Leopard Lord
Alanna Morland
Ace, 260 pages
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Were-leopards, dueling deities, and true love meet in this romantic fantasy adventure from debut author Alanna
Morland.
Varian is the heir to Leopard's Gard, a barony whose mountainous lands form a barrier between the populous countries
of the south and the northern wastelands controlled by an evil, nameless god. When he turns sixteen, Varian discovers
two terrible secrets. His father, a shapeshifter capable of taking the form of a giant ice-leopard, serves the
Nameless God. Worse, he has promised that Varian, who shares his father's shapeshifting abilities, will serve the
God as well.
Varian is dedicated to the god against his will, and over the next few years the Nameless God's evil geas compels
him to take leopard form and hunt the people he should be ruling and protecting. When his father dies and he becomes
lord of Leopard's Gard, Varian strikes a bargain with the God: in exchange for his own freedom and the freedom
of his lands, he will marry, and give his virgin wife to the God as a gift. The life of one woman, he reasons,
is a small price to pay to save so many others.
The Nameless God doesn't want just any woman, however, but one woman in particular: the beautiful and spirited
Cathlin, who is dedicated to the God's sister and deadly rival, Byela. Varian marries Cathlin, and almost at once,
to his horror, finds himself falling in love with her. He is faced with a terrible choice: to betray his beloved,
or renege on his bargain and face the vengeance of the Nameless God.
Morland has a pleasant prose style; her characters are appealing and her setting interesting, and she has plotted
out a suspenseful story. Unfortunately, there isn't quite enough of any of these elements to add up to an entire
novel. About the last thing you usually want to say about a high fantasy tale is that it needs more length; but
Leopard Lord would have profited from at least another hundred pages of character and story amplification.
As it is, the book often reads more like a long synopsis than a completed book. Culture and history are only sketchily
explained; crucial character reactions are dealt with in a few lines, and large chunks of story are disposed of
with equal speed. Conversely, a good deal of space is devoted to elements that, though interesting, are fairly
peripheral to the plot. More than a chapter is spent on issues of slavery, for instance, while the climactic confrontation
between Varian and the Nameless God is wrapped up in a bit over six pages. And call me picky, but when you've built
up romantic and sexual tension over more than 200 pages, you owe your readers a bit more resolution than Morland
provides.
Some of this, no doubt, stems from the inexperience of a first-time novelist (though I can't help wondering whether
more editorial intervention would have helped). Morland is a capable enough writer to make Leopard Lord
a diverting book despite its many flaws. If she's able to more fully flesh out her story next time around, it should
be a very good read indeed.
Copyright © 1999 Victoria Strauss
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