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High Couch of Silistra #2
The Golden Sword
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384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
13 people are currently reading
407 people want to read
About the author
Janet E. Morris
108 books383 followersJanet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is a United States author. She began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 20 novels, many co-authored with David Drake or her husband Chris Morris. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell. Most of her work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written several works of non-fiction.
Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.
In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.
Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.
In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 21, 2016
The Golden Sword
Let me start by saying this is the SECOND book in the SIlistra Quartet – and it helps to have read the earlier book, although I think you could get by without it.
The action starts immediately, and thus some prior knowledge of the world and the main character is useful. That said The world building, like Janet Morris’s other books is superb and there is a helpful glossary at the back for the unfamiliar alien terms. When Morris creates a world she doesn’t hold back and this darkly sensual book ticks all the boxes for drama, cleverness and the ability to make the reader think. What is duty? What is love and how does it bind a person. Is sex merely pleasure or is there something far more profound in our genetic and cultural identity – and for that matter how fixed is it? Silistra is a world once ravaged by a war and environmental damage which almost destroyed everything – greed, vanity, selfishness and all the dark deeds of which an ‘intelligent’ society is capable. From these ashes rise the Wells and the alien but hauntingly possible culture of this world.
Silistra is a world where the ability to reproduce is perhaps the most important aspect – as wars and a bloody history almost destroyed the races. Thus sex, and the relationships between men and women, the way their society sees them, is important. And women ofter hold the power. Yet it isn’t that simple (these things rarely are), for the various factions fight between themselves, try to hold the more technologically advanced races at bay, and seek to find themselves. Love of those simply not worthy of it by the rational mind and of the call of one person’s allure to another. The role of men and women, master or mistress and subordinate, of slave and free, of tribe and tribe, city and city, Silistrian and environment are woven about a tale of one woman’s quest to find out who she is and not necessarily liking the answer.
The secret of the Silistran longevity is threatened, and with it the Silistran way of life and all they hold dear. This is more than just Estri’s own fight for survival as allies and enemies duel, intrigue and switch allegiances. Secrets are revealed, bargains struck and betrayed and threats loom from the stars without, the people within and the treachery of one’s own fear.
It’s not a book for those looking for a simple adventure, or a happy ever after. It’s not a love story, and it’s not a story for those who are easily offended. But it is a great story. There is sex, violence, betrayal, blood, death, loss, love, hatred, fear, power struggles and people being really quite shitty to one another, and in this I found a reflection of ourselves – our world as could be, and might well be. This is a book which makes one’s blood sing and one’s mind ponder.
I loved the first in the series and enjoyed this as much, perhaps more. The ending leaves the reader desperate to know what happens to Estri next – courtesan, slave, warrior, lover, rebel. What is next for our heroine?
Let me start by saying this is the SECOND book in the SIlistra Quartet – and it helps to have read the earlier book, although I think you could get by without it.
The action starts immediately, and thus some prior knowledge of the world and the main character is useful. That said The world building, like Janet Morris’s other books is superb and there is a helpful glossary at the back for the unfamiliar alien terms. When Morris creates a world she doesn’t hold back and this darkly sensual book ticks all the boxes for drama, cleverness and the ability to make the reader think. What is duty? What is love and how does it bind a person. Is sex merely pleasure or is there something far more profound in our genetic and cultural identity – and for that matter how fixed is it? Silistra is a world once ravaged by a war and environmental damage which almost destroyed everything – greed, vanity, selfishness and all the dark deeds of which an ‘intelligent’ society is capable. From these ashes rise the Wells and the alien but hauntingly possible culture of this world.
Silistra is a world where the ability to reproduce is perhaps the most important aspect – as wars and a bloody history almost destroyed the races. Thus sex, and the relationships between men and women, the way their society sees them, is important. And women ofter hold the power. Yet it isn’t that simple (these things rarely are), for the various factions fight between themselves, try to hold the more technologically advanced races at bay, and seek to find themselves. Love of those simply not worthy of it by the rational mind and of the call of one person’s allure to another. The role of men and women, master or mistress and subordinate, of slave and free, of tribe and tribe, city and city, Silistrian and environment are woven about a tale of one woman’s quest to find out who she is and not necessarily liking the answer.
