Susan Dexter

The second book in the Calandra trilogy is The Sword of Calandra. I had memories of this one, because this book has (I don’t think this is a spoiler) a detailed and fascinating account of the forging of a sword, which was something I knew nothing about, and which I remember being engrossed in. I enjoy learning about where things come from and how they’re made, and especially things as dear to my heart and yet present-day-exotic as swords.

Tristan is in residence in the delapidated castle show more at Crogen, and preparations are ongoing for his crowning, amid a worsening of the weather – I feel for them, I really do; I’ve been beginning to suspect Nimir’s hand in our winter - and constant threats from just about everyone in the surrounding countryside. Elisena has located the royal regalia, and everything is present … Nearly. They discover that over time and generations of kings and wizards the crowning has become thickly woven through with spells and rituals which must be followed. And they discover – Tristan being Tristan, the hard way – that trying to take the throne without heeding every detail of the accretion of ceremony could be fatal. The problem is that they don’t have the king’s sword. And they very much need the king’s sword. And therefore this is the quest for this book: locating a blade which has not been seen in centuries, possibly since the last king of Calandra fought the Duke of Esdragon. It could be anywhere – or nowhere, though they hope that’s not so likely given its lineage and properties. Once more Tristan finds himself with no other choice but to set out on Valadan – with Thomas at his saddlebow – to try to learn more.

It’s fun to see how little Tristan expects to be missed when he leaves the castle, apart from Polassar and Allaire and, mostly, Elisena and Minstrel; few enough of the people of Crogen recognize him as their king as yet, especially when he wears what he has always worn and physics old ladies’ cows for them. He has no real purpose there, and the mission is almost as much to be useful as it is to find the sword.

They go to Kovelir, in hopes that the old wizard they met last time they were there - Cabal, who knew Tristan’s master Blais - will be able to help them, or at least to sponsor their search through the magic academy’s library. Instead, through his soft-hearted reluctance to hurt the old man, who has aged and sickened in the months since Tristan last saw him, he finds himself apprenticed. Which is awkward, at best. He doesn’t have the heart to break the truth to Cabal, His days are spent with Cabal, and his nights in the library and on the streets searching for first Crewzel’s son and then Crewzel herself, the street magician who befriended him (in her own way) the last time they were in the city.

All of his spells of seeking seem to come to naught. Some information turns up in the library, but not enough, and time is running out – and Tristan finally decides his only course of action is to go to Kinark, legendary for its swords and the place where the king’s sword was made, and commission a new blade to the exact specifications of the ancient one. It’s risky – but there’s no other real choice. And that is how he meets Jehan, a smith with some very large and very painful demons. (Given that it’s a fantasy I should specify they’re metaphorical demons…)

Swords are pretty common Quest items, but this is an uncommon quest. It’s one man, relatively ordinary in many ways, trying to accomplish something he feels is greater than he is. Others may have confidence in him, but he doesn’t; he is so very human, believing he is well able to do many things but incapable of a huge number of other things, knowing from experience that however perfectly everything seems to be going it could all blow up in his face at any moment. Sometimes literally. He is befuddled at having been pushed to the throne; he is uncomfortable with ceremony and leadership on such a scale; he is scornful of his own abilities as a wizard. He’s real.

In Calandra Ms. Dexter continues to present flawed, human, real characters. They don’t necessarily behave or react as the reader expects them to, any more than almost every human in any of our lives always lives up or down to expectations. I love the characterizations, and the plots, and the story-telling. The only thing I don’t love about Susan Dexter’s books is that there hasn’t been a new one in years. And there’s no information out on the ‘web about her, so far as I can find. show less

This is one of my all-time-favourite books, and Susan Dexter is one of my favourite authors.

It is about the adventures of Tristan, half-trained apprentice wizard, whose master dies and leaves him a hidden clue to help him in the quest that is the special prerogative of all wizards - to find the magical Warhorse of the Dukes of Esdragon, find the rightful heir to the throne of Calandra, wake the princess Allaire from her enchanted sleep deep within the ice fortress of Nimir (whose baneful show more influence is advancing, slowly and inexorably as a glacier, across Calandra) and then find the tenth ring to match the nine already on her fingers.

