Ombria in Shadow
By Patricia McKillip

      Congratulations to Atom, Time Warner’s teenage imprint for bringing the magic of award-winning novelist Patricia McKillip to a UK audience. This is the third of her young adult novels, and has the characteristic lush word-hoard and a midnight’s tale of a plot, replete with magic and arresting images.

      The sinister Black Pearl is the power behind the throne of Ombria, and it is no surprise that the Prince is suddenly dead. His mistress Lydea returns to her drudgery as a publican’s daughter, kicking off her sapphire shoes and running through the streets to keep alive. She leaves behind the true heir to the throne, the child Kyel, and the mysterious silver-eyed bastard Ducon who could be either friend or foe. ,But there is possibly an even more powerful sorceress in the city who might be able to shift the balance of power, and she has created a girl out of wax to be her assistant.
 
     If you have enjoyed Patricia McKillip’s earlier books Winter Rose and The Book of Atrix Wolfe, (both reviewed on this site) then you will love this, which is, in my opinion, her best yet. She has a talent for layering rich images on each other like bright cutouts on a Victorian decoupage screen, and to read her short novels is to gaze into a tiny jewel box.

      The characters have to try to break the power of the evil Black Pearl and I didn’t guess how it was going to end or even how the story would progress when I started reading it. This tale is just the thing for teenaged girls who enjoy fantasy but want something subtler than the usual monster bashing, but adults will find this tale enthralling too.

      For anybody – whatever their age – who thinks that surely there must be more to fantasy than that, this dark-toned and highly poetic novel ought to be right up their dark alley. It deserves to be read slowly and savored, and if you haven’t read any of this author’s work yet then you are in for something of a treat. I do hope that Atom continues to make this American writer’s work available to a wider audience.