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Trial Of Fire (Fifth Book of Elita) by Kate Jacoby
01/10/2004 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Gollancz. 441 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-575-07405-1. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.katejacoby.com
There are a large number of reasons why this series - of which 'Trial Of Fire' is the fifth and final one - should not work. It is a tribute to Kate Jacoby's skill as a writer and story-teller that it does.
Just as in some other genres, fantasy seems to have developed a number of clichés that have coalesced to become a formula. Jacoby's work contains most of them. Fantasies frequently run to trilogies or, more precisely, a vast volume that has been sliced into marketable chunks to maximise profit.
In the worst kind, they appear to have been cut when the requisite number of pages has been reached even if it is midway through a sentence. Jacoby ends each, except the last, with a climax and cliff-hanger which leaves the reader wanting the next volume. This approach creates problems in that it makes it difficult to begin reading part way through the series. To help overcome the problem, 'Trial Of Fire' is prefaced with a résumé disguised as an extract from a book called 'The Secret History Of Lusara'.
Fantasy needs magic. Often, sorcery is misunderstood in the same way that witchcraft was in earlier centuries in Britain. Sorcery and witchcraft are banned because the untalented are scared of what they do not understand. Their practitioners are hounded and killed. They hide their skills in Jacoby's novels. Most of her sorcerers are hidden away in the Enclave, protected by a device called the Key.
Robert Douglas, the hero and a sorcerer, is out fomenting rebellion as he wishes to free his country, Lusara, from the tyranny of King Kenrick. As sorcery can, like so many things, be used as a force for good or evil there has to be a villain. This is Nash, Kenrick's chief advisor. Nash wants the Key. He also wants Robert Douglas dead. He has no scruples, having already caused his daughter's death and used her blood to rejuvenate his body. We can reasonably expect a confrontation between the two.
While Nash has no redeeming features, Robert is full of doubts. A prophecy is always useful and Robert was given one as a child. He was told that he would destroy the thing that he loves most. Robert assumes this is Jennifer Ross, someone he has long refused admitting to love. She, on the other hand, has refused to tell him that he is the father of her son, partly because it will make him angry that she has deceived him and because it would upset his plans to put the boy, Andrew, on the throne in place of Kenrick.
Thus, we have a scenario reminiscent of the Mills & Boon romantic novels, only lasting for a quintet of volumes. Robert and Jenn are so much in love that they keep forcing themselves apart by silly misunderstandings and misguided notions of self-sacrifice. In fact, this gets tiresome as both are behaving childishly. Neither is prepared to sit down and talk to the other but prefer to jump to conclusions. This is a big problem with Robert's character in general. He is portrayed as a charismatic leader but he is wilful and doesn't listen - a trait which drives most of the plot.
Then there is the obligatory quest. Initially, there is a fairly subtle underlying one - the search for a lost object known as the Calyx. This is believed to hold the knowledge that will unlock the Key. This is found by accident in volume 4, 'Rebel's Cage'. Then there is Patric's quest overseas to find out more about the history of the prophecy. He returns in 'Trial Of Fire' with some of the information needed to understand the unfolding events. Robert, too, has a quest or crusade: to free Lusara from tyranny and make Andrew the country's new king. The fact that Andrew does not want this is irrelevant.
There will have to be revelations, such as the secret of Andrew's parentage, although the reader will have been aware of this since his conception. There will be fighting and winning against the odds. Robert, amongst other things, is a superb swordsman and there are a number of small fights as well as the prospect of a pitched battle between the rebels and the king's army.
'Trial Of Fire' is the culmination of all these elements. At the end of 'Rebel's Cage', the Calyx and the Key were fused and the protection the Enclave had enjoyed for five hundred years evaporated. Nash now knows where to finds the Key and sets out after it, thus everyone has to leave.
Robert, Jenn and a small group of others manage to mask the Key and take it to a new hiding place. This becomes the signal for the rebellion to begin.
For the most part, the series is formulaic and predictable but provided you are prepared to suspend critical values and run with it, it is an enjoyable romp. The only real mistake is the epilogue. It is unnecessary and adds nothing to what had preceded it.
Pauline Morgan
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