TRANSFORMATION by Carol Berg
Book I of The Rai-Kirah
(Orbit) Little, Brown - August 2001
ISBN 184149044X - Trade Paperback
Fantasy / Mild violence

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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Seyonne has been a slave for sixteen years and had seven masters - the latest of which is none other than Prince Aleksander, spoiled and bad-tempered heir to the Derzhi throne. He expects hell and he gets it - but things take a strange turn when he is serving at a banquet and looks into the eyes of a demon. For centuries his people the Ezzarians have battled demons until their conquerors the Derzhi all but wiped them out in order to gain more land. If he isn't to have even worse masters and see the world plunged into chaos Prince Aleksander is going to have to see sense and listen to his slave. But it isn't going to be easy for either of them.

Carol Berg is a newcomer to the genre and if this novel is anything to go by I look forward to reading more of her work. Although the earlier chapters do tread water a little at times when Seyonne is being a slave and the plot is waiting to take off when it does it fairly flies away and sucks the reader into a maelstrom of taut plotting and interesting, powerful characters. This is not a story that lets the "special effects" carry it along and apart from the magic (which mainly dominates the last few chapters) and reasonably well-realized background it is very much driven by its handful of intense characters and their doings. Seyonne tells the tale himself which is unusual in the genre and his storyteller style keeps the plot bubbling merrily away. Great stuff - easy reading and stays in the mind afterwards.