Raybearer (Jordan Ifueko)

Raybearer
Jordan Ifueko
Amulet
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Tarisai has always been able to draw memories from people or things with a touch, but never knew what was different about her until the night she ran away from home and encountered the captive fairy-man at the waterhole. That is when she learns that she's half-human, and that her mother - a distant mystery of a woman, only ever known as the Lady, whose visits are rare and affection almost nonexistent - intended the girl for a dark purpose: to murder a boy she's never seen.
Years later, after long and grueling sessions with a series of tutors at the isolated savanna fortress she called home, Tarisai finds herself sent to the royal palace. Young Prince Dayo is assembling his council, the eleven boys and girls from the diverse realms of Arit who will be bonded to him by the imperial power known as the Ray, and will protect him from twelve of the thirteen ways a mortal can die. It is a great honor, and great burden, for the members of the council not only help run and protect the empire, but cannot be separated from each other for long without suffering from council sickness that can cause madness and death. In return, they develop a bond deeper than blood. Tarisai longs for a family and the affection her mother never showed her... until she sees Dayo, and realizes he is the boy the Lady raised her to kill.

REVIEW: Raybearer came highly recommended, and happily lived up to its reputation (not always a given, by any means.) It presents a wonderfully diverse and different fantasy world, one with strong African roots that also mingles other cultures to create an empire of many voices and traditions... traditions that do not always coexist well. Imperial edicts intended to bring greater unity end up causing even more trouble; there's a theme of the harm caused by efforts to force a single one-size-fits-all way of life on a world whose strength is in its diversity, not to mention the long-term costs of rewriting history - especially when certain populations and classes inevitably end up paying a disproportionate price for imposed ignorance. Tarisai's sheltered upbringing does little to prepare her for life in court. She quickly gets a harsh education in the realities behind the gilded facades and storyteller's pretty fables about the marvelous perfection of the Emperor and his rule. Among the young prince's court, she finds new friends and potential allies, but the burden of her mother's curse creates a wedge that threatens any happiness she finds, and even if she discovers way to break the curse, there are serpents aplenty more than willing to poison her as a threat to their plans for power. The world's magics add extra wonder and danger and plot complications, as does a dark pact with demons of the Underworld who demand sacrifices every hundred years. With a fairly fast-moving plot and many interesting characters, most of whom have extra layers and hidden motivations, it makes for a marvelous, beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking tale. If the finale felt like a few threads were left dangling, I can assume that there's likely a sequel in the works. Even if not, none of the unresolved issues are major deal-breakers insofar as enjoying Raybearer as it stands.

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