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published 1995; paperback 1995
Elfland, as they say, is always duller than Poughkeepsie. Not this place. Chandrakar of the Lands Beyond the Morning is a fearsome place, simmering with discontent and scarred with the marks of a barely extinguished civil war. Though the Cup of Morning Shadows plays almost entirely within this other world, author Rosemary Edghill keeps the cynical edge that made the previous book in this series successful.
In fact, the denizens of this weary world have the ability to startle New Yorkers. The Lady Floire Jausserande, a 17-year-old violet-eyed elfin maid, is so burned out from combat that she gives a Vietnam veteran a couple of unsettling moments. If pain is meat and bread to some, then the Lady Jausserande has gnawed the feast to crumb and bone. She is Warden of one of the Twelve Treasures, and her title is no mere decoration; she has been a mercenary captain, and proves a relentless inquisitor. Chandrakar has been at war for many lifetimes.
The story picks up where the previous novel leaves off. Rohannan Melior, having recovered and disarmed his treasure, has set himself to the task of recovering his beloved, Ruth, a human from the World of Iron. It's likely Melior would do this anyway, given his stubborn impetuosity, but Ruth is far more than heart-twin to him: She is proof that someone has tampered with his Treasure. Melior believes that it is likely that the same someone has tampered with all twelve of the royal Treasures, leaving Chandrakar itself in mortal peril.
Along the way his scoffing cousin Jausserande encounters difficulty in her own quest, not least of which is stumbling across an apparent human uprising. You see, in the glorious elfin land of Chandrakar, human people are serfs. There is no science or literacy, and the physical differences between the two peoples have led to a situation uncomfortably reminiscent of human history. As Fox, the human outlaw says: "Feudalism isn't pretty, but it gets downright ugly when you add in racism."
Does Fox sound a little overeducated for an unlettered woodsman? You bet. More like a New Yorker than a downtrodden serf? But in this place Robin Hood ... er, ah Fox's seeds find fertile ground. And Fox's motives are at cross-purposes to Melior's, and for that matter, to Ruth's.
I predict that the metamorphosis of characters will keep this series interesting for several books yet; for now, Edghill is content to tighten the screws. She adds a few more characters and lets a few others slip into the background, but I have few doubts that some will soon reemerge, though like Fox they might be difficult to recognize at first. This is a fast-paced read, and the one problem I had with it was less a problem with book than with reader: the plot moved so quickly that I had trouble keeping up with what was going on. Time seems to be wasted on the careful development of what are essentially secondary characters, and all kinds of allusions to human myth and legend seemed to be tossed together without thought.
Wrong. With the next book in this series (so I'm cheating) much will become clear. Even though this book suffers to some degree from second-novel syndrome (it's dark, murky, and nothing gets resolved), Edghill handles the myriad plot lines with competent ease.
Review by Becky Parkhurst
Reviewed March 30, 1997
ISBN 0-88677-671-6
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