-drake.com/

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