In the Eye of Heaven

Starred review from February 6, 2006
At the start of Keck's winning debut, a gritty medieval fantasy full of enchantment, young squire Durand is on his way home to ask his father for the wherewithal to purchase the fine linen he needs for his knighting ceremony. Durand has prospects in the form of a small holding or fiefdom of his own, Gravenholm. But in a flash his luck changes. Durand loses Gravenholm and becomes a landless shield-bearer whose only option is to become a knight-errant—in effect a mercenary who owes allegiance to anyone who chooses to pay his wages. Desperate for food and troubled by strange magical omens, he accepts a position that proves disastrous. Durand is a convincingly human character who isn't preternaturally skilled or supersmart like so many fantasy heroes, yet he manages to rise to the various challenges he faces. Though this deftly told tale isn't billed as the first of a series, one hopes there'll be further adventures of the memorable Durand.

April 15, 2006
Young Durand has a problem. He was all set to inherit the lordship of his home village, on account of the knight who is its overlord, judge, protector, and general government having lost his son. He has endured a lot of training to replace the missing heir. Then Sonny shows up, resumes his place, and Durand has to take it on the lam. While his lordly skills give him a better chance of surviving, the people he meets on the road require everything he can muster up to be dealt with. They constitute a sort of lowlife version of the " Canterbury Tales" pilgrims and represent the grungier side of medieval societies very well. Durand finds them invaluable allies, however, when he must confront a resurgence of evil magic. Said magic isn't as well realized as other aspects of the book, but Keck in his first book performs substantially better than many a fantasy hand, encouraging hopes for better magic in successors to this yarn whose readers may hope will follow soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)