Wit'ch War
Banned & the Banished, Book III
By James Clemens 

    In an earlier review, I praised the first two books for their fast pace and thrilling plots, and for a good description of this third volume I can say that it is more of the same. The pace has slowed down a little, though, and this book is a fair bit longer, which means that even with this salty tale of merfolk and pirates going at a rate of knots, parts of it tend to flag at times and repetition creeps in. Young Elena has already had enough adventures to last a lifetime, but next she has to infiltrate the sinister island of Aloa Glen and retrieve the Blood Diary. First, though, she has to try and reconcile the mer'ai to their pirate enemies, the Dre'rendi, in order to create a larger fighting force, and try to keep her brother Joach from the lure of black magic. There are old and new friends and enemies to encounter (some aren't sure which they are, which is interesting) and the sort of end that leaves the reader eager for the fourth book.

     As before, this is a delightfully easy read, but the fourth book will be all the better for being the same length as the earlier two as the plot doesn't quite - almost, but not quite - fill this awesome length of pages. He does better with a tubby tome than many other fantasy writers, though, and most of the time the book still enthralls, even when there isn't anything in particular happening, as we discover how the mer'ai live and what it is like on a Dre'rendi vessel. There is a thrilling battle scene where just about everything happens and Clemens reveals himself as being adept at writing this kind of action-set piece. Length aside, this is a fine tale of character-driven fantasy that ought to set its author up with the best of the fantasy writers.