Priestess of the White
Trudi Canavan
Penguin
Hardcover, 659 pages, R110.00
Reviewed by Gail Jamieson, on 24 April 2006
This novel is the story of a young girl, Auraya, who is choosen to become
a priestess, and in ten short years ends up as a "Priestess of The White",
one of the five rulers of the land of Hania. They communicate directly with
the five gods and hand down instruction to the people. In the various
countries are also the Dreamweavers who can heal in a magical manner but do
not bow down to the five gods and so are considered as heretics.
Auraya's mission is as a type of ambassador who must convince various
countries to band together to fight against the land from which the strong
black-clad evil sorcerers come. There are indeed a number of interesting
stories that make up this novel but in general I found it a simplistic story.
For instance, we hear nothing of Auraya's ten years of study, only that she is
now one of the "Five"
She becomes romantically involved with the one man she should not, battles
against the evil sorcerers and their minions, learns about the cute flying
Siyee and learns to fly herself.
The novel is readable enough but there are so many of this type of trilogy
available now that they need to have something really special about them to
make you want to continue on to volume two and I am afraid that this one does
not.
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