This is "The Fourth Tale of Einarinn", following on from The Thief's Gamble, The Swordsman's Oath and The Gambler's Fortune. I was highly impressed with the first two and although McKenna's reach extended past her grasp for the third I have still been looking forward to this book.
Having focussed on Livak in The Gambler's Fortune we return to her other (better?) half Ryshad and find out what he does for the same summer period. McKenna departs from the first three, all about the struggle directly against the invading Eliettim, and this one concentrates on the political struggle within the Tormalin Empire, carrying on from the situation left at the end of The Swordsman's Oath. Temar has been awakened from a centuries-long sleep and has a number of tasks to perform: recovering the artefacts containing the minds of his fellow colonists; consolidating the precarious position of the colony within politics of the Empire; sorting out his own personal feelings about his temporal mis-placement.
Ryshad is assigned to Temar by his own liege lord, the Sieur D'Olbriot, but increasingly finds his new status as Chosen Man of D'Olbriot at odds with both his desire to help Temar achieve his aims and with his independent frame of mind.
About a third of the chapters are written from Ryshad's first person point of view. The rest are third-person points of view, occasionally including chapters where Ryshad joins the action partway through. I think this might have been a mistake as it is sometimes distracting. It allows an intimacy with Ryshad's point of view that might be lacking in a pure third person narrative, however, so may be a worthwhile trade off.
The focus on the politics of Tormalin is a welcome change of pace and allows McKenna to add yet more layers to the already complex world she has created in this series. She avoids the mistake of featuring primarily evil and/or morally ambiguous characters as in The Gambler's Fortune by showing the action featuring Ryshad and Temar as primaries and the "bad guys" as players in their drama. These other players always have suitable motives and actions for their characters and are never the evil-for-evil's-sake that mars too many fantasies.
All in all, another fine novel, well worth searching out to continue an already excellent series. I'm expecting a wonderful finale in book five, due next year no doubt.

SFX February 2002
Reviewer: Dan Abnett

The Warrior's Bond is the fourth volume of the Tales of Einarinn from Oxfordshire-based fantasist Juliet E McKenna, although it stands robustly enough by itself and supplies all the basic facts a latecomer needs to join the fun.
The warrior of the title is Ryshad Tathel, a Chosen man who has pledged his services as a guardian to a noble house. Ryshad's house is D'Olbriot, but this adventure sees him lending his strengths to a scion of an ally, D'Alsennin, as it attempts to rebuild itself after heavy losses at the hands of a common enemy. The action takes place at the festival of the summer solstice, where Ryshad finds himself caught up in deadly intrigues.
Mckenna's prose is light and confident, and through the course of the saga she constructs a sound, coherent world setting, especially in terms of how magic operates in and permeats through its culture. Best of all is the swirling intrigue, the politicking and the constant bluffing. McKenna throws herself into those elements with delightful relish. The traditions of courtly intrigue and courtly love are clearly great interests of hers, and she works well with them.
Downsides? If you're a fan of this kind of romantic high fantasy, then there probably isn't one. For a less converted reader, the many quasi-French name forms drag a little. McKenna may have been trying for the atmosphere of say, Chretien De Troyes, as would suit her subject matter, but sometimes it comes off as just another sub-Arthurian court. Some also might complain that this, along with so many others of its genre, is simply failing to push the envelope. The Warrior's Bond is a very well-written example, but it's still very much in the long shadows of Tolkien, Moorcock, Vance, LeGuin and McCaffrey. Why doesn't anybody seem to be breaking new ground with fantasy, especially writers like McKenna, who clearly have the ability?

Locus January 2002
Reviewer: Carolyn Cushman

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