Review

Anvil of the Sun by Anne Lesley Groell

Jenifleur Radineux, a young and beautiful noblewoman, is on her way to meet her beloved aunt Vera after schooling abroad. But both women are more than they seem, for Vera is the accomplished assassin Hawk and her niece Jenifleur (“Jenny”) is her protégé. On his way to pick her up at the ship is her childhood friend, Thibault Lescevre, an apprentice carpenter.
What would have been a pleasant meeting quickly goes awry. The Hawk takes an assignment in the desert country of Ashkharon before her niece’s arrival. It’s a trap. While the lethal assassin struggles to escape from death, Jenifleaur and the reluctant Thibault go to her rescue.

This leisurely paced book is an enjoyable read. All the protagonists are likeable: the impulsive Jenny, level-headed (for the most part) Thibault, Vera, and the two brother assassins, the Hound and the Fox. The major antagonist Iaon Pehndon is no caricature and—in many ways—the most complex character in the story. The plot itself is quite simple (rescue Vera and, later, Jenny) so much of the story is devoted to adding depth to the characters and fleshing out the setting.
And what a setting! The world of Varia and the country of Ashkharon are, of course, pseudo-medieval Europe and Arabia with magic thrown in. Magelights (light bulbs), long-distance instant communication through crystal balls, “magecasts” and other such devices (including a very interesting tape recorder) add interesting (though at times odd) modern twists.
It’s the latter that can be jolting to the reader. While magical devices duplicating modern technology in fantasies are nothing new, anachronisms such as “bollocks” and—especially—“tarnation” threw me out of the story a couple of times.
Setting—specifically, description--also fills the novel to an extent I haven’t read since the Lord of the Ring or the Thomas Covenant series. In a time where most writers are told to emulate Hemingway’s sparse style, Anvil is filled with paragraphs of it. But Groell definitely prevents “description fatigue” by keeping virtually all the chapters to ten pages, an amazing accomplishment. I was ready many times to stop in a chapter when I discovered it was ending, tempting me to read again.
For the likeable characters and quick read (despite being over 400 pages in length), I give Ms Groell’s first novel a C plus.