The Oracle's Queen

Lynn Flewelling

At long last, the final novel in the Tamir Trilogy has surfaced. Flewelling fans rejoice. Was it worth the wait? Unquestionably.

The first two books took their time with setup, but The Oracle's Queen roars to life from page one. It is, basically, the narrative of a single campaign. All the prep work has been done in the previous two novels, so we can get right into the meat of things, and we do.

The book opens up hot on the heels of the ending of Hidden Warrior. Tamir and her supporters are back in Ero, surveying the destruction, trying to whip up some more warriors, and pondering how they're going to fend off anything like a concerted attack from either Plenimar or Korin. (And the book's only real drawback is that Plenimar gets such short shrift, for having been at war with Skala for years.) Korin is still up in Cirna brooding, also whipping up more support for an attack on Tamir. Meanwhile, Korin's newly wed, and Tamir and Ki are trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that Tamir is now a woman, with help from the usual suspects. We meet a few new faces, but the bulk of the book is about Tamir and Korin, and what will happen when the two of them inevitably clash over the title of rightful ruler of Skala.

We're all well familiar with middle-novel droop where trilogies are concerned. I'm more and more convinced that there's some sort of artificial high that comes with the final novel in a trilogy; it often seems as if the third book is predestined to be the best of the lot. Such is the case here, as usual. The Oracle's Queen puts an exclamation point on Flewelling's fine trilogy. Even if you weren't fond of the first two books (and I was), keep on. This one makes it worthwhile.