The secret of the Silistran longevity is threatened, and with it the Silistran way of life and all they hold dear. This is more than just Estri’s own fight for survival as allies and enemies duel, intrigue and switch allegiances. Secrets are revealed, bargains struck and betrayed and threats loom from the stars without, the people within and the treachery of one’s own fear.
It’s not a book for those looking for a simple adventure, or a happy ever after. It’s not a love story, and it’s not a story for those who are easily offended. But it is a great story. There is sex, violence, betrayal, blood, death, loss, love, hatred, fear, power struggles and people being really quite shitty to one another, and in this I found a reflection of ourselves – our world as could be, and might well be. This is a book which makes one’s blood sing and one’s mind ponder.
I loved the first in the series and enjoyed this as much, perhaps more. The ending leaves the reader desperate to know what happens to Estri next – courtesan, slave, warrior, lover, rebel. What is next for our heroine?
May 18, 2016
I am deeply tempted to simply write, five stars, place a period, no, an exclamation mark after the word “stars”, and thusly be finished with my review. Tempted, yes, but I won’t do that. Not just yet. Let me put two questions to you, dear reader(s):
1. Is there anything I can say in this review, that would dissuade you to not buy this book, if you have already decided to buy the book?
2. Conversely, is there anything I could possibly say in this review, to persuade you to buy this book, if you had already decided, not to buy this book?
My recommendation is that you purchase the book, based on its literary merit.
Why? Here we have a series of four books, a quartet. It was first published in 1977. That’s 39 years ago. It’s now May, 2016. It’s half a century later. Imagine you read this book in 1977, went to sleep after reading it, and then woke up today, May 18th, 2016.
You would probably think you had woken up in the world described in this book. At least, the book's primary subject matter, low fertility rates, is still holding up pretty well. It’s consistent with what Janet Morris explores in this series.
In fact, we could go ahead and call Janet Morris a prophet. In today’s world, according to the United Nations Data Booklet “World Fertility Patterns” (2015), birthrates in developed countries are declining. Global fertility is now 2.5 children per woman.
I must ask the question: How does a woman have half a child? Impossible, I know. But, we’re talking statistics here, and such things are possible. Let me quote directly from that UN booklet:
“Fertility patterns in the world have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Global fertility has reached unprecedented low levels…” (end of quote) What is even more worrying is the fact that “nearly half the world lives in below-replacement level fertility countries.” Let me give you the facts straight from page 6 of the report:
“Today, 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries with low levels of fertility, where women have fewer than 2.1 children on average. Low-fertility countries now include all of Europe and Northern America, as well as many countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Another 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in “intermediate fertility” countries that have already experienced substantial fertility declines and where women have on average between 2.1 and 5 children.
The remaining 8 per cent of the world’s population lives in “high-fertility” countries that have experienced only limited fertility decline to date. In these countries the average woman has five or more children over her lifetime. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.” (end of quote)
So, as I said before, author Janet Morris is a prophet. She got out her crystal ball one day and looked into the future. She saw a world in decline, fertility rates dropping, the population getting older and older, and the birth rate unable to keep up with the mortality rate.
I think it’s not necessary for me to tell you that under these circumstances, the human race would eventually become extinct. What this book does is imagine the desperation of living in such a world. The ability to procreate, to have children, would bestow great wealth and power to individuals with this biological blessing.
This nightmarish scenario is one of the many global problems our leaders are supposed to be working on. Failure to do so would condemn the human race to extinction. It’s as simple as that. Therefore, you will understand my recommendation for anyone interested in a medical career, social services career, or a public administration career to read this book. It’s a fantasy that could turn into a nightmare.
Intellectually and emotionally, this is challenging reading. On a third level, it is enough to take one look at the book covers to understand that it can not avoid dealing with human sexuality, in all its forms. Why? Because for the inhabitants of such a world, what will be uppermost in your mind is having sex, not so much for pleasure, although we humans are “hardwired” that way, but for procreation. The idea behind all the fornication is to save the human race, and at the end of the day, that’s quite a noble undertaking.
And this is the point where I will conclude this book review by saying, five stars!
Synopsis
The Battle of the Sexes is never over…
Estri, the Well-Keepress of Astria and High Couch of Silistra, the highest office in the land, has continued her quest to locate her god-like “Shaper” father to his home planet, Mi’ysten, where she is tested and shown to have inherited his powers.