I love the way Susan Dexter writes and the way she describes things; a kiss tastes like summer, lavendar and strawberries, for instance. Her heroes always do their best, even if everything doesn't always go their way, and they have a peculiar vulnerability about them. The way Ms Dexter writes makes you empathise with Tristan, whether he is trying to work a new spell or is just homesick for the simple cottage life he left behind in order to fulfill the quest. I like the way she creates and weaves the old legend of Calandra and Esdragon through the story in the present, and resolves the mystery at the end.

Although this is a book about a quest, and Tristan keeps his focus on it, I was carried along by the story rather than the quest itself. This is not an epic, like Lord of the Rings, but more gentle, humourous and romantic, and there are scenes that give a satisfying sense of safety and comforting warmth.

I find it has a similar feel to Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle Master of Hed trilogy, which is another of my favourites, for many of the same reasons.

(June 2010)
5 stars show less

This was the first Susan Dexter I read in my reread, and it was my first clue that it had been longer than I thought since I read these books - too long. I might have reread them, but it would have to have been at least ten years, I think, for all of them. Ten years and hundreds of books later, I've had plenty of time to forget almost everything: perfect.

I've started with The Wizard's Shadow, which starts with a murder, or an execution. The impression is of something dark, something hunted, show more being pinned down and put, terribly, to death - very effective writing. It doesn't entirely die, though - a shadow takes shelter unter a rock, and settles to wait.

It has a long wait on the seldom-traveled path, until Crocken the peddlar comes along. The poor bugger has had a terrible time of it, with a string of bad luck, insult to injury, that has sent him off on a trading journey farther than he's ever gone before to recoup losses he's suffered. The ill luck hits him again, in the form of his bad-tempered mule and a fall ... which along with knocking him out dislodges a certain rock along the trail ... And when Crocken comes around he is no longer alone. His shadow is gone and has been replaced with a new one, one which, hard as it is to accept even in a world in which magic is common, can speak to him. It makes him a classic offer which cannot be refused: divert his path to the kingdom of Armyn, with the shadow trailing along behind, and he will be paid handsomely. If not ...

Crocken knows it to be a bad bargain - the way is difficult, and long, and very much not where he was headed - but there isn't much else he can do. He obeys, and the arduous journey is only the beginning of a complicated situation he feels completely unequipped for: a morass of motive and suspicion and very dark magic in the castle, a foreign bride for the young to-be-crowned king, and the mystery of what - who - the shadow is, or was, and what exactly it wants.

I loved it. Wizard's Shadow, and every other book I have by Susan Dexter, is exactly what I love best in a book: intelligent, funny, wonderful characters in a beautifully created setting involved in fascinating situations. I made guesses about what was going on - guessed wrong - didn't care, because I was enjoying the book too much. The story did not end up as I'd feared, with the typical everyone-neatly-paired-off trope, and I was glad. I hadn't planned to move on to the Tristan books, but after Shadow I didn't have any more of a choice than poor old Crocken: I had to keep going with Susan Dexter's work. I only wish there was more. ~Stewartry show less

This is book one of the "Warhorse of Esdragon" series, which is a prelude (though written later) to "The Winter King's War", which introduces us to the fabled Valadan - the aforementioned warhorse of the Dukes of Esdragon.

Leith is a Prince of the Isles, but is self-styled Prince of Ill Luck, because disaster seems to continually follow him and afflict those around him. He unintentionally wins the hand of Kessalia - who is the daughter of the Duke of Esdragon, and who does not want to be won show more - riding Valadan. She would rather search for her father, the duke, and her mother, a witch, so Leith agrees to help her, in the hopes that the witch can lift his curse.

I like the way Susan Dexter writes. She makes you empathise with her heroes and heroines without pitying them, however bad their luck; you really want them to win, and you cheer for them when they do. Her descriptions are lyrical, and her plots do go in some delightfully unforeseen directions. And she does seem to know a lot about horses (as far as I can tell - since I don't)

(May 2010)
4.5 stars show less