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The author of the Fallen Cloud saga has done his
homework on the Middle East as well as he did on the Cheyenne, the
saga's people, and has created a compact, lyrical fantasy. David
Finebaum is an archeolinguist, or student of dead languages, in
Jerusalem when he starts hearing one of those languages in his dreams,
and then on the street. His desperate curiosity impels him on a
perilous pilgrimage through Jerusalem into the Arab Quarters, where
he survives a mixed reception. But the secret he pursues lies in
the hands of a Bedouin tribe, and even if it means abandoning his
lover, Israeli intelligence lieutenant Rivka Danilovitch, David
must go. Reaching the tribe, he encounters Ghazayil, a girl he previously
encountered in his dreams, and discovers that it is his destiny
to marry her and preserve the secret of the tribe. The characterization,
lyrical prose, and pacing are nearly flawless, and readers close
the book hoping that it is only the first in a new series. —Roland
Green
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