In myths, fables, and fantasy, names have always been important. A demon’s true name is worth its weight in gold to an enchanter hoping to survive an encounter with the infernal. Heck, even the miller’s daughter saved her yet-to-be first-born son, found a husband and a fortune by guessing Rumpelstiltskin’s real name. So, yes, names are important. But, what if names were a gift from the gods themselves and to change your name was to commit heresy? A heresy that deserves only torture and death? And what if you’d just walked into a situation where the gods were coming to earth, enemy armies were surrounding the city in which you were staying, and someone from your past showed up and called you by your real name?

In Colin Harvey’s The Silk Palace, a historical researcher called Bluestocking faces just such a dilemma. Traveling with Prince Casimiripian (and, yes, longer names go to those with more power and influence), Bluestocking comes to the Free Kingdom of Whiterock to help decipher some ancient scrolls, while the Prince travels to become engaged. Unknowingly, the Prince and his party fall headlong into a boiling cauldron of political treachery, dark magic and giant spiders. The spiders, of course, they knew about, considering the main export of Whiterock is spider silk, but oddly Bluestocking is actually surprised by the rest. Hey, it’s politics and things can get nasty, even without magic.

Certain factions in Whiterock are attempting to free the awful thing trapped for millennia beneath the high mesa supporting the eponymous Silk Palace. The only problem is, they need a patsy to actually translate the ancient texts on which the spell to release the thing are written. Enter Bluestocking, a woman with a past and much to hide. Bluestocking meets with uncertain allies and finds implacable enemies all before facing the danger of having her true name revealed. And then the gods come to town.

As in his previous book, Lightning Days, Harvey manages to create a complex, fascinating culture, full of the wondrous begging to dazzle and the unknown waiting to be discovered. While I was concerned a bit with the plot’s reliance on coincidence, that nagging doubt was swept into the dust as I was hauled along through trials and tribulations to a thrilling conclusion in The Silk Palace.

Reviewed by Richard Jones
© April 2008