Scion's Lady

Gil Trilogy #2

by Rebecca J. Bradley

Tig never wanted to be a hero. And after using the powers of the magical artifact known as the Lady in Gil to destroy the barbarous Sherkin Empire, he is quite willing to return to his quiet and peaceful life as a scholar...

Unfortunately for Tig, his brother, the new Priest-King of Gil, has arranged a marriage for him. When Tig begins his honeymoon voyage with the beautiful but dim Princess Rinn, he realizes that the union is not all it seems. And as Tig is threatened by unseen enemies, he discovers that the Lady in Gil, thought destroyed along with the Sherkin Empire, is not as broken as everyone believes. And she has her own plans for Tig...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Canada, Ebooks

295 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

Rebecca Bradley was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1952. She received a Ph.D. from Cambridge in archeology, and spent eighteen years living in England, Ulster, Kuwait and Hong Kong before returning to live in Calgary with her husband and children. She teaches archaeology part-time at Mount Royal College.

Reviews

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4 stars

Tigrallef, unwilling saviour of the nation of Gil, has settled into a humdrum life as Gil's memorian and archivist. His main excitement is in observing the many new cults that have sprung up since he destroyed Gil's protective goddess. He accedes unhappily to marriage, only to find that the goddess isn't gone at all, and that she has a very personal interest in him.

There are always Ancients. That is, discovering the secrets of wiser forebears is a common theme in fantasy novels, and happily one that I quite like. Sometimes, the Ancients are less exciting than one might hope (e.g., Robin Hobb's Elderlings), and sometimes they don't turn up at all, but the search is interesting. In Scion's Lady, Rebbecca Bradley interweaves her protagonist's personal story with Ancient discovery in a very effective way.

In the prequel, Lady in Gil, Tigrallef was introduced as an awkward, bookish type who nonetheless stands up (cautiously) for Good. The book was effective in part because it offered a more realistic approach to heroic fantasy. Scion's Lady treads a similar path, and with the same wry humor. Tigrallef sacrifices his happiness to protect his precious archives, but of course there's much more to the situation than meets the eye.

In addition to Tigrallef, Bradley keeps some characters from the last book, including Shree, Tigrallef's companion and protector. New characters are not as fully drawn, but are effective and funny. On the down side, this is largely a male-dominated series. While there are strong women, we mostly see Tigrallef's new bride Rinn, so thinly sketched to the point of caricature. She's a recurring source of humor, but the book would have been stronger had she been more fully realized.

One of the attractions of Bradley's writing is that it presumes her readers are reasonably intelligent. There's nothing overly subtle here, but she's also willing to let a joke go without hitting us over the head with it. The style is an effective balance of understatement, dry humour, and the occasional bit of slapstick.

Rather than just take gods and magic as givens, the book is an exploration of Gil's particular protector - what happened to her after her crystal housing was smashed in the previous book, how Tigrallef feels about hosting a goddess, and what to do about it. The ending weighs the potential costs of reaching an understanding.

The ending, while intriguing in concept, and emotionally balanced, fails somewhat on consistency. While Tigrallef's decisions are difficult and weighty, the logic of the resolution doesn't quite work. He and we make some interesting discoveries, but it doesn't all fit together as well as one might hope.

All in all, a very good book, and a good sequel. I'd have wished for the final resolution to be stronger, but this works well, and the writing continues to be strong, with plenty of interesting issues left to resolve.

[Melissa Cave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything that made the first book one of my all-time fantasy favorites applies here: the unassuming (and unlikely) hero, the incredibly creative fantasy world, and the humor that made me laugh out loud at least once a chapter. Having delivered his homeland from a brutal occupation in book 1, Tig faces the manipulations of his own people in this book, determined to extract every scrap of value from the few remaining Scions of Oballef.

This time: with an arranged marriage.

This saga is unpredictable, heartbreaking, and absurd, in the same way people and history are absurd. Tig's academic perspective is a great way to round out the world, and the stakes are both apocalyptic and deeply personal: an ancient power that could destroy the world, and the discovery of a family that makes that choice impossible.

A fast-paced, richly imagined, and intelligent fantasy, this one lingers far longer than the brief span of its pages.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart, clever, inventive - not bad for something picked up totally at random from the op shop. Adding these to my list of "lady fantasy writers of the 80s and 90s who have weirdly dropped out of sight".

