Steles of the Sky

Starred review from February 24, 2014
Bear’s stellar conclusion to her Mongolian-flavored fantasy trilogy (after Range of Ghosts and Shattered Pillars) is a satisfying mix of traditional epic fantasy elements, flavored with original magic and grounded with mundane details that make the fantastic seem entirely possible. As the skies shift, reflecting the mortals in power and their associated gods, forces align to support or challenge wizard al-Sepehr as he wages war in the name of the Scholar-God. Warrior Re Temur and his allies travel to Dragon Lake to rally the opposition with Temur’s declaration of his assumption of the position of Khagan, heir to his grandfather’s empire. Battles are fought on both a personal level and a grand scale, with artifacts of obscure ancient civilizations, spirit animals, magical creatures, and poetry and politics. The conclusion is both untelegraphed and completely appropriate. Bear’s trilogy makes a rich contribution to epic fantasy’s expanding borders of emotion and invention. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Starred review from March 1, 2014
Wrapping up Bear's complex and beautifully rendered historical-fantasy trilogy (Shattered Pillars, 2013, etc.). Necromancer and blood-sorcerer al-Sepehr, head of the Nameless assassin cult, arranged to have his daughter Saadet impregnated by Qori Buqa, Khagan of the nomad horse-warrior Empire, whom he then murdered. Re Temur, Qori Buqa's nephew and the true heir to the Khaganate, decides to raise his banner at Dragon Lake, site of the Khagan's vast abandoned palace--but how to reach it? Perhaps his companions, the wizard Samarkar, Hrahima, a huge human-tiger Cho-tse warrior, and the silent monk, Brother Hsiung, can find a way through the magic doorways created by the extinct Erem Empire. But Erem magic is deadly poisonous--Brother Hsiung is already half-blind from attempting to study it. Edene, Temur's woman, escaped from al-Sepehr by stealing a green Erem ring, which gave her command of the ghuls, a slave race created by Erem, and control of the toxic Erem magic and all poisonous creatures, but an evil presence within it whispers to her--and she's carrying Temur's child. She must also deal with a djinn who, appearing sporadically and unpredictably, sometimes offers help while admitting he's bound, against his will, to al-Sepehr. Various other groups--wizards, warriors, empresses, survivors of the civilizations broken by al-Sepehr's treachery--converge on Dragon Lake. These and other narrative strands progress and interact through fully realized characters whose personalities and motivations arise from the dazzlingly detailed cultures and landscapes from which they derive. If there's a disappointment, it's the bipedal tiger Hrahima, a vigorous presence whose background and motivations remain largely unexplored. Notably, apart from the hero and his antagonist, all the leading characters are women. It all adds up to an eminently satisfying conclusion. Considering the trilogy as a whole, the overused term masterpiece justifiably applies.

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March 15, 2014

In this conclusion to the trilogy that began with 2012's Range of Ghosts, Re Temur still has a lot of ground to cover on his way toward a final confrontation with the sorcerous al-Sepehr, leader of the cult of the Nameless. Although he initially was trying to recover his lost love Edene, Temur has come to realize that only by claiming the Khaganate can he bring peace to the steppes and defeat his usurping uncle. With allies accumulating (some, like the wizard Samarkar, have seen him through the whole journey), the last meeting is finally at hand. VERDICT Although it comes toward the end of this final book, the showdown is worth waiting for, and readers will enjoy spending a little more time with Bear's vivid characters as she gives each a chance to come into their own destiny. The mix of cultures in her rich worldbuilding are based on societies from the Middle East and Central Asia, but they remain original and amazing fantasy creations.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014
Bear concludes the epic begun in Range of Ghosts (2012) with her usual subversive flair. Temur and his companions begin this volume in the city of Reason, exploring ancient places and magics; they must make their way to Dragon Lake to declare Temur Khagan and gather an army against the terrible forces of Al-Sepehr. Edene, having engineered her own rescue, contends with the terrible sun of Erem and the voice of the Green Ring. Al-Sepehr plans to use Saadet and Qori Buqa's son, to contest Temur's claim on the Eternal Sky. There are, of course, other threads to be woven together: those who would fight at Temur's side, and those who have taken the side of Al-Sepehr. Everything leads to a great and terrible battle at Dragon Lake, at which the very fate of the world may well be decided. The world of the Eternal Sky is a gorgeously fleshed-out one, and the characters without exception are fascinating, sometimes maddening, and complex. This is a pleasing conclusion to an epic; it ties up the major threads but leaves many open questions about how the world will move forward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)