Shaman's Crossing
Robin Hobb
Voyager
Hardcover, R199.95
Reviewed by Gail Jamieson, 19 October 2005
Traditionally in Gernia the firstborn son is heir to the family fortune,
the second becomes a soldier and the third enters the priesthood.
Nevare Burvelle is the second son of a "New Noble" and as such he must go
off to an Academy to study the Art of War when he reaches the end of his teens.
As a young boy he is left with a Kildona plainsman by his father to learn
the ways of the wild and during this time he undergoes a very strange
experience which it will take him many years to come to terms with and to
begin to understand.
In the background we become aware that there are other inhabitants of
Gernia. The most mysterious and dangerous are a people called the Speck who
carry a plague which is deadly to the other peoples of Gernia.
When Nevare reaches manhood he goes to the Academy where he discovers that
there is a big difference between the "New" and "Old" Nobles and that there is
a world of difference in their treatment by the tutors. We see much intrigue
as well as deception in this story of a group of young men who have to learn
to rely totally on each other to survive and remain in the Academy. In fact
it seems to Nevare that he has been singled out to be mistreated but as is to
be expected, all turns out well in the end.
There is not much that is really new or unexpected in this novel but as
usual Robin Hobb writes so fluently that I read it avidly to the end and look
forward to volume two.
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