A healer girl who possesses the eponymous talisman, determined to aid a young lord blinded by a mysterious woodland people. Women rounded up into a marriage lottery at a military outpost. A fleshed-out society of arrogant woodland beings, elf-like yet domineering enough to be interesting. A cruel and beautiful elf woman challenging the rule of the forest lord. Elves treating their human captives like slaves and the half-decent bunch turning a blind eye so as not to antagonize their peers.
This book certainly had promise. I enjoyed the heck out of the first half. We are introduced to the forest people, their scorn of humans, their complex society hemmed in by rules that prevent them from punishing injustice in their own ranks. I loved the characters at this point. Lotis was a worthy villainess, sadistic in her bewitchment and torment of Ylon but hardly the perpetrator of "ultimate evil" she later becomes. Elf King Oxyle was a half-decent fellow with just enough careless edge to him that we question what his motives are concerning heroine Twilla, in whom he takes a marked interest and incurs the wrath of Lotis. What were Oxyle and Lotis to each other? How would Twilla's friendship with the Lord of the Wood progress if they were allowed to talk of anything other than battle strategies? Could Oxyle indeed have a romantic interest in her? How would Twilla balance this against her loyalty to the blind and captive Ylon?
We will never know, my friends. The second half of the book (about the time Twilla and co. meet the obligatory dwarves) was where the "action" really took off and the book devolved into conventional sword and sorcery. All of a sudden the forest people are divided in ranks: the followers of Lotis and the followers of Oxyle, who suddenly want to discuss peace treaties with the humans. Lotis turns from catty woman to outright Evil Sorceress, seeking to break the bonds of the obligatory "Ancient Evil" to take over rule of the forest people and obliterate the humans. Oxyle becomes everyone's ally and a Noble Elf Lord to make Tolkien proud. Numerous fights with evil inevitably follow before the humans, elves, and dwarves can make peace.
It's a shame Norton felt the need to repeat an old formula, because I really think she had something going. Her beginning chapters were slow-paced but character-focused, examining important issues such as industrialization, mistreatment of women, marriage as commodity, the superiority of one race over another and why that's a dangerous position to assume even if your people are in the right. I was led to believe that the book would be about the characters and their relationships with each other, not on their concentrated Fight Against Evil.
To be fair to Norton, the traditional storyline is extremely well told and those who love conventional fantasy should be very pleased. To me at least the traditional plot took the focus away from the characters, the people who kept me turning the pages in the first place. The same weighty themes mentioned above could have been addressed just as well in a character-based book.
Three stars because for what it is, it's very good. Minus two stars because the tone is uneven. Halfway through you think you're in for a romantic fantasy, then the plot becomes standard fare. At least it's not as predictable as some.
