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published 1996; hardback 1996, DAW
In Tira Virte, all legal transactions such as wills, births, and deaths are recorded through paintings. The Golden Key is about the artistically talented but disfavored Grijalva family, which struggles to maintain a precarious foothold in society, and in particular Sario Grijalva, who is determined to restore his family to prominence and set himself up as the greatest artist in history.
Family business revolves around the manufacture of painting supplies and painting, which the Grijalvas do better than any other family thanks to their magical Gift. The stain of bastardy in the Grijalva line, however, coupled with the Gift, render the Grijalvas social outcasts. Only the patronage of the Dukes of Tira Virte and the iron control of the family's secret council, the Viehos Fratos, keeps them from persecution.
Though the Grijalva family produces the most talented painters, at the time the story opens the Duke's Lord Limner is a member of the Serranos, a family that has sworn to bring down the Grijalvas by exposing them as evil magicians. Sario's ambition is to be the next Lord Limner, even if he must pervert his Gift to do it. His cousin Saavedra Grijalva tries to turn Sario from evil, but pays a terrible price for her efforts.
One thing that's fun about The Golden Key is that the villain gets away with his evil for quite an extended length of time without being discovered. The concept of magical paintings is also interesting; Dorian Gray has nothing on the Grijalvas. One drawback to the story was the way some plot elements seemed to be thrown in without much explanation, a shortcoming that might be a result of the three-way authorship and the way the plot jumps to different time periods. More setup would have made the story stronger. I've learned through experience to be wary of multiple-author stories, which can often be uneven and uninteresting. The Golden Key doesn't entirely redeem the team-author concept, but it's a good read.
Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed October 22, 1996
ISBN 0-88677-691-0
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