The White Mists of Power, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Mostly Generic Medieval Fantasy novel with some unusual touches
(Review posted 27 Feb 2006 18:54:20)

I found this in the Book Exchange rack in the lobby at the lab, and I'll probably be returning it there (it's also my first Book Crossing book!). Not a bad book, some unusual elements, but mostly pretty generic.

Most of the book alternates between two narrative threads with no obvious relationship to each other. Eventually it turns out that one of the threads is happening quite a long time before the other (which may I suppose be a spoiler, but I would have liked the book better if I'd known that all along, so I don't mind mentioning it). There's an interesting magical background with these "Enos" dudes who are sort of mostly humanoid nature-spirit types, who have their own internal turmoils and revelations going on in the background while the humans are carrying on more traditional power politics, secret identities, succession battles, and like that.

There are some nice ambiguous touches, where for instance the main female lead and love interest is maybe sort of a little evil in some sense but what the heck, and the Prophecy of the Old Ones turns out not to be something that one ought to blindly put one's faith in, and a few other cliché-breaks like that; I like those. And overall the writing and characterization are solid. An enjoyable but not life-altering read.