Following further training in the ability to manipulate time and probabilities with her mind, Estri is abruptly returned to Silistra after an absence of two local years. Many changes have taken place in the power vacuum her absence left and Estri must conquer her immediate captor, Chayin, Cahndor of the violent Parset desert tribes, in order to continue her quest to save the Silistran people who are dying out from infertility.
The Parset tribes cultivate and grow the plants from which the costly longevity drugs sold throughout the Bipedal Federation are made. Renegade members of the Bipedal Federation offer proscribed hi-tech weapons to leaders of the warring tribes in exchange for exclusive access to the longevity drugs, assuring that tribe’s domination of the rest.
Chayin rejects their offer, knowing it will end in the destruction of his people from greed and power. The BF keeps counting on at least one tribal leader’s greed to eventually agree to accept their offer, allowing one tribe to conquer all others with off-world weapons.
Estri and Chayin must find Sereth, former Slayer of Estri’s home who aided her in beginning her quest and was made outcast afterward (because Estri disappeared under his protection). Estri, Chayin and Sereth must join in a triad, forging a bond created by their innate powers and intense love to assure the future of the planet.
After they defeat Chayin’s various tribal opponents, they conquer Estri’s enemy of hundreds of years, her father’s grandson, Raet, and hope they can have a respite from tribulation. However, Khys, the semi-mythical, usurper overlord of the planet, abducts the triad to his sacred city and binds Estri with a device that suppresses her powers and causes her to lose her memory.
With Estri in his control, he elevates Chayin to be his puppet overlord of all the Parset, but leaves active Chayin’s own in-born powers that may drive him insane. Khys forces Sereth into the role of a “trusted” vassal who remembers everything about Estri, Chayin and their pasts.
Helpless before his power, Chayin and Sereth cannot stop Khys from impregnating an unsuspecting Estri to take advantage of her “Shaper” genetics. Khys gloats, triumphant in assuring himself a powerful and gifted heir, while believing no being in the universe is powerful enough to deny him what he truly desires: return of the technology that nearly destroyed the planet and forced the population underground into “hides” until their world recovered enough from the devastation to support life again. For a time, he’s correct…
1. Is there anything I can say in this review, that would dissuade you to not buy this book, if you have already decided to buy the book?
2. Conversely, is there anything I could possibly say in this review, to persuade you to buy this book, if you had already decided, not to buy this book?
My recommendation is that you purchase the book, based on its literary merit.
Why? Here we have a series of four books, a quartet. It was first published in 1977. That’s 39 years ago. It’s now May, 2016. It’s half a century later. Imagine you read this book in 1977, went to sleep after reading it, and then woke up today, May 18th, 2016.
You would probably think you had woken up in the world described in this book. At least, the book's primary subject matter, low fertility rates, is still holding up pretty well. It’s consistent with what Janet Morris explores in this series.
In fact, we could go ahead and call Janet Morris a prophet. In today’s world, according to the United Nations Data Booklet “World Fertility Patterns” (2015), birthrates in developed countries are declining. Global fertility is now 2.5 children per woman.
I must ask the question: How does a woman have half a child? Impossible, I know. But, we’re talking statistics here, and such things are possible. Let me quote directly from that UN booklet:
“Fertility patterns in the world have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Global fertility has reached unprecedented low levels…” (end of quote) What is even more worrying is the fact that “nearly half the world lives in below-replacement level fertility countries.” Let me give you the facts straight from page 6 of the report:
“Today, 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries with low levels of fertility, where women have fewer than 2.1 children on average. Low-fertility countries now include all of Europe and Northern America, as well as many countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Another 46 per cent of the world’s population lives in “intermediate fertility” countries that have already experienced substantial fertility declines and where women have on average between 2.1 and 5 children.
The remaining 8 per cent of the world’s population lives in “high-fertility” countries that have experienced only limited fertility decline to date. In these countries the average woman has five or more children over her lifetime. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.” (end of quote)
So, as I said before, author Janet Morris is a prophet. She got out her crystal ball one day and looked into the future. She saw a world in decline, fertility rates dropping, the population getting older and older, and the birth rate unable to keep up with the mortality rate.
I think it’s not necessary for me to tell you that under these circumstances, the human race would eventually become extinct. What this book does is imagine the desperation of living in such a world. The ability to procreate, to have children, would bestow great wealth and power to individuals with this biological blessing.
