Prepare to encounter a world where magic springs from earth and sky and water, and where danger, heartache, fear, and friendship each wait to claim their place in the grand design of life. J. Gregory Keyes pursues a tale as big as life in the stunning sequel to The Waterborn . The River flowed from the mountains to the distant sea, and everywhere he touched, he ruled. Powerful and hungry, he had scoured every rival godling from the land. But the world beyond the River's reach was a riot of gods and ghosts and other deities, large and small. Strange spirits jostled and contended with each other, and with the humans who shared their range. Into this rich and dangerously open land came a surprising refugee: Hezhi, the River's own daughter. When the magic that was her heritage awakened in her back in the glittering palace of imperial Nhol, Hezhi fled for her life. With Perkar, a youth in search of honor, and loyal Tsem, her half-Giant bodyguard, she sought refuge among the barbarian Mang. She had hoped for the freedom to build a life of her own, but in these demon-haunted hinterlands, every bubbling spring, crevasse, and hillock boasted some spirit. Until she learned to wield the powers of her birthright, she would be vulnerable to any arcane attack. Hezhi's sanity, and her very soul, would be at risk. Meanwhile, grisly danger followed her from the world she thought she had escaped. The River focused all his might and cunning on the task of finding his wayward child. From the depth of his yearning, the River plotted to take Hezhi alive. For Perkar, her champion, he had no such benign end in view ... Only the Blackgod saw a way for Hezhi and Perkar to defeat the River, once and for all. But he was a creature of guile and limitless duplicity; to trust him might be the most perilous move they could make. Perkar knew that better than anyone else -- better, at least, than anyone still alive ... In this sequel to The Waterborn (LJ 6/15/96) Hezhi, the daughter of the powerful River that flows throughout the land, escapes from the imperial palace in Nhol and her destiny to join with the River. Hiding among the Mang horsemen with her bodyguard, Hezhi must learn to wield her waterborn power. Blackgod, the Raven, reveals how she can defeat the River with the help of Perkar, a cattleman, by traveling to the headwaters in the mountains. Enriched by spiritualism, mystery, and cultural detail, this fantasy belongs in most collections. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. In the sequel to The Waterborn , the awakened River God searches for Hezhi, daughter of the emperor and, hence, daughter of the god. Hezhi has vanished from the River's lands to a distant waste, where, with Perkar and her devoted half-giant bodyguard, she takes refuge with the barbarian Mangs. The River God creates a ghoul out of an assassin killed by Perkar as he and Hezhi fled the great city, and he charges the creature to capture and return Hezhi. The continued growth of Hezhi's power threatens to drive her mad, unless she submits to the training, which she fears, that will make her a shaman. According to the Blackgod, only Hezhi has the means to defeat the River, but can the Blackgod be trusted? Even more complex in plot and characterization than its predecessor, this novel sees Hezhi not only struggling to control her magic powers but also, when she attempts to work a cure for a mortally injured Perkar, entering the otherworld, where the gods reside. On a broad canvas, peopled with humans, half-humans, a Machiavellian priesthood, intertribal war, gods, demons, and more, including the ghoul, whose tiny spark of past humanness plays a great role, an epic battle rages and makes this a richly developed page-turner for the fantasy cognoscenti. Sally Estes Sequel to The Waterborn (1996), Keyes's fantasy about water- gods, magic, and destiny. The Changeling is the god of the River and the city Nhol with its royal family. Though most of the time slumbering, he wakes occasionally to arrange for the breeding of a human whose body he can inhabit. That body is presently occupied also by young Princess Hezhi of Nhol, but she's fled to the horse- warrior Mang, along with her protector, Perkar, and his magic sword, Harka. Hezhi's only hope of long-term survival is to kill the River, but to do this she must reach his source beneath the remote mountain She'leng; offering assistance is the powerful but untrustworthy Blackgod. The River, however, is determined to recapture Hezhi and send forth Ghe, an assassin once slain by Perkar, now reanimated and given magic powers to absorb ghosts and gods. To complicate matters, other parties have their own agendas. Eventually, She'leng is the scene of a mighty but baffling struggle in which various entities die, though some come back to life, and everything is resolved--to the author's satisfaction if not the reader's. An often strikingly imaginative but unedifyingly overcomplicated yarn that could've used a