This is the first novel published in the UK from Aussie writer Ms Larke, and if it is a sample of what is to come, I hope she has a long and prolific career. Told in the first person by Ligea, this is her story from complacent oppressor to... well, you will have to read the book to find out more. For this is a real page-turner, told with the sort of storyteller style which takes the dross of bog-standard fantasy and spins it into the gold of a good yarn. Looking back on it now I can see that this truly is a case of "it ain’t what you do it’s the way you do it." For, although I have read novels with this plotline many times, while I read this it seemed like new. Ligea’s character changes are perhaps the most absorbing part of the story, and if the cliffhanger ending is anything to go by, book two is going to be even more exciting. Good stuff.