Review: Strong writing and intense focus -- Beth Barany has stepped up her game in this one
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2014
Disclosure:  I have known author Beth Barany and her husband Ezra for several years and have worked with them on numerous projects in the past. I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.It has been several years since I read Beth Barany’s first fantasy novel, Henrietta the Dragon Slayer, which I favorably reviewed. That first novel features appealing characters woven into a frequently shifting environment full of complex emotions. Henrietta is rootless in that book, which is reflected in the style and narrative in whirlwind fashion. Although I felt the writing was superb, I left that book a little woozy, to be honest.No such problems this time around. Henrietta and the Dragon Stone has no confusing parts and hits no false notes. Beth has perfected the style she tried out in the first book. While this novel still involves us with Henrietta’s tangled emotions, it is not overwhelming while doing so. The detailed emotional analysis is balanced with a constantly moving plot, a relentless poetic focus upon analyzing crucial moments, a heavier development of setting, a lot of cinematic (not realistic) action, and a very successfully evolving romance.The last book left Henrietta holding the Dracontias, the magic stone which carries the healing energy of a dragon as well as the ability to rally and rule the Five Kingdoms. A dragonslayer no more (she in fact never kills a dragon in either book, but has done so prior to the start of the first book), she helps her friend Jaxter the jester to become a king, while the ancient sorcerer who possessed the former king now actively plots Henrietta’s destruction. The likeable Jaxter only has a cameo in this book, but the knight Franc takes on a powerful and commanding co-starring role. As Henrietta crosses her original homeland of Bleuve, she, Franc, and the mysterious boy Antoine, as well as Leoni, a prim teen etiquette expert, are under constant assault from Varangian soldiers working for the evil mage.The Varangians are essentially giant Vikings, big and hairy, caveman-like, and might seem to represent primal sexual threat (i.e. “bad” sexuality) sublimated into the threat of murder. Franc, our good guy, has light eyes and is not hairy, nor is he as big (although he is big enough to be there for Henrietta). Like most fantasy males, he has the ability to wait for her faithfully as long as it takes, but he can smolder when he needs to.The Dracontias, with its numerous powers (alert to danger, able to heal or to empower via the heat of passion, in tune with nature), can only be used by Henrietta, because the dragon gave it to her. That doesn’t stop various bad guys from trying, however.I’ll single out some really well-written sequences for praise. A reunion between Henrietta and her old partner contains great interest and warmth. A romantic encounter in a somewhat psychedelic temple generates some real tension and anticipation.  Several chapters late in the book, in which Henrietta is imprisoned and restrained and works to free herself and to deal with some bad memories, were admirably detailed and intense. All of these, which I listened to using my old Kindle 2’s text-to-speech function while I was driving cross-country, were as well-crafted as anything I have read from a peer in several years.The character of Henrietta was a little tentative and confused in the first novel, but in this book she shakes it off and becomes the “kick-ass heroine” that Beth has publicly stated she wants her character to be. I am very interested to see how a tween or teen girl reader reacts to this book.A line must perhaps be drawn between serious literature for girls and fluffy, foolish stuff. The latter (fluffy) is to be found in genre offerings like the super-successful but dumb Twilight series, the gradually-declining-in-quality Hunger Games series, and the Divergent series (which I am currently reading, with my interest fading during book 2). The former, the serious material, is to be found in authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, and find a nigh-comparable expression here.My criticisms, and they are minor, can be managed quickly. The Varangians are too subhuman for my taste, as I explained above. Grammatically, I am bothered by Beth’s repeated use of the word MAY where MIGHT would be the appropriate choice – it’s a verb tense shift, but one that I admit a lot of the population makes. Finally, in the realm of editing oversights, there is a little more focus on shoulders, which are often gripped, held, shaken, or punctured by weapons. (I admit I had a character suffer a shoulder wound in a book, but only once in four books about that character. There are at least three shoulder wounds in this one novel.)