The Reading Spot

Sebastian by Anne Bishop

I read this because someone told me that if I liked Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books then I should read Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. Well my ubs did not have them and neither did my library, but they did have Sebastian. I really enjoyed it. I have been on a fantasy kick lately, I guess I did not realize how much I missed reading them. But this one I loved because it also had romantic elements in it, and those are my favorite fantasies to read. The description is difficult though.

The world of Ephemera is one that is affected by the people that live theres and made by Landscapers, who are women with special abilities. The worlds are linked together by men who are Bridges (have the ablility to create bridges between the Lands). This story is about three people. Sebastian, who is a half-incubus that lives in the Den of Iniquity (a world created for demons). Belladonna/Glorianna who is a Landscaper who is outcast for creating the Den. And Lynnea who is a simple girl who just wants to be loved and accepted somewhere. I like the Publisher's Weekly Review posted at Amazon, so I will use some of that for my description.

The maid is Lynnea and the succubus is Sebastian, and their unlikely romance is at the heart of the impressively unclichéd battle between light and dark raging through the world called Ephemera, where the land changes in response to the deepest desires and fears of the inhabitants. When the Eater of the World came into being, the Guides of the Heart shattered Ephemera into myriad pieces, each shaped by the will of a Landscaper and linked to other pieces by Bridges; they also cornered the Eater in a Landscape unconnected to the rest of the world. Now a foolish student has set it free, and Sebastian must help his cousins, Glorianna and Lee, a Landscaper and a Bridge of unusual power and talents respectively, to trap or destroy it.