Book Review - The Black Jewels Trilogy

Stacey loaned me a big trade paperback which is actually three books in one: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows and Queen of the Darkness. The author is Anne Bishop and they are of the fantasy variety. The premise of the society is that there are folks with magic and their power is signified by a jewel. Lighter jewels indicate lesser power and black is the darkest. Also, the Queens have the highest ranking and the men, regardless of their power, serve their Queens.

Sounds like a good plan to me...

However, there's an ongoing power struggle where the older Queens don't want to give up their power and kill off the younger Queens and they also torture and use men as sex slaves. Not so nice.

Into this society, a young girl shows up who exhibits power a hundredfold greater than any one else. The struggle is for the good guys to keep her alive until she can become a Queen and for the bad guys to try to kill or control her.

These were good but I probably would have enjoyed them more if I hadn't read them back to back. There's a repetition to some of the events and language that bugged me. Lot more violence than sex but still plenty of both. If you like magic books (some of the animals are jeweled magic users, too, btw) you'll like these.

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