Finally, we come to day five, the final day in our inaugural Small Press Week. Samhain Publishing is generally thought of as an e-publisher, but they do release print versions of their novels. Those come out generally several months later, though. They were founded in November of 2005; the name refers to the Wiccan (pagan) major holiday that falls on October 31/November 1. Lilith Saintcrow is probably best known for her Dante Valentine novels (Working for the Devil, Dead Man Rising, The Devil’s Right Hand, etc.) about a necromancer who’s, well, working for the devil. At least at first. However, I found a random high fantasy work of hers on the Samhain website, and I thought I’d give it a try.

Kaia is a G’mai; some call them elves, but they hate that term. She was kicked out of the G’mai home country when she was sixteen or so due to lack of magical ability, though; she’s been working as a mercenary swordfighter, a pickpocket, an assassin, or whatever might net her a little bit of money. She somehow ends up picking the pocket of a giant redheaded barbarian, and ends up with a flawed crystal on a chain. Turns out that that crystal is a talisman to find the original owner — he goes by Darik — find his ‘twin’, or the G’mai woman he’s supposed to be bonded and mated to. Kaia rejects this; she has no magic! However, there’s a lot going on. Who, exactly, is Darik? Will he ever give up and find the person he’s supposed to be bonded to? And, well, there’s a war going on somewhere, right?

Unlike a lot of epic high fantasy (which is what this is), it’s in first person. Because of this and some plot elements, it reads a little more like the current crop of urban fantasy. Kickass female main character? Check. Vampires, werewolves, demons? Well, no, but we do have elves, so: check. Tortured past for heroine? Check, and bonus: tortured past for hero. Now, of course, one can find all those things in a good deal of other high fantasies, but since Ms. Saintcrow writes a lot of urban fantasy, it’s interesting to see what the overlaps between this and her other works.

I liked Kaia. Generally speaking, she’s awfully prickly, but there is a soft heart under that and a lot of honor. As much as she thought she lost all of it when she left her homeland, she still managed to impress other characters with her insistence on repaying debts and saving lives. Her relationships with a child who appears in the book and, of course, with Darik, were the most interesting, although her interactions with Darik made me want to wince a lot (she wasn’t very nice to him). Regarding her tortured past, I thought it actually indicated a fair amount of emotional depth. It was very interesting to see the differences between what she experienced and what other people experienced, regarding her childhood.

I suppose perhaps the fact that she is G’mai (elvish and therefore beautiful) and an amazing fighter and perhaps possessed of other talents might make her a bit unpalatable to some readers. However, I thought that the pain in her background felt real, as well as her stubbornness. It wasn’t just a fake flaw thrown in there to humanize her; it was an organic part of her character. She also isn’t right all of the time, and she isn’t an object of lust for every single male character (just the one, really). In effect, I’m saying she didn’t strike me as a Mary Sue. A more legitimate criticism of the book might be that the pacing is a bit off — even as the first book in a multi-volume series, I felt as if there was a lot of action for the first quarter of the book, and then a giant lull in the middle, and then a fast-paced ending. However, that didn’t bother me that strongly. What did bother me was the fact that this is book one and ends with a “To Be Continued” — and there is no sequel in sight! Please, Ms. Saintcrow, can we have more of Kaia’s story? 4/5 stars.