I have never read anything from ImaJinn Books, and I hoped to read some speculative fiction. Winged Victory would have been speculative fiction had it not been for the compelling love story.

The Valtarie are becoming a race of males since every Valtarie woman dies soon after childbirth. Dr. Juliana Harris is a human visitor trying to reverse this certain extinction. Despite the strict Law of Conduct governing the presence of females from any planet, she receives permission from the ruler of Valtar, Cyclemintus, to send to nearby Kasara for medical technician Abilene Brown.

On the way to Valtar, the space ship carrying Abbie Harris and two Valtarie males crashes on a frozen level 7 planet. The Law of Conduct is so stringent about male-female contact that males are not even to look directly at females. During the crash, one of the males perishes. The survivor, Traveen, keeps Abbie alive by enfolding her in the warmth of his wings behind a makeshift wind shelter. When a party of Valtarie rescues them, Cyclemintus sentences Traveen to the prison world of Balta to labor in the mines, because he broke the taboo against touching a female. Despite his lust, Traveen did nothing more than protect Abbie. Traveen's father, Cyclemintus, is aware of this; however, the Law of Conduct cannot be relaxed. Only the fact that he is his father's second son spares him from death.

How Abbie rescues Traveen, where they go, how they live, and why they return to Valtar despite the risk of death is one of the most engrossing stories I have read. At times, I wept. I have never done this before.

WINGED VICTORY is a complex story with many, many twists. This is the first book by L. F. Hampton. I can only hope it is the first of many by this gifted author.

Reviewed by Catherine H.
© December 2004