Written November 2003 as part of a journalism course.

Juliet E. McKenna - Southern Fire: Book One of The Aldabreshin Compass

It's always a little daunting to pick up a book with the phrase "Book One of…"sitting there on the front cover loudly declaring that if you buy, read and like this book you are committing yourself to continual purchases for the foreseeable future. However those that are put off by this are going to be missing out. The novel reaches a satisfying ending while still leaving you counting the months to the next release.

Southern Fire is set in the same world as the previous Einarinn series, but immediately relocates to a distant, relatively unseen part of the world. Set in the Aldabreshin Archipelago the majority of the book follows Daish Kheda the ruler of a group of islands in amongst dozens of other domains. His role of leader is focussed on reading the portents that the sea trading peoples rely on. You are thrown into the politics of the area as a mysterious enemy who use magic to slaughter any who do not run fast enough invades a southern domain. Kheda must find some way to combat the enemy that uses the very thing that terrifies him the most.

The book flows well, keeping the delicate balance between explaining too much and not enough. All the characters are well crafted, whether they feature for five hundred pages or less than a page. As with all of McKenna's work it is a fantasy novel for anyone, not just those who like sword and sorcery novels, there's intriguing politics and mysteries and a satisfying amount of bloodshed too. I doubt there are many that could read this book and not be looking forward to spending hard earned money on the rest of the series. Somewhere there is a very happier publisher.