This is the beginning of a new series for Robin Hobb, author of the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies - all very excellent fantasy novels with rich characterisation and an immensely detailed world and history.
Shaman's Crossing is set in a different world to Hobb's previous trilogies. Nevarre Burvelle is a second son of a new noble (a military man elevated into the nobility by the king), destined by the order of his birth to become a soldier. We watch him grow up, and enter the King's Cavella Academy, a military school where he is shocked at the animosity between the old nobles and the new. Nevarre is haunted by a dreamlike encounter from his childhood years, and this dream gradually comes to life, culminating in a dramatic encounter on Dark Evening which changes his life forever.
Shaman's Crossing is just what I enjoy of Hobb's writing - a world I can fall into without thought, characters with depth, and most of all, a fascinating and lusciously rich story. Magic which enters someone's life and awakens them to the much bigger world that surrounds them. A wonderful, wonderful novel.
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