Solid Fantasy

The True Knight, Susan Dexter, Ballentine, 1995.

Susan Dexter writes some very nice boiler-plate fantasy. By this I mean that it isn't The Lord Of The Rings, but it doesn't completely suck either. Dexter has a nice, well-crafted fantasy world with reasonably consistent rules and a loyal following.

The True Knight follows a poor Knight wanna-be through various adventures wherein he attempts to live up to the true spirit of knighthood while still staying alive in a deadly world of treachery, violence, and sorcery. All of the elements are pretty standard fantasy elements - knights on horseback, evil nobility, folksy wizards and apprentices, shapeshifters, and legendary warhorses (the warhorse Valadan is the binding factor among many of Dextor's books in the Calandra universe). Still, she occasionally rises above boilerplate predictability with unexpected twists, and characters that aren't quite stock.

The best part about Susan Dexter's writing is that it gradually seems to be improving, and this book is a step in the right direction.

Thomas K. Burkholder, November 25, 1998.