In unflinching detail, the horrific second installment in Cross's controversial Dragon Temple trilogy (after Touched by Venom
) chronicles 17-year-old Zarq's struggles to attain her destiny as the Skykeeper's Daughter. Zarq faces the oppression of a brutal Taliban-like theocratic dictatorship and her own addiction to dragon venom as she undergoes a brutal apprenticeship to the Dragonmaster of Clutch Re. Zarq hopes to change her oppressive patriarchal society by becoming a dragonmaster herself, despite the violent opposition she faces—and the demands of her dead mother's dragon "haunt" to search for her long-lost sister, Waivia, instead of completing the apprenticeship. Cross's anguished protagonist faces grim issues that might make some fantasy enthusiasts uncomfortable—addiction, genital mutilation, rape, slavery, racism, bestiality and prostitution, to name a few. Warning: these are not McCaffrey dragons. Think X-rated Tolkien set in the Middle East. (Aug.)
