Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Mairi

Zira never knew her mother, for the woman died shortly after she brought Zira to the House of God where she has spent the last fifteen years of her life training to become a namoa, a warrior priestess who might defend the Ruan people from the Sedorne. At first glance, there is nothing special about her but her fighting, which her teacher Deo says is the best he has ever seen. Yet Surya, who leads the House of God, believes she is a person of great value.

I selected this book from my library's online catalogue without even a clear view of the cover to go by. That's probably a good thing, as the cover of this book is just weird: there's a highly stylized image of fire (??) with an angry looking person of undeterminable gender stuck in the middle. This, along with the summary, has little to do with the book, which is more a standard medieval fantasy with an Asian twist than the print equivalent of a wuxia film.

Like I said, though, it does have a few definite twists, which makes it a good choice for younger teens who are becoming a bit bogged down by run- of- the- mill fantasy fare.