The White Road

The only good thing about delays in air travel is that they give me ample time to catch up on my reading.  I had recently picked up Lynn Flewelling's latest, The White Road (Bantam Spectra, 2010; editor: Anne Groell) which is the sequel to Shadows Return (discussed here), which is the sequel to her earlier Nightrunner trilogy.  Assorted travel excitement on Friday gave me ample time to finish it on the road.

The White Road wraps up the story begun in Shadows Return, and there is no indication of a third (sixth) book.  I'm just as happy about that.  Once again, I found it interesting enough to keep reading but simply wasn't bowled over by it.  None of the Nightrunner books have been anywhere near as compelling to me as the Tamir Triad which first got me interested in Flewelling's work.

Note: There are significant spoilers for Shadows Return below.  Right below.  In the very first sentence of the next paragraph.  Stop reading right now if you care.

The White Road follows Serengil and his half-breed lifemate Alec, freshly escaped from slavery and back among Serengil's family, along with the mysterious Sebrahn, alchemically created from Alec's bodily fluids and, to Alec at least, in some sense his child.  Sebrahn is protective and generous with his healing magic, but very high-maintenance: he cannot bear to be separated from Alec for most of the early part of the book, and his version of not coping involves emitting sounds that can potentially kill.  Alec's efforts to treat him -- it? -- like a human child make it more and more obvious just how alien Sebrahn is and how impossible any sort of normal life will be with him in tow.

In the meantime, two sets of hunters are stalking Alec and Serengil: Alec's maternal clan, who have no use for half-breeds and more knowledge about Sebrahn than even the now-dead alchemist who created him; and an old enemy of Serengil's race who seeks to use Sebrahn's healing powers to extend his life and is making use of Serengil's former lover and betrayer, Ilar, to further his hunt.

All of this makes for a good enough story, though it's a bit on the soap opera side, with Ilar enacting little emotional psychodramas over his love-hate relationship with Serengil and Alec struggling with separation anxiety over Sebrahn.  I didn't find that struggle or the stress it places on his relationship with Serengil particularly convincing on an emotional level.  Ilar, I just wanted to smack and tell him to get over himself, already.  I also felt that the matter of Sebrahn's nature was never sufficiently explained.

But it's still pleasant to see a stable and loving male/male relationship portrayed in a fantasy series and an appropriately happy-ever-after ending that is convincingly imperfect is mostly achieved.  I feel like I'm damning a decent novel with faint praise here, but I'm still yearning after the heights that Flewelling achieved in the first two of the Tamir Triad especially, so her other books are just not quite satisfying me.

Shopping links for Nightrunner 4 & 5 and the Tamir Triad, which has spoiled me for everything else Flewelling has written:

 

Comments

[Mary Aileen]

I tried to read The White Road, but put it down after a couple of chapters. It just wasn't holding my interest. From your review here, it's evident that it was not just me, but at least partly the book's fault.

[Susan de Guardiola]

The Nightrunner books seem to have a substantial fan base, but they just don't compare to the Tamir Triad. Try those instead; the first two especially are impossible to put down.

[Mary Aileen]

I've read all of Flewelling's books; that's why I picked up The White Road. I agree that the Tamir books are much superior.

[Susan de Guardiola]

It's really a dramatic difference, and I can't figure it out.