Spectyr
A Book of the Order
Philippa Ballantine

Ace Books
r July 2011/978-0-441-02051-5
Fantasy / Paranormal / YA, adult themes, a touch of steampunk
Amazon

Reviewed by P.L. Blair

Ballantine delivers a tale that’s richly told. In a world where Deacons hunt malevolent supernatural creatures called geists, the Emperor's sister releases a goddess. Or so she believes.

Meanwhile, two Deacons, Sorcha Faris and her partner Merrick Chambers, have been tasked with escorting a delegation sent to negotiate terms for the Emperor's engagement; Sorcha's lover, the deposed Prince Raed, seeks the abductors of his sister; and all their paths will converge in the exotic city of Orinthal, where a string of murders has set the city's populace on edge.

Philippa Ballantine has done a superb job of connecting links and bringing all these seemingly disparate elements together in a richly woven and well-told tapestry of a tale.
Spectyr is actually the second book in Ballantine's “Orders” series – and I hope there will be more. Geist is the first book, and though I haven't read it, I found that wasn't necessary in order to understand – and enjoy – Spectyr. Ballantine provides enough background so her reader knows the history of her characters, and her world, and there are no awkward gaps or questions.

It is a wondrous world, rich in magic and competing religions, where airships sail the skies above their seagoing counterparts, and guns coexist with swords and goddess-gifted daggers. Motives are complex; so are the characters. Raed harbors a geistlord within himself, a Beast that manifests as a huge cat, capable of deadly rampages.
And, as Merrick and Sorcha are soon discovering, the Order that they serve conceals its own secrets.

I adore Sorcha. Ballantine's cigar-smoking heroine conceals a smart, sensitive woman behind a tough exterior. She has to be tough. Not only to fight geists, but to avoid the ex-husband who – now that he and Sorcha are divorced – has apparently decided he really does care for her after all …

Ballantine's gift of language is as rich as the world she's created. Some samples:

“After all these generations, her voice was the same, as beautiful as broken stained glass.”

“His head felt full of snapping turtles.”

“Merrick fell into stars” …

“He had a powerful jaw and a narrow, tidy beard – what he also had were eyes that would suck out a person's soul.”

I love a writer who can deliver that kind of poetry in prose.

As already mentioned, you don't have to read Geist in order to enjoy Spectyr. But having read Ballantine's second book, I do want to find her first book and read the story I missed.

Spectyr ends – not on a cliffhanger – but on the promise of a third book to come. I want to read that one too.

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