Skybowl: Melanie Rawn

It's people rather than places, principles or even the ever-present politics that are at the heart of Melanie Rawn's books and you need to figure out a way of keeping track of them if you're going to enjoy what is really rather an enjoyable tale of magic, battles, discovery and the very occasional dragon. You can't rely on names because in order to show the complex inter-relations of the people of her world and how their disagreement in the face of the invading barbarians amounts to bitter internecine civil war (or perhaps because she ran out of ideas for names?), Melanie Rawn often has important characters Name their children after one another. Often this is followed by a change of heart and the children grow up to oppose their near-namesakes, so for the sake of the plot as well as to avoid confusion, it's important to get clear in your mind the difference between Andry, Andrev and Andrade and between Sioned and Sionell - otherwise you'll be suspecting some of the characters of incest instead of just adultery.

Ah yes - adultery, deceit, rape, madness, plague, treachery, sorcery and unrighted wrongs from generations long dead, it's all here, as the barbarians horde advances to destroy the people of the desert and the High Prince and the would-be-Torquemada Lord of Goddess Keep have to decide whether to put aside their differences to fight the invaders or to squabble just long and hard enough to keep the plot going. There's never a dull moment...

With such a profusion of similar characters, it can be a little hard to care what happens to these people as they play out their epic destiny, because they aren't always clearly enough differentiated for you to work out who is struggling against which principle at any given moment. If you've read the previous two books of the Dragon Star trilogy and the three Sunrunners books already, you may have them clear in your mind by now - this is the last book of six and it doesn't really stand alone. Although the characters and plot are fascinating once you figure out who they are and what's going on, the pace is slow and there's more internal dialogue than action or description.

There are no loose ends left dangling after the last battle either - they're all either neatly tied up, handily chopped off or conveniently sorted out for the next few books. Although there's no sign of a new series, there's plenty of scope for another trilogy following the struggles of the next generation and once you know who they are you really do want to know what happens to all the characters on the next page.