For those of you who missed our first review of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series, here is another one, submitted by MMK, another fan of the books. Just to refresh your memory, Anne Bishop's critically-acclaimed Black Jewels Trilogy is the saga of a young but still-innocent Queen more powerful than even the High Lord of Hell-and the three sworn enemies determined to win her and gain a prize that could be terrible beyond imagining...

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I am completing my second reading of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. I find I am more in love with it the second time around. The series of eight books, including the central trilogy(Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness), follows the girl who would become WITCH (ruler of the realms--Kaeleer-Terrielle and Hell), Jaenelle Angelline and her sworn protectors--Lucivar Yaslana, the Eyrien warlord prince, his half-brother Daemon Sadi, also a warlord prince and their father Saetan SaDiablo, the High Lord of Hell. Anne Bishop has created a witchly world where magic is chanelled through jewels--the strongest being the black jewel and the weakest being the white jewel with many colors between them including opal, the dividing color between strong and weak jewels. The humans in the story are divided between the Blood--those with powers who wear jewels and landens, those who don't wear jewels and have no power at all.
In the matriarchal world of Terrielle (light realm)-Kaeleer (shadow realm) and Hell (dark realm and home of the demon-dead), darkness is worshipped and revered as a mother; social and jewel rank mean everything and nothing and females are the rulers, worshipped, hated, loved and protected by powerful males with animalistic and aggressive tendencies. Jaenelle Angelline is poised to become WITCH, the title of the ruler of the realms. Jaenelle is fragile and sensitive, however. She comes from an emotionally abusive family and after a brutal rape (Daughter of the Blood), she is wary and on edge. She, however, is dreams-made-flesh, the prophesied and long-awaited Queen meant to restore decency and honor to the realms that the warlord brothers and their father, Saetan, have been waiting for; naturally, they'll do anything to help her fulfil her destiny and protect her, especially against the tangled webs and traps laid by Hekatah, Saetan's demon-dead ex-wife and the self-proclaimed High Priestess of Hell and her living conspirator Dorothea SaDiablo, the self-proclaimed High Priestess of Hayll (Terrielle).

Hekatah and Dorothea have the puppet queens/witches and warlords/princes of the territories at their disposal, using them to destroy potentially strong queens and to control strong warlords who may pose threats to their power and influence. Daemon and Lucivar are two such warlords who were enslaved by Dorothea before each escaped. Dorothea puts herself on a mission to re-enslave the brothers and trap Jaenelle for her own purposes, if not kill her.

One of Dorothea and Hekatah's trap resulted in Daemon Sadi, known as the Sadist, entering the Twisted Kingdom (insanity)-- Heir to the Shadows, when he thought Jaenelle had died and he was responsible.

Eventually Jaenelle establishes her court (Queen of the Darkness) to protect the land ruled by the kindred species (animals with powers); she doesn't want to rule over anyone and does it only to protect her friends from the slaughter commissioned by Dorothea, but Jaenelle quickly realizes that establishing her court may not be enough to restore order and civility to the realms. Hekatah and Dorothea's influence is deep and strong and a war is waging between Terrielle and Kaeleer which vows to destroy all the Blood; Jaenelle's quickly realizes that her job as Queen and Witch may require that she sacrifices herself to save the people, Kindred and land she loves.

The Black Jewels series has many things working for it. Strong characters. Strong plot. Well thought out ideas and interesting and likeable characters. To describe Anne Bishop's world of Terrielle-Kaeleer-Hell as rich is an understatement. The alternate world to ours is believable and realistic. It's filled with corruption, power struggles and sex. The narrative is sexually laced even for a book where sex barely occurs. When Bishop describes Daemon and Lucivar as exuding sex, you believe her. The chemistry between the brothers is strong and sexual, as it is between them and everyone else. When it comes to sexuality, nothing is off limit. One of the criticisms for Bishop's series is indeed the vivid sexuality. Jaenelle's brutal rape and sodomy is detailed, for instance. Incest is hinted at in subtext, though not discussed. And though homoerotic sentiments underlie many of the character interactions, and sexuality is handled non-pretentiously, homosexuality itself is ignored. For instance, there's not a decidedly lesbian or gay character.

Overall, the Black Jewels series is for anyone who enjoys high fantasy. Bishop, like JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien, has achieved something not easy to do: create a world so alien and yet so similar and realistic, you can't help but get lost in it. The characters jump off the pages and the story comes together seamlessly.

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