A pretty good fantasy with a believable female heroine. Her world has interesting magic, a good plot & well formed characters. It was an enjoyable read. ( )

This has some elements of The Hob's Bargain, with a more mature approach. This is book #2 of 3 (I don't have book 1). Enough information is provided so that missing the first book does not severely hamper understanding. This is a sword and sorcery, with a strong heroine and some much darker elements than most of her other books. Rianna is a former slave, dancer by trade, sent as a spy on a mission to help nudge the political machinations between realms towards a situation where slavery in general is abolished. There are also some interesting magical creatures. Easy read, but didn't capture me as fully as some of her other books. ( )

The nasty scar on Rialla's left cheek covers the remains of her Darran slave tattoo. Captured as a young girl when slavers slaughtered her clan, she was trained as a dancer, biding her time until chance allowed her to escape and make her way to Sianim where she found work as a horse trainer. Now Ren the Sianam Spymaster wants her help protecting a Darran lord who plans to outlaw slavery. The only catch - she'll have to go back as a slave.... Murder, intrigue, a god-touched Voice, and a mysterious healer: if Rialla can survive, she may just find the love of her life, but surviving won't be easy.

Enjoyable, but not as finely crafted as some of Briggs' other books. The characters are a bit flat, and the action somewhat repetitive and predictable. Still a good read, though. ( )

This book was all right, nothing spectacular, but Briggs is a decent fantasy author and writes entertaining stories. There wasn’t much wrap-up for this one, though, and I know my wife wouldn’t like the ending just because of that. The main character’s love-interest never really comes to fruition, which would tick her off. But overall, it was well written and an enjoyable read. ( )

A well-told fantasy whose clichéd setup and storyline made for a less than engaging read.
The characters are interesting and seem believably 3-dimensional, but their backgrounds are underdeveloped, lacking in realism and plagued by stereotypes.
The worldbuilding is competent, but superficial.

Rialla is an escaped slave who makes a living as a horsetrainer in the mercenary city Sianim. She is called into service for the Sianim spymasterto prevent a murder. A murder that will prevent the beginning of an alliance between nations and the end of slavery in them.
Pretending to be a slave she travels to Darran - where she escaped from 7 years previous - with the brother of the murdertarget.
When the murder is committed, and her 'owner' accused of it, she allows herself to be reclaimed by her former master to collect proof of his guilt. SHe is aided in her efforts by a non-human magic user, and ends up confronting a prophet of one of the old gods.
The background of Rialla, and the rest of the characters, is sketchy which makes her seem less realistic, but since what there is of it is so clichéd that may be for the best.

The human - non-human relationship between an outcast human female having suffered great losses and a solitary male non-human whose race has dwindled into non-existance is very similar to the story in The Hob's Bargain - which is a much more wellwritten and coherent book. ( )