Prisoner of Ironsea Tower
Book Two of The Tears of Artamon
By Sarah Ash

Gavril Nagarian thinks he has finally rid himself of the Drakhaoul, but actually his real troubles are only just starting. Eugene is now the emperor of New Rossiya and the magical rubies of Artamon are reunited in his crown, but he has been disfigured by the Drakhaoul’s fire and thus swears vengeance upon Gavril. Instead of executing him he declares him mad, and so he is locked away in an asylum where he discovers that he cannot indeed stay sane without the Drakhaoul…

With a mysterious man washed up on a lonely beach, the young princess saying that she is the child of the Drakhaoul’s child and imagining that she is two people, a revolution boiling up in Smarna and Kiukiu looking for lost souls, there is plenty to excite the reader in here. This is fantasy, but not a whiff of Tolkein can be scented and this makes for a welcome change indeed; this is one middle volume of a trilogy that doesn’t sag in any place at all. Sarah Ash’s well-realized world resembles 18th or 19th century Europe with some magic thrown in, and as we haven’t been there before in any similar novels then it is great fun to find out about all these fascinating places. The best thing of all is still the redeeming features she has gifted the villains with, and the flaws that mark the heroes, adding up to a more satisfying and convincing read. With wind ships and “aethyric” telephones, masked balls and dragon-haunted tropical islands this fantasy is sure to appeal to all those jaded readers out there who want more than the standard sword and sorcery. More, please.