Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A new book by Juliet Marillier is always cause for rejoicing, and as usual, this opus does not disappoint. Marillier is a craftswoman of the first water: her words flow like runny honey, with the odd dash of lemon to cleanse the palate now and then.

Dreamer's Pool, like the bulk of this author's ouevre, has as its protagonist a young woman with a problem. If there has been one criticism of Marillier's characters it is that they have a certain sameness. A typical Marillier heroine is a girl in her late teens who has a huge problem to solve, and the fate of the family/tribe/kingdom rests on her ability to 'get it right'. Blackthorn (an assumed name that represents her profession as a healer - we never do learn her real one) and her partner in crime-solving, the taciturn but loyal Grim, are older characters. I'd place them in their early to mid twenties, since Blackthorn is fully qualified in her work and has been active enough in society to come to the notice of the powers-that-be, notably the tyrannical Mathuin, who has thrown her into prison for speaking against him. Sentenced to die, Blackthorn wakes on what she thinks will be the last day of her life to be confronted by the fey lord Conmael, who promises to help her as long as she gives up her desire for vengeance and always uses her gifts to help and never to harm. She and Grim travel north, aiming for Dalriada where Blackthorn plans to set up her healing practice.

But it's a long journey with many mishaps and delays. The resulting adventures of Blackthorn and Grim intertwine with the love story of Prince Oran and his betrothed, the gentle poet Flidais. There is also a dog (a must in a Marillier novel!) together with confused identities and a magical pool. The resulting tale is somewhat more adult and rather darker than much of this author's previous work, and it makes good reading.

As usual, Marillier has drawn skilfully on folklore and traditional tales, rounding out stock characters and developing the magical elements so they become credible plot elements. The cover tells us this is 'a Blackthorn and Grim novel', so it seems we can expect more adventures involving this likeable pair. The contrast between them makes their friendship all the more interesting, and I shall look forward to further books in the series.

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Well, it's been three weeks since I said I would write about the Conflux convention in Canberra, and since then I've been to another one, the Crimescene con in Perth. Both were great little cons.

At Conflux my friend Helen Venn and I shared a room in the hotel (Rydges, Capital Hill) so we were able to be there for the evening program as well as the daytime one. All the panels we were on went well, and the performances of Laura E. Goodin's radio play Useless Questions were very well received.  Here's a pic of the cast & director, courtesy of Cat Sparks and Rob Hood.

L.to R. are Cat Sparks,Nicole Murphy, Laura E. Goodin, David McDonald, Stephen Ormsby and yours truly. We were, of course, utterly brilliant  There were nice comments about the panels we were involved with, especially the one on reviewing - in fact, all the panels were good and there were excellent writing workshops as well.

A nice bonus: my son Kurt, who lives in Canberra, took Helen and me on a day tour when the con was over. The best part was the amazing view from Mount Ainslie (right, photo courtesy http://www.tripadvisor.com.au ).

Then on 10 October I had a lovely day at the Crimescene Convention at Rydges hotel in Perth. Great talks and panels with Lyn and Lee Battersby, Stephen Dedman, Alisa Krasnostein, Tehani Croft Wessely, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Glenda Larke Noramly. Caught up with Davina Marjory Watson and others that I rarely see. I bought the first book of Tansy's crime series, written under her new Livia Day brand. How good is my karma? Cons two weekends running!

No more cons now until next Easter, when it's Swancon time again. Can't wait!

And in the prose department, The Cloak of Challiver is out with an editor colleague for final checking before submission. See the guy in the pinkred T-shirt in the photo above? He's Stephen Ormsby of Satalyte Publishing, and he's the one who has to like The Cloak of Challiver or it will never see light of day. Fingers crossed!