A Time of Exile

Katharine Kerr's The Dragon Revenant concluded the first story arc of the Deverry saga in a way that made me want to know what happens next. So yes, I'm happy to give the next arc a shot, starting with A Time of Exile.

The Westlands sequence, at least as far as this first installment is concerned, is less a continuation of the first arc and more of an opportunity for the author to reveal Aderyn's backstory. Hence, Jill and Rhodry only appear in the prologue and the epilogue. The bulk of the story takes us back to the time Aderyn left Nevyn to follow his own destiny, which will ultimately bring him to the Westlands to live among the elves. It will be interesting to see if a bigger chunk of the action will occur in the present in the coming books, or if this second arc will focus more on the history of the elves and how the destruction of their homeland brought them to the Westlands.

Here's the blurb:

The world of Deverry: an intricate tapestry of fate, past lives, and unfathomable magic. With A Time Of Exile, Katharine Kerr opens new territory in The Deverry Saga, exploring the history of the Elcyion Lacar, the elves who inhabit the country west of Deverry. It is years since the half-elven Lord Rhodry took the throne of Aberwyn. When Rhodry's lost lover, Jill-now a powerful wizard-comes to Aberyn and tells him it's time he accepted his elven heritage, Rhodry faces the most difficult choice of his life. But with Jill's help and that of a human wizard named Aderyn who has lived for years in the westlands, Rhodry begins to understand how his life is connected not just to his own people, but to the Elcyion Lacar as well. At last, destiny begins to unravel its secrets, revealing Aderyn's true purpose among the elves-and the god' deeper design behind Rhodry's dual heritage.

In my previous reviews, I mentioned that some readers might find the structure of the Deverry saga to be a little off-putting. Since it follows a number of souls being reborn through the centuries, the original cast you get to know at the beginning of a novel gets replaced by a different bunch of characters after a few chapters. Given that reincarnation seems to be at the heart of this saga, this is something everyone needs to get used to, even if it can feel a little weird at times. Although if you've come this far, this probably isn't a problem for you at this juncture. It's a little less prevalent in A Time of Exile, as the bulk of the tale takes place in the past. Still, though this book features a number of past incarnations of protagonists we've come to know in the first Deverry arc, many of the storylines felt a bit extraneous and seemingly brought little to the plot. In many ways, A Time of Exile felt like the least self-contained entry thus far.

Once more, Katharine Kerr's superior worldbuilding continues to shine in this book. À la Katherine Kurtz and Kate Elliott, she has an eye for historical details and her portrayal of medieval Welsh/Celtic culture brings this tale to life with a realism that feels authentic. Her depiction of the nomadic elves was as elaborate as I expected. The revelations about the Burning and the destruction of the elves' distant homeland and their subsequent exodus that ultimately brought them to the Westlands, a shadow of what they once were, turned out to be fascinating. So were the revelations about how they no longer have written records about magic and their own past. It appears that Aderyn's backstory is meant to help shine some light on what happened to the elves. The epilogue hints that Rhodry and Jill's storylines may also move in that direction, but in the present instead of the past, as Jill plans to travel to Bardek to unravel the secrets of Rhodry's mysterious ring. I can't wait to discover more about the Guardians, who seem to be echoes of the ancient elves known as the People.

With this being the fifth Deverry installment, the jumps through the timeline are not as jarring as they were earlier on. For the most part, though there are a couple of pacing issues, especially regarding the blue sprite's love story, A Time of Exile moves the tale forward at a good clip. And even if this novel doesn't stand as well on its own compared to its predecessors, there's no denying that it leaves the door open for a lot of bigger and better things to come.

With five books under my belt, I'm definitely digging the 80s/90s vibe of the Deverry saga. Even though Kerr appears to be shifting the focus toward the elves of the Westlands and how they are the descendants of the People who fled the destruction of their homeland, it feels as though Jill and Rhodry's plotlines will continue to build on the storylines from the previous titles. Really curious to discover where the author will take us next.

The final verdict: 7.5/10

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