GRAND CONSPIRACY

Grand Conspiracy ($26.00; Jan.; 640 pp.; 0-06-105219-1). Addition to Wurts’s fantasy Wars of Light and Shadow series (Curse of the Mistwraith, 1994, and others not seen). Half-brothers Lysaer, the Lord of Light (he must seek justice whatever the cost) and Arithon, Master of Shadows (he requires forgiveness) slug it out yet again. For non-fans, the main attraction here is Wurts’s gnarled and often unconsciously hilarious prose (“Caught breathless by the speed of the wrestler’s jab that hooked the hinge of his knee and wrenched in a practiced move to fell him, the duke’s brother struck back with locked fists”). Even that, however, palls after a few paragraphs.