We begin with reality. Or do we? From the moment you begin to read the preface you can never be too sure.

Lucy Stone works for a small games company in Edinburgh, but she is by any means ordinary. Her mother is, for all intense and purposes, a Spook. Of Krassnian descent (a fictional country), she wants Lucy to convince her company to make a game based on ‘The Krassniad’ – a book of myths and legends of the old country that she herself wrote.

With increasing speed Lucy finds herself not only embroiled in her mother’s mind games, but caught between several different shadowy factions. As she strives to uncover her family’s sordid history in the Eastern block she also finds keys to her own past unlocking terrifying memories from childhood.

Determined to unravel the mysteries of Krassnia she journeys deep into that land evading armies, spies and skirting the edges of revolt to the final and ultimate destination, Mount Krassnia, where all will be revealed and her world will never be the same. What she discovers at the heart of the mystery could be the answer to life itself.

At the core of this story is Lucy. She is a bit of geek, a little bit girlie and just like her mother, strong willed and determined. Although I could identify with Lucy in many ways, I did struggle a little to see her as a woman. In fact, it was quite jarring at times when MacLeod would suddenly have her talking about her pretty dress and doing her nails. In my head there was also something very masculine about Lucy. There was something missing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on to identify her as a Woman.

Unlike his previous novel The Night Sessions, this book focuses solely on Lucy, her search, her struggle and the ultimate revelation. Through investigating her mother’s past she also comes across a man who might actually be her father. Through his journal, the story of her Great Grandmother and her own faltering memory, Lucy is able to put together the pieces of a very big jigsaw puzzle.

At times Lucy’s quest is not unlike Indiana Jones’ search for the Arc of the Covenant, with enemies on all sides, a mythical power waiting to be revealed to only the special few, and a final confrontation with evil.

The historical aspects of this novel are quite robust and richly detailed. However, at times the actual plot seemed a bit narrow, Lucy is lost in the bigger picture of what happened in the past century to uncover the secrets of the mountain, and she becomes more of a conduit for the action and linear plot of the story rather than a catalyst.

The mythological and fantasy aspects of this novel are equally rich, and MacLeod uses knowledge of MMPORGs to weave a convincing storyline about the game itself and draws parallels between Lucy’s adventure, ‘The Krassniad’ and the game play. Perhaps inspired by the repetitive nature of the struggles in the particular part of the world he has chosen to set the novel.

At the end MacLeod leaves a little bit of uncertainty about the nature of reality. As in the previous novel, he touches on themes of God, man’s quest for ultimate answers and what does it all really mean? He never deigns to define the answer for us. He asks the questions, gives some subtle hints at what it might be and leaves the rest to imagination and interpretation.

Despite my criticisms of narrow focus and uncertain gender I was definitely engaged in the story. I wanted to know what had happened before and what it all meant. I read it with a voracious appetite and was fascinated by the ending and the ideas put forward through the story.

MacLeod’s style is always splendidly clear, with hints of vivid realism. You get a real sense of place, time and setting. Taking what is essentially the grim nature of man and his quest for power and dominance over others, MacLeod uses history and fantasy to weave an excellent story. Even though Krassnia is made up, it could very well be any one of a dozen small countries that has been absorbed into larger countries and obliterated in the conflicts of great nations over the past two centuries. MacLeod uses that fluidity of history and man made borders to concoct a very real place.  He is certainly becoming one of my favourite authors.

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