"Brilliant finale to an exciting mini-series"
The World of Darkover enhances psychic (laran) powers and
wars are fought over long distances using special laran
weapons created for that purpose. At the end of the age of
the Hundred Kingdoms, King Carolin Hastur and keeper Varzil
Ridenow pressure the various realms to sign the Compact
that would ban long distance weapons of mass destruction. King Carolin doesn't know it but he has a very powerful
enemy who wants him dead as his former friend Edwin
Deslucido is under a compulsion spell laid upon him by his
father to kill the entire Hastur Clan. The spell controls
Edwin forcing him to turn one kingdom against another in
the hopes that Varzil will die so he can finally destroy
Hastur. The keep under attack houses Varzil's sister, a
woman who Edwin once loved and realizes he still loves. Is
his love stronger than his father's hate spell because
Edwin feels compelled to save her yet is also obsessed with
his sire's mission. Mindful of Hamlet, Edwin is one of the most tragic figures
ever to grace the pages of a fantasy novel. He is not an
evil man but a person driven to the point of madness
because of a spell put upon him by his malevolent father. A
FLAME IN HALI takes the reader into the mind of Edwin, a
man who can't control his actions yet in the end, good can
come out of the tragedy if the Compact Carolin and Varzil
forge is signed by the kingdoms to prevent what happened in
Hali from ever happening again. Marion Zimmer Bradley and
Deborah J. Ross have written a brilliant finale to an
exciting mini-series. Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 9, 2004
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 24, 2007
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