This nightmarish scenario is one of the many global problems our leaders are supposed to be working on. Failure to do so would condemn the human race to extinction. It’s as simple as that. Therefore, you will understand my recommendation for anyone interested in a medical career, social services career, or a public administration career to read this book. It’s a fantasy that could turn into a nightmare.
Intellectually and emotionally, this is challenging reading. On a third level, it is enough to take one look at the book covers to understand that it can not avoid dealing with human sexuality, in all its forms. Why? Because for the inhabitants of such a world, what will be uppermost in your mind is having sex, not so much for pleasure, although we humans are “hardwired” that way, but for procreation. The idea behind all the fornication is to save the human race, and at the end of the day, that’s quite a noble undertaking.
And this is the point where I will conclude this book review by saying, five stars!
Synopsis
The Battle of the Sexes is never over…
Estri, the Well-Keepress of Astria and High Couch of Silistra, the highest office in the land, has continued her quest to locate her god-like “Shaper” father to his home planet, Mi’ysten, where she is tested and shown to have inherited his powers.
Following further training in the ability to manipulate time and probabilities with her mind, Estri is abruptly returned to Silistra after an absence of two local years. Many changes have taken place in the power vacuum her absence left and Estri must conquer her immediate captor, Chayin, Cahndor of the violent Parset desert tribes, in order to continue her quest to save the Silistran people who are dying out from infertility.
The Parset tribes cultivate and grow the plants from which the costly longevity drugs sold throughout the Bipedal Federation are made. Renegade members of the Bipedal Federation offer proscribed hi-tech weapons to leaders of the warring tribes in exchange for exclusive access to the longevity drugs, assuring that tribe’s domination of the rest.
Chayin rejects their offer, knowing it will end in the destruction of his people from greed and power. The BF keeps counting on at least one tribal leader’s greed to eventually agree to accept their offer, allowing one tribe to conquer all others with off-world weapons.
Estri and Chayin must find Sereth, former Slayer of Estri’s home who aided her in beginning her quest and was made outcast afterward (because Estri disappeared under his protection). Estri, Chayin and Sereth must join in a triad, forging a bond created by their innate powers and intense love to assure the future of the planet.
After they defeat Chayin’s various tribal opponents, they conquer Estri’s enemy of hundreds of years, her father’s grandson, Raet, and hope they can have a respite from tribulation. However, Khys, the semi-mythical, usurper overlord of the planet, abducts the triad to his sacred city and binds Estri with a device that suppresses her powers and causes her to lose her memory.
With Estri in his control, he elevates Chayin to be his puppet overlord of all the Parset, but leaves active Chayin’s own in-born powers that may drive him insane. Khys forces Sereth into the role of a “trusted” vassal who remembers everything about Estri, Chayin and their pasts.
Helpless before his power, Chayin and Sereth cannot stop Khys from impregnating an unsuspecting Estri to take advantage of her “Shaper” genetics. Khys gloats, triumphant in assuring himself a powerful and gifted heir, while believing no being in the universe is powerful enough to deny him what he truly desires: return of the technology that nearly destroyed the planet and forced the population underground into “hides” until their world recovered enough from the devastation to support life again. For a time, he’s correct…
May 31, 2016
The Golden Sword continues the exploration of moral dilemmas in a world populated by people whose philosophies and beliefs are very different to our own. A place where society's main focus is on the restoration of their race's genetic vitality and exuberance.
Reenter Estri - High Couch of Silistra. Having completed the "chaledra of the mother" - a journey to find her godlike father - Estri returns to Silistra under very different circumstances than when she left. At a whim - it would seem - she has been plucked from a position of reverence and power, and reduced to nothing more than a chaldless slave. But why?
Thus begins a voyage laden with intrigue and revelations, where we discover more, much more than petty politics and interplanetary shenanigans are involved. It would appear that even the Shapers - the creators of events and reality - have an interest in Estri's future.
To reveal why would spoil what lies in store, but suffice to say, you will be drawn into the turmoils Estri faces; share them and experience them as if they were your own.
As I've often emphasized, my favorite reading involves stories that are as complex as they are involved; stories where the author takes the threads of their tale and weaves them over time into a rich tapestry of involved, mature dialect and stimulating plots; where the characters of the protagonists and antagonists are allowed to evolve through trials both subtle and challenging. (Stephen Donaldson - a true wordsmith of our times - springs to mind with his immortalized character, Thomas Covenant).
