Belladonna by Anne Bishop

Ephemera is a broken land, full of landscapes both light and dark, linked together by bridges, and kept from further spintering by people called Landscapers. The greatest of these is Gloriana Belladonna, the woman who has been holding Ephemera together against the assault by the thing called "The Eater of the World". The Eater thinks of her as "the Enemy", and both hates and fears her. But even though Belladonna has been able to keep the Eater of the world out of her own landscapes, and defeated the Dark Landscapers, the other Landscapers see her as dark and tainted because she works with dark landscapes as well as light ones.

And while the Eater may be denied entry to her own landscapes, there are a good many more that are missing landscapers of their own, and those landscapes can be changed by changing the heart of the people in them. The Eater is attempting to do this through fear, intimidation and anxiety, bringing the landscapes closer to itself, and feeding on the darker emotions of those trapped within.

In a far part of Ephemera lies Michael, who has long dreamed of a beautiful woman and finding his soul mate. He's a wanderer and a singer, and his talent lies in hearing the song of a place, and he can influence that song with his music. He has seen the Eater of the World's effects on the people and places he has come to care about, and he's scared. He's also been accused of a crime, killing a young woman in a small town. When he hears the changes in the song of the land, he's sent off on a quest to find the one woman who might be able to help the land, with a mere saying heard in a great Divination on the Island of Light. "Heart's Hope lies with Belladonna". His sister, Caitlin, has been rejected by the women of the Island to join their order because of the darkness inside of her. She finds her own garden impinging on Belladonna's, and when the two meet, Belladonna realizes that this young woman is just like her: a Landscaper capable of handling Landscapes both bright and dark.

But when Michael comes looking for his sister, he must fight against the realization he came to when he saw Belladonna: that she is the Warrior of Light. For the Warrior of Light must drink from the Cup of Darkness to defeat the Eater of the World, and if she does that, there is no coming back. Belladonna will become a monster of darkness and forget everything and everyone she once held dear... including him. How can he bear to lose the woman he was born to love so soon after finding her? But if he doesn't tell her the story of the Warrior of Light, all Ephemera will die under the dark influence of the Eater. Which will he choose? Love or life? And how can he make that choice now, when his heart will break no matter what he chooses?

This is the second Ephemera book and presumably the last, as the problem of the Eater is taken care of once and for all by the end. On the whole, I was pleased with the book, although I did have some problems with a lot of the talky-talky scenes. The first part of the book needed more action, and less talking. Also, the "romance" between Michael and Belladonna needed a bit more set-up. It seemed far too rushed, and didn't feel very real to me on the part of Belladonna. Aside from a few blushes, I never got the feeling that she was really all that interested in Michael. It was as if, in writing the story, Ms. Bishop decided that they belonged together and assumed everyone got it... then didn't write in most of the actual romance parts, leaving it instead. Oh yes, they end up together, but what went into making the relationship feel real was oddly missing for me.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the book. The character of the Eater is evil, yes, but at points you actually feel pity for it. And when it is finally chained again in a single domain, all alone and hurting, it's just possible to feel sad for it, like that episode of Star Trek: Voyager with the evil clown who had all the planet's inhabitants brains and didn't want to let them go. At the end, Janeway tricks it into letting the others go for a promise to stsy with it forever, and in the end, she isn't really there. It's been a hologram-Janeway all along, and the clown finally faces being alone in an entire world with just himself forever. It's possible to feel a slight sense of sadness for the Eater, the same as I did for the evil clown character. In the eater's case, it is trapped in a world with nothing for him to feed off of. From this frightening thing, it's been reduced to a pathetic figure, but considering what it has done to people in the course of the two novels, its only a small flicker of sympathy and no more. In short, the villain is done right, and though it is seemingly pure evil, it is humanized in the end.

While this book had a few problems on the romance front and the talky-talky rather than dynamic scenes for Belladonna and those near her in the first half of the book, this is still a very good book, and I will recommend it to people who enjoy fantasy. Of course, the preview of the new "Darker Jewels" sequel is also something to look forward to as well...