ENCHANTER

Second installment in The Wayfarer Redemption series begun with Battleaxe (2001), by Australian fantasist Douglass, whose third volume, Starman, and three others are already available from HarperCollins of Australia. Battleaxe opens with familiar matters given a fresh turn: the Kingdom of Achar threatened by invisible ice-creatures, Prince Borneheld and his shamed half-brother, the bastard Axis (the BattleAxe of the Axe-Wielders) facing off, and Borneheld’s fiancée Faraday falling for Axis. Enchanter focuses on Axis as he joins the Icarii birdpeople, discovers his real father in StarDrifter SunSoar, learns the deeps of enchanting, and loses his heart to the woman warrior Azhure. So Douglass holds her own as her characters deepen inventively.