Flight of the Renshai

Starred review from August 31, 2009
Slashing swordplay, a telepathic cat, spirit-sucking spiders, dizzying genealogical complications, and three warrior brothers all lend depth and sparkle to Reichert's latest installment of her immense Renshai Chronicles saga. The hardworking, talented, and resourceful male and female warrior Renshai, now serving the royals of Béarn, never start wars but always finish them. Loosely based on Scandinavian myth, the Renshai's complex struggle against their old Northmen enemies is personalized in Renshai warrior Kevral Tainharsdatter's three adolescent sons, Saviar, Subikahn, and Calistin. Each brother battles internal and external demons to prove himself a man, while hordes of mysterious pirates serving malignant godlike giants join in opposition. Reichert's handsomely fleshed-out fictional world and animated characters make her latest book an entertaining and philosophical journey with glimmers of sorcery from mages and elves that foreshadow further Renshai adventures.