In "The Golden Sword" you have it all. Morris has created an epic series to rival Donaldson at his best and something that will make a welcome addition to any discerning reader's bookshelf.
Reenter Estri - High Couch of Silistra. Having completed the "chaledra of the mother" - a journey to find her godlike father - Estri returns to Silistra under very different circumstances than when she left. At a whim - it would seem - she has been plucked from a position of reverence and power, and reduced to nothing more than a chaldless slave. But why?
Thus begins a voyage laden with intrigue and revelations, where we discover more, much more than petty politics and interplanetary shenanigans are involved. It would appear that even the Shapers - the creators of events and reality - have an interest in Estri's future.
To reveal why would spoil what lies in store, but suffice to say, you will be drawn into the turmoils Estri faces; share them and experience them as if they were your own.
As I've often emphasized, my favorite reading involves stories that are as complex as they are involved; stories where the author takes the threads of their tale and weaves them over time into a rich tapestry of involved, mature dialect and stimulating plots; where the characters of the protagonists and antagonists are allowed to evolve through trials both subtle and challenging. (Stephen Donaldson - a true wordsmith of our times - springs to mind with his immortalized character, Thomas Covenant).
In "The Golden Sword" you have it all. Morris has created an epic series to rival Donaldson at his best and something that will make a welcome addition to any discerning reader's bookshelf.
August 2, 2016
THE GOLDEN SWORD is the second book in the SIlistra Quartet. Having read the first book, THE HIGH COUCH OF SILISTRA, I was thrilled to meet the heroine, Estri, and have her adventurous, fun character revealed to me anew. Telling her story, she has a unique way of forging her volunrability and misfortune into strength. “I had found myself, naked but for cloak and chald, upon my back in the Parset desert, looking up at the constellations of the night sky of Silistra.”
Told by Estri herself, this is, perhaps, the most intimate story I have read by Janet morris, whose writing is always eloquent and whose world vision so amazingly imaginative, in both its futuristic and mythological strains. I feel Estri as if she were me, as if I touch the other characters through the palms of her hands: “I rubbed the knots of anger from his back until his breathing eased, until the muscles no longer twisted under my hands, until he slept at last.”
The best part of her is being resilient. “Those great jaws closed upon my shoulder. I twisted back my head and bit out Uritheria’s throat.” So beware: her trials are not for the faint of heart.
Five stars.
This book was sent to me gratis for an unbiased review.
Told by Estri herself, this is, perhaps, the most intimate story I have read by Janet morris, whose writing is always eloquent and whose world vision so amazingly imaginative, in both its futuristic and mythological strains. I feel Estri as if she were me, as if I touch the other characters through the palms of her hands: “I rubbed the knots of anger from his back until his breathing eased, until the muscles no longer twisted under my hands, until he slept at last.”
The best part of her is being resilient. “Those great jaws closed upon my shoulder. I twisted back my head and bit out Uritheria’s throat.” So beware: her trials are not for the faint of heart.
Five stars.
This book was sent to me gratis for an unbiased review.
August 5, 2019
That was excruciating.
After about page 120, I started skimming. The further in, the more lightly I skimmed, and yet it still felt interminable.
Morris is a competent writer. I've read books by people with less skill at stringing words together. But the content...the content.
I was reminded of John Norman's Gor books, and not just because this book also concerned itself with women being bound and humiliated. Like Norman, Morris has over-stuffed the book with world-building. In my own writing, I am often concerned with the amount of world building, jargon, etc. that I put into my work. Morris takes it to such an extreme that she serves as a great example of what not to do. There are paragraphs where virtually nothing makes sense, because every third word is in-setting jargon. While I like having a glossary, I don't want to spend half my time looking up the meaning of made-up words.
The narrator is the worst kind of character, somehow wielding amazing powers while being completely useless, and always at the will of others.
And everyone else in the book...
Maybe I missed something, as I was definitely starting to tune out even before I started skimming, but it seemed like characters' personalities kept changing. A bunch of interchangeable jerks are either mean to or kind to the narrator as the individual scene demands.
Ugh.
Like John Norman's also excruciating books, the actual story in this novel could probably been told in under a hundred pages.
After about page 120, I started skimming. The further in, the more lightly I skimmed, and yet it still felt interminable.
Morris is a competent writer. I've read books by people with less skill at stringing words together. But the content...the content.
