Some time ago, Cheryl Morgan announced that she will soon be ceasing to publish her online zine and review site and blog, all to be found at www.emcit.com . Which I was upset about, because I loved the site. If you wanted to know what was going on but live in a non sff environment on the far side of the world, well, emcit was a great place to drop by every day and find out. I loved her reviews, because I knew that if she liked a book there was a good chance I would too, especially fantasy. I even loved Cheryl’s acerbic bite, especially of any idiocies that came her way. The site will be missed, and I do hope that our paths cross in the real world one day and we get to meet.

Anyway, she has, over the past year or so, reviewed The Isles of Glory trilogy and today her review of the final book, The Tainted came out. Read the whole thing here. (It does give away the ending of Gilfeather, though – so if you are still reading book 2, better not read the whole thing!)

She begins like this:
One of the best things about publishing Emerald City has been to be able to watch new writers gradually improving, book-by-book. Glenda Larke is an excellent example of this. Reading through her Isles of Glory series …has led to my becoming more and more impressed with Larke’s ability.

And ends the review with this:
But you see the point. This is not the stuff of formula fantasy. Larke is not just telling a light and fluffy story of heroism, she is telling us things that she thinks are important. My spies in Australia tell me that her new series continues the trend of improvement. I’m looking forward to it.

The Tainted was a shortlisted finalist for the Aurealis Best Fantasy of the Year (2004).