The Last of the Renshai

by Mickey Zucker Renshai

Reviewed by Coral

The Renshai are a cruel, violent people. Even in the Northlands, where violence is common, they are a people apart. Hated for desecrating the corpses of their enemies, denying them their place in Valhalla, the Renshai are first exiled and then slaughtered.

Rache is only a child at the time of the slaughter. He is believed, by many, to be the last of the Renshai, a person who has a significant place in prophecy. But Rache cares nothing for prophecy. Instead he builds himself a simple life in the town of Santagithi, training the guards, the gladiators and Santagithi's daughter, Mitrian.

But a sudden attack by an angry gladiator could do more than just than just end Rache's ability to fight, it could also doom them all. For there is a war coming, the Great War. And if a Renshai isn't there to fulfill the prophecy, Evil will win the day.

But is Rache really the last of the Renshai? And what does it actually mean to be Renshai?

This book was  better than I thought it would be. I'm not usually a big fan of the prophecy stuff, but it was tolerable in this book.

I didn't really get the point of the Cardinal Wizards. I think they were supposed to be the Guardians of the Prophecy, but they didn't really do anything except meddle - which, technically, they weren't supposed to do anyways. They could have easily been eliminated from the story.

Rache annoyed me. As the main characters I would have rather had Mitrian and Garn the gladiator. I found them to be more sympathetic. Mitrian was at her weakest when she was torn between Garn and Rache.

Overall, it was a decent book. But, really, as the people in her book believe in Valhalla and Hel, the author should have been careful not to use the word "hell"  because it is a word no one in her world should know.

Grade: B