I was reminded of John Norman's Gor books, and not just because this book also concerned itself with women being bound and humiliated. Like Norman, Morris has over-stuffed the book with world-building. In my own writing, I am often concerned with the amount of world building, jargon, etc. that I put into my work. Morris takes it to such an extreme that she serves as a great example of what not to do. There are paragraphs where virtually nothing makes sense, because every third word is in-setting jargon. While I like having a glossary, I don't want to spend half my time looking up the meaning of made-up words.
The narrator is the worst kind of character, somehow wielding amazing powers while being completely useless, and always at the will of others.
And everyone else in the book...
Maybe I missed something, as I was definitely starting to tune out even before I started skimming, but it seemed like characters' personalities kept changing. A bunch of interchangeable jerks are either mean to or kind to the narrator as the individual scene demands.
Ugh.
Like John Norman's also excruciating books, the actual story in this novel could probably been told in under a hundred pages.
March 27, 2017
Call it what you like: science fiction, space opera, sword and planet or erotic fantasy . . . The Golden Sword is all these things, and so much more. A highly intelligent and sensual novel filled with ideas and revelations, this is a gripping story that explores human sexuality and the role it plays in politics. Although the memorable characters are bisexual, toss away all your preconceived notions, for there is a humanity, a strength of will and determination, a realism and depth of emotion to these characters that will have you thinking twice about all you know and all you think you know. This is a book for mature and discerning readers who like some meat on the bones of the books they read. Janet Morris led the way for all the science fiction authors, both male and female, who came after. This is the second book in her classic “Silistra Quartet” series, which continues on through two more volumes. In this epic, second novel, Estri, the heroine of “The High Couch of Silistra,” ventures further than she ever has before into her exotic world of sensuality and politics. This time out, she encounters Chayin, a prince of an alien culture, and discovers more about her fate . . . past, present and future. This is a powerful, exciting novel filled with passion and adventure, ideas and thought-provoking philosophies. Janet Morris truly smashed through barriers and broke new ground with her “Silistra” series, and is still breaking new ground in these new, “Author’s Cut” editions that delve further and deeper into Esrti’s universe and into the grand vision the author had when she first set out to write this series. This is science fiction for thinking adults.
May 28, 2016
High Couch of Silistra (The Silistra Quartet Book...
Janet Morris
Pure excellence.
High Couch of Silistra unfolds revealing a complex and visionary story to grasp any enquiring mind, whilst turning these pages of pure genius. The historical and mythical details created by the author thoroughly tease the imagination of the reader. Without doubt, the works of Morris are to be taken, held and captured as nothing more than great literature.
A heroic quest of this highest calibre.
Janet Morris
Pure excellence.
High Couch of Silistra unfolds revealing a complex and visionary story to grasp any enquiring mind, whilst turning these pages of pure genius. The historical and mythical details created by the author thoroughly tease the imagination of the reader. Without doubt, the works of Morris are to be taken, held and captured as nothing more than great literature.
A heroic quest of this highest calibre.
June 9, 2009
The second in the series about the future courtesan. Not really my cup of tea, although I liked the first one in the series OK. I didn't read anymore in this series after this book 2, but I have very much enjoyed much of Morris's other work.
October 12, 2017
Her heritage is stronger than her love. In this second volume, Silistra is learning of her powers and her most distant past. The beautiful courtesan who can unleash the power of he gods faces terrible dilemmas and questions in her demanding, challenging life, while action never slacks, never slows its pace, leaving us readers as breathless and craving as the characters, addicted to the happenings.
Read
September 26, 201215
January 22, 2016
I have different cover art, looks to be by the same person who did the cover art I have pictured on the 1st in this series...very skimpy gold jewlery and a sword are all the lady wears. There are 2 more in this series...I want to get them!
Read
October 23, 2025Book by Morris, Janet
March 19, 2025
Good series.
She had the power to create planets.
The sixty carved bones of the Yris-tera
foretold her ancient fate.
Her heritage of power took her beyond
time and space and stole from her the
one man she loved.
Enslaved on the planet Silistra tomorrow's
most beautiful courtesan unleashes the
powers of the gods.
She had the power to create planets.
The sixty carved bones of the Yris-tera
foretold her ancient fate.
Her heritage of power took her beyond
time and space and stole from her the
one man she loved.
Enslaved on the planet Silistra tomorrow's
most beautiful courtesan unleashes the
powers of the gods.
April 13, 2017
Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews