Before I start, I want to say that I apologize for the lack of a picture. They don't have it on amazon, because the book is about 15 years old and out of print. Here's a link to the best picture I could find, this is the cover.



http://pc1.klmsz.sulinet.hu/gabo/daw/DAW34/DW680.JPG



It's complex, and I don't want to give anything away, so here's the scraping on the surface.



A city called Merovingen is a fairly low-tech city. The inhabitants are descended from earth. An alien race came to earth around the 27th century and kicked the people off. They were forced onto Merovin, and Merovingen is the primary city.



The world is low tech because they don't wish to alert the aliens back, for fear they will all be killed.



In Merovingen there are basically low class and high class. High class lives as...maybe equvilant to upper society victorians? Lower class lives like mideval peasants with an exception: the canals which run throughout Merovingen. Most things happen on the water, at least with lower class, everything from smuggling to murder happens on the murky waters. Canalers (canalrats) are everywhere. And one in particular is the main character.



Altair Jones is a spunky, fierce and independant, 16 year old canal rat and on her own. One late night as she's poling on the waters, she sees someone get thrown from a bridge and investigates.



The result: Thomas Mondragon. A young, proud, clever and fierce hightower in waaaay over his head.



Throughout the rest of the book (and the series) he and Altair become thrown into a political mess and are contantly in and out of danger and more messes than you can count.

DIALECT!!!!!!! Sorry...its an obsession. Well I really loved the characters...they totally come to live and jump off the pages. The author write very well and throws in some humour. The world she's made is amazing and she thought of everything.

The endings end far to suddenly. Also, the books are very rare and out of print...you can find them, but they don't run very cheap for paperbacks.

Read the rest!!! Repeatedly...also get the music from the books, as you'll find that there are lyrics listed in the backs of the rest in the series. Some songs you can find on tapes from BayFilk at http://www.firebirdarts.com, but that's the only place I know of besides Kazaa (hint: Check out "Partners," and "I want a blonde" for a few laughs...)



Oh just a note: on 'Angel, it actaully says its book #2. This is wrong, 'Angel's pretty much a prequel, and the rest of the series is insted of being written by a solitary author, are anthologies and written by several authors, each with their own characters...it's really just like a published campfire.



1. Angel with the Sword

2. Festival Moon

3. Fever Season

4. Troubled Waters

5. Smuggler's Gold

6. Divine Right

7. Flood Tide

8. Endgame

Thrilled, because she draws you in so well, and I just felt connected to Jones and Mondragon.

Is a sci-fi/fantasy woman pioner and co-writes with Mercedes Lackey herself. She's written many things, and I just found out that Merovigen books are actaully in a series called the "Allience-Union Universe"...erg, maybe that's reversed...ah well, you get the idea.

Like I've said, it's well done, and the rest of the series features people such as Mercedes Lackey, Leslie Fish, Chris and Janet Morris, Robert Asprin, and more writing with her. They're full of action, fantasy/sci-fi, romance, mystery, intrique, scandals (Arg!), death, trouble, and mcuh more...oh just read them, I don't do 'em proper justice.

Well if you get hooked, like me, it's a pain because they are kinda hard to find, and if you do, run fairly expensive. Sometimes the heavy political stuff gets a tad boring, but then the next chapter makes up for it...really, I love these books, and chances are if you're reading this, you will too.

The covers are done by Tim Hildebrant, who, in my humble opinion, is tied with Jody Lee (Valdemar) for Best Artist in the World.



Merovingen is fascintating, both teh setting and the characters. Wonderful books, is my final comment.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Angel With the Sword (Merovingen Nights #2)   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jun 16, 2003 at 1:22am • Submit your own review...