The Grass King's Concubine

Kari Sperring. DAW, $7.99 mass market (496p) ISBN 978-0-7564-0755-1
In the World Below, the court of the elemental spirit known as the Grass King slowly dries up. In the World Above, heiress Aude Pèlerin des Puiz searches for the origins of her family's wealth and discovers a desiccated "vast floor of thin gray grass" where rice paddies once thrived. The droughts are connected and only Aude can set them right. This imaginative steampunk fantasy is populated by charming characters—the bookish, naïve, and impulsive Aude, committed to social and economic justice; Jehan Favre, the soldier she loves; and the twin ferret sisters whose story is linked to Aude's—and Sperring's imagery is rich and striking, as with the Grass King's court with air "that tasted of spice cake and fresh bread and oranges." Unfortunately, the plot and writing ramble and lurch unevenly, and the result can be as vague as Aude's half-remembered childhood glimpse of the magical court. (Aug.)
Reviewed on: 06/25/2012
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Open Ebook - 496 pages - 978-1-101-59478-0
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