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The further adventures of a scholar who is once again thrust away from his books and called into action. In this book, Tig is forced into a political marriage. The story concerns finding out why Tig has been chosen as a husband and how he can get out of the marriage.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The continuing story of Tig, whose quiet life in the archives comes to an end when the nasty Primate, real power behind the throne, since Tig's older brother became king, engineers a treaty with another country that depends on a marriage between Tig and Princess Rinn. Tig has to agree as the Primate will sell Tig's beloved archives otherwise.

After the marriage, they embark on a sea voyage to Rinn's homeland. She turns out to be self absorbed and sex mad with every young man onboard but following a number of assassination attempts, and his gradual realisation that the Lady of Gil was not destroyed when he smashed the artefact containing 'her', and the entity is in his mind, pressing him to become 'one' with it, Tig pretends to be a doting husband to deceive Rinn and her cousin as he starts to comprehend the hidden agendas of his new in-laws.

I found this more interesting than the first volume. At least there was no harping on about dirt and squalor, and instead we learn a lot more about the previous history of the various empires that have risen and fallen, and ultimately how it relates to the Lady.

After six years following the events of book one Tig is dealing with his grief and guilt over Calla, though I did start to wonder if all the dreams about her and a little boy indicated that he was going to discover that she had survived after all, so I wasn't surprised when Calla turned up with their son halfway through . Lord Shree, former Sherank warlord, is now a scholar but takes up duty as Tig's bodyguard and another character, Chasco, who is an ex member of the resistance, joins them. The characters are more disparate this time around, though some are not well realised, e.g. Rinn who is a shallow stereotype. As in the first volume, there is self deprecating humour.

One quirk of the first person style is the odd "little did I know" type aside and Tig's narration of the progress of a terrible plague through the known world while he and the others are at sea, which you have to assume he found out about after the events of this book ended, as although the plague reaches the island he ends up on via a ship from elsewhere, he has no way of knowing exactly how devastating it has been. Also given that he has had to accept union with the entity, I imagine that the third volume must deal with the fallout of the plague given that Tig only cured it on the islands, and the return to Gil after his separation from Rinn. Or maybe not - apparently the third volume is set 20 odd years later, narrated by his son, so that seems a bit odd.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something gratifying coming back to a much-loved, and much re-read, book after many years to find that it was just as good as remembered. Better even!

It's a gritty, intense, feast of worldbuilding. The characters are nicely well rounded, though we don't get into much depth with any of them except the main character. The last book's grim hopelessness is replaced with a haunting, terrifying visions of power and plague, balanced out with the prose's natural, wry dark humor.

While the first book could stand alone this one most definitely cannot, it's most dramatic twists building off of events in the first book, and a sudden ending leads into the next book. If you enjoyed the first book there's not reason not to continue with the series.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

(February 2020) This is the weakest of the three books in the trilogy, and the first couple times I read it, I did not enjoy it all that much but increasingly, I have come to like it more and more, and it is securely in the 4 star camp (the last one is the highly coveted Laura Ellis 5-stars, the first 4.5 stars).

This trilogy is intended to be read in order. This book assumes that the reader has read the first book and there are a lot of references to things that happened in the first book that will confuse the reader who is starting with this book.

I really wish that Rebecca Bradley had written more books. Is it too late for more now?

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well darn it, now I'll have to go and (re)read the other two.
(Yeah it was that engaging.)

To sum it up: prince turned librarian turned accidental prophecy-in-flesh sort of outwits a handful of powerful scheming politicians and one possibly divine...thing by being very well-read and incredibly stubborn. I like it enough to give it 4 stars despite of the fact it's written in first person. That is very telling.

[Schnaucl · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been years since I read the first book in the trilogy. I like the idea of a scholar as the main character. I feel like I should like the characters and plot more but I never really connected with any of the characters so I had a hard time caring about what happened to them.

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may not be rating this one fairly. I couldn't find the first installment so I went ahead and read this, and I don't think it was meant to stand alone.

[Wyld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad. I enjoyed the first book more but it was still entertaining as the lead character bumbles along.

[Melana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Nit ad much as the first. But, I do like the different events that are unfolding and I still can't put it down.