Chronicles of Morgaine (also known as the Morgaine Saga)
Exiles Gate
Merovingan Nights
C J Cherryh
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Cherryh has a way of drawing you into her characters so fast that suddenly you are with them, living in their world, watching and waiting. Your heart beats faster, your mouth goes dry, you are there. You are with them, experiencing all that they experience. And you believe in them because they do what they should do, what in 'reality' they would do. They do not simply plod along with the plot, but are part of it. She colours the lands and people with vivid artistry, creating a distinct 'look and feel' but without dictating to your imagination. This kind of writing is sadly too rare.

The Chronicles of Morgaine initially consisted of three books - Fires of Azeroth, Well of Shiuan and Gate of Ivrel. Cherryh wrote a fourth - Exiles Gate- some time later which was a perfect finale to an exceptional set of works. Throughout the series, we follow the lives of Morgaine, a strange unearthly woman, hard, driven and seemingly uncaring and Nhi Vanya, a young warrior, naïve, unsure and somewhat of a liability.

Delight in the magical storytelling Cherryh weaves around them, exploring their relationship as it unfolds, their interactions with each other, the people around them and history as it is made. She carries you along on the crests of the storm waves they create, and she dashes you down in the wake they leave behind, swirling with the flotsam they inevitably drag down under murky, storm tossed waves.....

In the Merovingen Nights series, Cherryh joins forces with other writers including Mercedes Lackey, to weave interconnected stories around the places and people of the flood-prone city of Merovingen. Starting with a stand alone novel Angel with a Sword, we are drawn into the turbulent world of Merovin. The following seven books (Festival Moon, Fever Season, Troubled Waters, Smuggler's Gold, Divine Right, Flood Tide and Endgame) contain short stories with an underlying theme that interconnects them and the characters they introduce.

The city itself is canal riddled, dank and dark. From the upper, ruling class families to the canalers poleing their skiffs along its fetid waterways, it is a city populated by technophobic, God fearing descendants of Earths early space farers. They are just waiting for the day when Retribution finally arrives, when the Aliens come back to wipe the last of them out completely. On this foreign world, they argue, fight and bicker among themselves, loosing sight of the wider picture, becoming more and more insular. The struggle between the classes is mirrored in the struggle within the church. Who will prevail? Adventist? Revenantist? Church of Jane? Or will it be the dark and silent Sword of God? Follow the lives and loves of Thomas Mondragon, Altair Jones, Black Cal and a host of characters that come alive with the first breaths Cherryh and co write into their prosaic bodies.

This series is without equal. If you can get it, you are in for a treat!

Morgaine books - 10/10
Merovingen Nights series - 11/10

Andy Warner, 2000