Subject: Review: Twelve Treasures, The, a series by Rosemary Edghill.

From: [email-masked] (Edward McArdle)
Date: 25 Aug 1999 13:46:40 -0400

The Sword of Maiden's Tears, The Cup of Morning Shadows, The Cloak
	of Night and Daggers, by Rosemary Edghill.
	Review Copyright 1999 Edward McArdle

[Contains major plot spoilers for all three books.  --AW]

These are the first three books of "The Twelve Treasures". I emailed the
author, also known as Eluki bes Shahar, to ask whether there were to be
twelve books, since these three are named for three of the Twelve
Treasures. She said that she would be happy to keep writing them, but her
editor has not asked for another. Since the third was only published in
1997, there may be hope.

There are various worlds, connected by the Iron Road, and the bottom one
is ours. Magic hardly works here, and it is full of iron, anathema to
magic.  In the top world, elven princes rule, and humans are at the bottom
of the pile. Hmmm.

In our world, New York to be precise, one of the elven princes is cast,
mugged for his sword, and found by our heroine, Ruth Marlowe.
Unfortunately, if a human touches the sword, he or she becomes a monster,
and serial killer of the nastiest sort, able to be destroyed only by the
sword itself. Since Melior, the elf, is the only one who can actually
touch the sword.. well, you see the problem.

There are a group of main characters, and the atmosphere of this book is
somewhat dark. It seems almost inevitable that some or all of them will be
killed.  Ruth and Melior fall in love, but are separated at the end.

The reason the sword is important is that if it is lost all Melior's
family is doomed. There has been a war, and a bad guy has been elected
king at the end. But instead of ruling peacefully, he wants to wipe out
all the others.  He does this by having their treasures removed by a
wizard. When they cannot produce their treasures at the coronation, they
are doomed.  The second book takes place almost entirely in Elfland. Ruth
and another find their way there, and have many adventures trying to get
to Melior. Two other major characters are introduced, Melior's young
cousin, and a human Robin Hood, The Fox.

The third book also introduces new characters, and runs in two strands, one
beginning on earth, the other continuing from the previous book, until they
join at the end.

An advisory warning: those who are offended by extreme coincidence may
need to avoid these books.

The fairly dark mood of the first book lifts a bit in the others, even
though some characters have a bad time of it. The first book can be read
alone, but the second ends with a cliff-hanger, so you would need to read
both two and three. Three sort of ends with everyone together, but leaves
plenty of scope for the story to continue. There is a particularly nasty
human character in New York, and it would be worth reading another book
just to see him come to a bad end. He is just a momentary presence in the
first book, but is well into the other two. Obviously the whole series has
been well thought-out and meticulously plotted.

The author has obviously had fun writing these books,and I had fun reading
them. She in fact appears, thinly disguised, in the third book - very
thinly, as the author note at the back lists the fictional character
instead of Rosemary Edghill - and we learn incidentally why she is such a
good writer of fantasy. She has obviously also been a teacher-librarian.
I for one hope that the series continues, and I will keep buying them.

%A Edghill, Rosemary
%T Sword of Maiden's Tears
%I Daw Fantasy
%D October 1994
%G ISBN 0-88677-622-8
%P 284pp
%S Twelve Treasures

Edward McArdle.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mcardle
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