Review: excellence rises to the top, but will it be selected?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 7, 2014
I think you will most enjoy this novelette if you are reading the Hearts & Thrones series and intend to continue with Prince's Fire.  It is a prequel which introduces two members of a secret organization.  Without the prequel, you might rightly wonder "How are such unusual people found?"  Well, the method is essentially mentioned on the first page, you just don't know who is going to find them yet.There is another aspect to the book, which is whether merit will carry the day, and if not why not?  Here is where I was a tiny bit disappointed.  The book leans toward a strict feminist theme and carries through that way.  Is this because male dominance is an important theme in Kjall, and the author will explore other themes in other countries?  (She certainly seems to be exploring different themes on other subjects on a country by country basis)  Or is it just a lazy plot element that fell into theme's that dominated the author's early career?  In fact, 4 out of 5 of my managers at a large aerospace installation are females, including the two topmost ones - the director of the center and of engineering.  So it is not necessarily a contemporary theme.  I would like to have seen more subtlety in the motives of the guard chief.