Owlknight (Valdemar: Darian's Tale, Book 3)

Owlknight follows Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon's two earlier novels about Darian Firkin, Owlflight and Owlsight. By now the boy who ran from barbarian invaders is both knight of Valdemar and a master mage; he is governor of a small province and in love with Keisha who returns his feelings, but he still has problems and responsibilities. For one thing, he has never solved the mystery of what happened to his parents. For another, Keisha refuses to marry him lest his role as governor and hers of healer come into conflict--and there are still barbarians beyond the border who threaten one day to come back.

The story of how these problems are all resolved is told in a quiet tone unusual in this sort of epic fantasy. Darian has as much to look within for the solution to these issues as to struggle in the outside world. The woodland journey during which he does this is much of the time a celebration of the renewal of the human soul by the natural world.

Lackey and Dixon have found a courtly, meditative way of telling an attractively simple story. Darian's growth to final maturity is inevitable, but still fascinating. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk