Amberlight (Hardcover)

~ Sylvia Kelso (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kelso (Everran's Bane) paints a hypnotic but prose-drowned portrait of a complex matriarchal society powered by qherrique, a semisentient stone that can control minds and power machinery. When a male Outlander is found on the streets of Amberlight, robbed, raped and left for dead by a girl gang, the qherrique informs Tellurith, the powerful head of Telluir House, that he must be kept alive. As Tellurith's household nurses the stranger back to health, he reveals the terrible truth about the nearby rulers who purchase qherrique statuettes from Amberlight and use them to enslave people and wage war. As Tellurith comes to see and question the rampant poverty and bias in Amberlight, she opens a furious debate over the Houses' responsibility to make sure qherrique is used wisely at home and abroad. Kelso's self-consciously overwrought verbiage (Crafters' coats and cloaks festoon the pearl-grime) distracts from an otherwise intriguing exploration of sexual politics and the difficult calculus of leadership. (Nov.)
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Product Description

Tellurith, the head of a great ruling House in Amberlight, inexplicably finds a battered outlander left for dead in the streets of the legendary city - and an oracle reveals that he must not die. The man, although stripped of his memory, may know of a threat to Amberlight's unique possession: the motherlodes of the qherrique, the pearl-rock that gives their world its most powerful tool. Tangled in intrigue, insurrection and brutal warfare, it will take a cataclysmic upheaval for Tellurith and the stranger to begin to grasp the more-than-human mystery that brought them together.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Juno Books; illustrated edition edition (December 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809572478
• ISBN-13: 978-0809572472
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,518,098 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but I had trouble., February 27, 2008

By	S. S. White "Calico Reaction" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Amberlight (Paperback)

Amberlight is an interesting fantasy that focuses on a matriarchal society, gender reversals, and even touches (but not through said guy's POV) male rape. It's a short read, and an interesting one, and while I had some problems getting through it (the third-person, present tense POV did not make for an easy read), I'm glad I did. I'll be happy to pick up the sequel.

5.0 out of 5 stars Diamond-hard prose, February 17, 2008

By	Nicole Lowery (WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Amberlight (Paperback)

Sylvia Kelso's prose in Amberlight is perfectly suited to her story; it is terse and diamond-hard, much like the main character herself. Tellurith is the head of one of the Thirteen Houses of Amberlight. She is a capable administrator, though somewhat naive about her own, and Amberlight's, role in the unrest growing in the land.

Tellurith and her house leaders find what they initially think is a beaten woman. It turns out to be a badley beaten man, instead, but since they are already emotionally involved, they take him back to Telluir House, bringing both joy and doom on themselves.

Kelso writes with a stern eye toward her characters and setting, but not without a sense of hope. What made Amberlight so good to me was the balance of story and romance, with neither overwhelming the other. I really liked these characters, and felt that they were real within the context of this richly drawn world.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong character driven fantasy, November 7, 2007

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Amberlight (Paperback)

Amberlight is a fairly populated city with a great amount of land and an even greater amount of wealth due to other nations buying slates of qherrique, a pearl gray stone found only in the city. Rulers use the precious stone to control the population of a country; however the power is finite so that the merchants have repeat business. The city is ruled by the Thirteen Houses which consist of women only as only females are in positions of authority and leadership.

Tellurith, head of an influential House, finds an unconscious obviously raped male. She takes him into her living quarters where he regains consciousness with a foreign salute although he has no memory as to who he is. Tel demands he confess who he is spying for; as he begins to recall things, she assumes he is a mercenary sent from an enemy who wants to control qherrique. Improbably they fall in love and for a few months Tel is happy. Her contentment is shattered the night the qherrique speaks to him and he vanishes probably to betray her to his employers.

AMBERLIGHT is a character driven fantasy that examines the culture of a matriarchal society in order to raise the issue of selling weapons of mass destruction (qherrique) to unscrupulous abusive rulers (foreign military sales to deadly despots like Hussein during the Reagan era or the present Mid East plan). The powerful plot also looks closely at the impact of rape with the twist that the male is the victim. Sylvia Kelso provides a colorfully refreshing tale starring two likable fully developed lead protagonists. Perhaps the only negative is the mystery of qherrique which remains for a future story.

Harriet Klausner