Changer of Days, Vol. 1
Alma A. Hromic
HarperCollins Voyager, 429 pages
When Dynan Kir Hama, King of Roisinan, falls on the field of battle, his illegitimate son Sif is drafted by
the army's desperate generals into leadership. Winning victory against impossible odds, Sif becomes a hero. There
would seem to be no barrier to his burning ambition to become King in his father's place--none, that is, but Dynan's
rightful daughter, nine-year-old Anghara.
Anghara's mother possesses the gift of Sight (part prescience, part magic); she knows Anghara is doomed if Sif
ever finds her. Determined to save both her daughter's life and Queenship, she hastily arranges a coronation ceremony,
and then sends Anghara in disguise to relatives far away. Forced into exile, her true identity known only to a
handful of people, Anghara (already wise beyond her years) must grow up very fast--too fast, perhaps, for her own
gift of Sight manifests precociously, and she hasn't the ability to fully control its strength. The tragedy that
results forces Anghara to flee once more, this time to the Tower of Bresse, where a Sisterhood experienced in the
ways of Sight offer the training and the refuge Anghara needs.
But Sif is on Anghara's trail, and no one who shelters her is safe. On the run yet again, Anghara is offered sanctuary
by ai'Jihaar, a powerfully Sighted woman from the mysterious desert land of Kheldrin. In Kheldrin, Anghara begins
to discover at last the true potential of her prodigious magical gift, and to guess that her destiny may be much
greater, and very much stranger, than the Queenship of Roisinan.
Changer of Days is an involving, intelligent novel. Avoiding the flashy high-concept premises and gimmicky
special effects with which many fantasy authors attempt to distinguish their works, Hromic allows graceful storytelling,
solid world building, and fine characterizations to carry her tale. Many of the plot elements--the rightful ruler
separated from the land, the great power rising to potential, the youthful bearer of a fabulous destiny--are familiar,
but Hromic's thoughtful treatment gives freshness to these popular themes. Similarly, the settings--the quasi-medieval
kingdom of Roisinan, the desert land of Kheldrin--are places readers may think they've seen before, but the care
and detail with which they are realized lends them a deeper originality.
Characterization is a particular strength. Anghara is utterly sympathetic and believable, first as a child struggling
to understand the loss of all she knows and loves, then as a young woman fighting to come to terms with the tragedy
she has brought on others and with the terrifying strength of her inborn gift. The painful process by which she
learns to understand not just power but its potentially devastating consequences is one of the book's best-realized
themes. Other characters are equally vivid, especially the villains--Sif, who in the end accomplishes great evil
but whose journey to that point is convincingly drawn in shades of gray; and Ansen, Anghara's jealous cousin, whose
betrayal is despicable but also tragic.
This is the first volume of a duology; it doesn't end, so much as pause at a natural intermission point in the
tale. Fortunately, readers won't have to long to wait for resolution: Changer of Days, Vol. 2 is already
available.
Copyright © 2002 Victoria Strauss
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