TANGLED WEBS – Anne Bishop
A Black Jewels Novel
ROC
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-56160-5
ISBN-10: 0-45146160-6
March 2008
Fantasy

Territory of Dhemlan, Realm of Kaleer

Daemon Sadi rules Dhemlan with his Queen, Jaenelle Angelline. His half brother, Lucivar Yaslana, a half breed Eyrian warrior, is wed to Marian. Others of the Blood, Surreal SaDiablo and Prince Rainier, Lucivar and Daemon’s father Saetan, form but a small part of the circle living in Kaleer after the purge of evil elements from their society. Though their main battles have been won, members of the SaDiablo family are far from complacent.

Life is complicated among the Blood -- whether or not they wear jewels of power. Add to that the landens, non-bloods of any race, and possibilities for misunderstanding between the groups arise. In response to comments Jaenelle has heard from landens about their perceptions of how the Blood live, she creates a “spooky” house as an entertainment for both. She intends to invite all her family and friends to the opening night of the house, but when the invitations arrive, they border on the insolent and commanding. Those such as Surreal are surprised and perplexed at the wording, yet feel they must support their Queen and attend the festivities. It is only after Surreal and Prince Rainier enter the house with a group of landen children that they are trapped in the house. The house is scary and dangerous, and every time they use craft, an escape route from the house closes off. Lucivar and Daemon, who did not respond to the invitation, discover that it is a dangerous trap set by an unknown enemy to kill both landen and blood.

Have you ever wondered what happened to well-beloved characters in some of your favorites series? Characters just too richly detailed, having adventures that kept you up late at night reading, and when the story ended, they were so hard to let go? Did you wish you could revisit and find out how life is treating them? TANGLED WEBS is just such a story. Ms. Bishop delves deeper into the relationships between the characters, addresses some issues from earlier books, and creates new directions for characters such as Lady Surreal.

Some of the plot seemed a little contrived. I didn’t expect Jaenelle to respond to landen misconceptions of how the Blood live by recreating what they mistakenly believe to be true. It was hard to accept that Lucivar would “forget” to respond to an invitation from his Queen and his wife to attend the gala opening of the spooky house because of painful old memories. TANGLED WEBS is a kind of bridge between the old adventures and the new ones to come. First time readers are advised to start with the earlier novels, DAUGHTER OF THE BLOOD, HEIR TO THE SHADOWS, QUEEN OF THE DARKNESS. Long time fans of Ms. Bishop's work will want to add this one to their collection.

Lisa Baca