My life in books

The Black Flame
Rifkind’s Challenge

Some months ago, I re-read Daughter of the Bright Moon, the first of two books written in the late 1970s by Lynn Abbey, about Rifkind, a priestess/healer/warrior of the nomadic Asheera, and enjoyed it just as much as I had 30-odd years ago.

So naturally I had to re-read the second book, The Black Flame, and of course I had to follow that with Rifkind’s Challenge, the recently published third volume of the tale of Goddess-touched healer and warrior, which takes up the story some 15 years after the end of the second volume.

The Black Flame is a rousing sword and sorcery adventure and a doomed romance, one that takes the hero Rifkind through some profound emotional changes. At the end of the novel, she returns to her homeland, gives up her warrior ways, and accepts a role among her people as a healer.

Rifkind’s Challenge finds her once more prepared to leave her people, summoned by dreams of old companions from the adventures of her younger days. Abbey has matured as a writer, and her central character has matured as well, making this third adventure even better than the first two.

And the ending seems to contain a set-up for yet another adventure for Rifkind, so I’ll be keeping my eyes open to see if Abbey does have more plans for this character.