The Twisted Citadel by Sara Douglass

Ishbel Brunelle, former High Priestess of the Serpent Coil, has had enough of her husband, the Lord of Elcho Falling, Maximillian Persimius. For though she came to him in a spirit of hope, seeing that their marriage was supposed to keep the land of Escator safe, that promise has proved as empty as their marriage vows.

Maximillian has had an affair with Ravenna, a marsh witch and the daughter of the marsh witch Venetia, and Ravenna has conceived their child, a son. But now, when Maxel has cast Ishbel aside, he begins to have second thoughts about leaving his wife in such a fashion. But despite all of Ravenna's warnings, he feels he cannot leave Ishbel this way. Only it is too late, and now Ishbel has left her posture of always being there for him, always waiting. She no longer wishes to be married to Maxel, and will no longer recieve him as her husband.

But events in Escator are proceeding apace. Kanubai, the godling who laid waste to Escator, has gone to the glass pyramid in the mountains to absorb its power. But he has miscalculated, and instead the pyramid eats his spirit and takes his body, stepping out of itself into a body seemingly made entirely of blue-green glass, with a golden, rotating pyramid at its heart. It takes over Kanubai's army of Skraelings and introduces a new race to the world, the Lealfast, who are half skraeling and half Icarii.

Coming from the north, they join the forces of Maxel and his companion Icarii as allies, although seemingly incompetent ones. As Axis pairs them with his Icarii, he grows closer to the Lealfast woman named Inardle, who has been tasked to get close to him and to find out his secrets, then slay him. But she hasn't reckoned with his great charisma, and he begins affecting her almost as much as she does him. Will she continue with her plans to betray him, or will she be as seduced by him as he is by her, and come over to his side, betraying her people? Will she be affected by the care and concern he has shown her?

Meanwhile, the River God Isaiah returns to Isembard to see what has happened. The spirit of the pyramid, calling itself "The One" has destroyed Isembard with the Skraelings. Even the mighty River Lhyl is no more, turned into a river of glass rather than a river of water. But he stumbles on the lone human survivor, a human woman named Hereward. To save her, he gives up his immortality and receives a curse on Maxel, Ishbel, and the citadel of Elcho Falling. But can he warn them in time? For if Maxel and Ishbel save their marriage and renew their vows, The One will come to Elcho Falling, and it will open to him as its master.

This is exactly what Maxel and Ishbel have been trying to prevent. But should they go ahead anyway? For how provident was it that Isaiah returned just in time to warn them of such a possibility, in time to avoid making a mistake? Or is it a mistake? If Elcho Falling falls, what will be the consequences? And what can the inhabitant of the statue known as the Brazen God have to add to the matter? Can Maxel and Ishbel stand against the One?

This was an interesting volume that I enjoyed reading. So many of Sara Douglas's books have been leading to this series, books that I thought were originally stand-alone novels, like "Threshold", which first introduced the Glass Pyramid where lives the alien intelligence that eventually becomes "The One". So many novels combine in this series that it would take months to read them all. "Beneath the Hanging Wall", all 6 Volumes of the Wayfarer Redemption, "Threshold", all of these end up being melded together in this book.

Sara Douglass does have some faults as a writer. One of them is the abuse she heaps on her female characters. Yes, they are strong and can take it, but the situations she puts them in are off-putting, to put it mildly. But her characters tend to be strong but deeply flawed, I stopped reading "The Wayfarer Redemption" over Axis SunSoar's treatment of Faraday, the woman he loved, and who loved him. Well, Axis is back here, shorn from his eventual wife, Azhure. He decides that Azhure would want him to find love in this new life he has been granted, and shacks up with Inardle, who has been sent to seduce and betray him by her own people. To get Axis on her side, she is badly hurt by her allies and risks losing the use of her wings. But will Axis' care of her get her to change her mind and betray her people?

The origins of the Lealfast are revealed in this book, and as horrible as they are, it's only slightly less disgusting than the Icarii sex lives, as they tend to be attracted to members of their close family. Sibling Incest and Parent-Child incest are discouraged, so Grandparent- Grandchild incest seems to be the order of the day, and even though both are adults, it's likely to squick some readers out. Other characters are more likely to make you annoyed at their wishy-washiness. Maxel dismisses Ishbel, then decides his current lover, Ravenna, is being too annoying, discards her, too, and spends a lot of the book trying to win Ishbel back. I wanted to kick him more than once and tell him to make up his mind.

As a middle book, this shares a lot of similarities with other middle books- forces jockey for their final position, some people thought to be allies turn into enemies, and new allies are found- but they might turn out to be enemies also. The most annoying thing is how often characters mention the name of the character they are talking to- at least once every other sentence, or so it seems. Why don't the other characters get annoyed with the person calling their name? It's like they'd forget their names if the other characters weren't constantly reminding them.

I found the book to be very readable, but recommending it would need some cautions about the nature of some of the plotlines and character/race backgrounds. Also, if you have never read the other series that go into making this up, you will probably understand less than if you had read them, although to be fair, Sara Douglas does cover a lot of that ground over again. Fair Fantasy- interesting but with some squicky and annoying moments.