The Door Into Shadow (1983)

A recurring theme in The Tale of the Five involves characters overcoming or otherwise acknowledging the flaws in their personality that prevents them from becoming more powerful, and defeating The Shadow (a fallen power created by the Goddess accidentally letting entropy into the universe she created).

The primary character of The Door into Shadow is Segnbora, a young swordswoman who has the potential to be one of the most powerful Rodmistresses in the history of the Middle Kingdoms. Her natural ability to use the Blue Flame is so powerful that apparently, she has broken every rod she has tried to focus with. Because of this failure, she has tried to excel at many other professions, and while she keeps acquiring new skills and honors, she is eternally restless and unhappy because the only ability her parents seem to care about is her potential to wield the Blue Flame.

Read the rest of this review at A Wicked Convergence of Circumstances. ( )

This book is really, really good.

So good that I didn't even notice until about my third read-through that there's a human-dragon sex scene in the middle of it. :D

It's the story of Segnbora, who's a minor character in the first book in the series and a major character in the third book; this second book is where she -- well, comes of age. Coming-of-age fantasy isn't exactly rare, and I have to admit that my initial reaction to part of it was "blah, blah, strong female charater was raped in her backstory, oh not *again*," but Duane just does it so *well*, as always.

Segnbora our heroine is just practical-minded and cynical enough to pull of the storyline, and as always with Duane, the path she takes to get there is just compelling and vivid and real and true and *mythic*, so that I've adopted parts of this story into my personal mythology without even noticing. ( )

It's a Duane, so of course it's saving the world from the Darkness by figuring out who you are and surrendering to truth. She's about as formulaic as Andre Norton - amazing what variety you can get from something that can be described with a simple formula! The Doors series is somewhat frustrating - been waiting for the fourth one for...16 years now? Ah well, it's a good re-read anyway. This one is largely Segnbora's (sp?) story - she's already done some major changing in Fire, now she really blossoms. ( )

Second in the series. ( )