11 October, 2000
Caught in Crystal
Patricia Wrede
1987
293 pp (PB)
Okay, I'm going to try to keep this one shorter.
CAUGHT IN CRYSTAL, like several other of Wrede's books, is set in the world of Lyra. Of the Lyra books, I had previously only read the most recent, THE RAVEN RING, which I found to be entertaining, but rather generic. CIC is much better. The world of Lyra is fleshed out to a much greater degree in CIC, making it much less of a generic Medievaloid Fantasyland than one would gather from THE RAVEN RING. Perhaps Wrede thought that she'd described the world well enough in previous books, and didn't need to repeat it in TRR, but forgot that all her other Lyra books were out of print.
Anyway, the plot of CIC is much more interesting than the D&D-esque plot of TRR, as well. The main character, Kayl, _is_ a Warrior Woman, but she's a retired, middle-aged Warrior Woman, widowed with two adolescent kids. She's minding her own business, running an inn, when circumstances combine with a summons from her old Warrior Sisterhood to set her on the road to adventure once again. Repercussions from the disaster of a mission which resulted in her resignation from the sisterhood 15 years ago are still being felt. She must face her past, and the icky nasty thing which messed up the original mission, so that she can get on with her life.
While this book is pretty light-weight, it's enjoyable because of its twist on the standard Adventure Woman story. Kayl has to be a mom AND a Warrior Woman at the same time. The conflict between these roles is treated seriously, not as a source for sitcom-style humor. The conflict, and how she deals with it, is what makes CAUGHT IN CRYSTAL more than a generic adventure novel.