P.C. Hodgell’s Jame is back, tumbling down flights of stairs, off of horses, and into and out of the haunted spaces of Rathillien. She is finally nearing the end of her time at Tentir, the school where the Kencyrath send their people to learn the arts of war, and survive, or not, on their own. Jame has been the target of more than one attempt to ensure her failure, or worse, and there is more to come, a final test that will decide her future and the future of the Knorths left on Rathillien.

Of course, Jame’s life isn’t solely complicated by dangerous training and those willing to arrange fatal accidents, she still has responsibilities as the Earth Wife’s favourite–and Rathillien itself is stressed to the breaking point, depending on her to set the balance right.

This is Hodgell’s sixth book in the Kencyrath series, and it continues the complex world building and inventive back-story that have enthralled readers for over a decade. Jame has become so much more than the terrified and lost young girl who fought her way out of Perimal Darkness, and Hodgell’s writing has a deft lyricism that effortlessly pulls her readers into a world where even the fish of the rivers have a haunting and ethereal nature. Reality is fluid in these novels, and the uncertainty found in change a haunting refrain:

Jame’s first thought was I’ve gone deaf. After the confusion above, the silence below clamped down on her like jaws. No, that was the water flooding into her clothes. Numb and heavy, she sank. The light above receded. Where was Prid? Where was the bottom? Shallow as the river must be here, she seemed to be descending into an abyss. In its depths in a great roiling, the Eaten One struggled against its attackers.One by one, they detached, uncoiled, and disintegrated like ribbons of shadow.

Jame, through all of her adventures, has never lost the sense of humour that allowed her to see the fun in being chased by a hundred gods in Tai-Tastigon or one very hungry rathorn colt in the forest. There is darkness here, and evil always encroaching, but Hodgell’s characters feel so completely alive and complex; their friendships, and families, and lives are so carefully drawn that it is hard to imagine that they do not continue on beyond the last page. There are no cliches here, no wizards whose infinite powers will save the day, no warriors instantly perfect with a sword, no women waiting to be saved–Hodgell’s world, filled as it is with the beautiful and the bizarre, never loses sight of real life, of the messiness and difficulties that come from just trying to live from day to day. Of the importance of being able to laugh at a fall down the stairs.

There are some books that you recommend to a particular person because you think they would suit a specific taste, but there are some books that you recommend to everyone because you think they should be read, and loved, and enjoyed by as many people as possible. P.C.Hodgell’s books are astonishing, powerful, and addicting, and worth everyone reading, and re-reading again.

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