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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Shadow of Tyr (Mirage Makers) by Glenda Larke (view source)
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{{infoboxsortinfobox1
|title=The Shadow of Tyr (Mirage Makers)
|sort=Shadow of Tyr (Mirage Makers)
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=480
|publisher=Orbit
|date=6 Dec December 2007
|isbn=978-1841496085
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>1841496081</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=1841496081|aznus=<amazonus>1841496081</amazonus>
}}
Ligea Gayed is back in Tyr - home of the secretive Brotherhood and the despotic ruler Bator Korbus - once her own home too. As a child she had been kidnapped in far Kardiastan and brought up to be manipulated by the empire that had quashed not only her homeland but every other state in the neighbourhood.
There are weaknesses, however. She did not leave me with any real sense of any of the places: the city of Tyr is better rendered than the ocean, or Kardiastan or the mountain strongholds of the rebels - but even there, I found only just enough description to sketch in a locale for the action. Her choice of names - for places, and for people - doesn't always quite work for me. Sometimes they are far too obvious, Valorian, Hotash, Brand, Tyrans, Kardiastan... and at others just clumsy. The title Exaltarch is a logical construction - but it jars on the inner ear, pausing the flow of the rendition.
Speaking of jarring: I must assume that Ms Larke is a polite and well-spoken woman. She certainly does not know how to curse! Her soldiers swear and cuss as you'd expect such men to do - but she gives them such inappropriate words to use. Technically, her constructions follow the rules. They take the gods of the world she's built and use their names in vain. But it is difficult to read Vortexdamm or Goddessdamm as effective expletives. Swear words need to be short, explosive - anything longer than two syllables starts to ebb away. In the real world , they'd be corrupted into shorter versions, that can be spat. I realise this is a quibble, but it was one that pulled me up time and again.
On the whole though, if you like fantasy - you'll enjoy the adventure of the Mirage series. There is clearly more to come. While the featured struggles of this tale are resolved... the book ends with changes that presage more trouble ahead. And the goings -on in the mind of young Arrant speak of darker days to come.
Worth reading.
From the same series, we also have a review of [[Song of the Shiver Barrens (Mirage Makers) by Glenda Larke|Song of the Shiver Barrens]]. For other evil deeds and valiant struggles in made-up worlds try the [[Magician series]] from [[Trudi Canavan]]... or the [[Engineer]] series by K J Parker.
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