Continuing the theme of strong female characters in fantasy novels to make up the dearth in LOTR, I introduce you to Raederle of An in Heir of Sea and Fire, the second book in the Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy. To catch you up on what happened in the first book: Just after inheriting his kingdom, Morgan, the Prince of Hed, did something he would probably never again have a chance to do, now that he was Prince of Hed: secretly testing his skill as a Riddle Master in a riddle contest with a ghost. What Morgan didn’t know was that Raederle’s father had vowed at her birth that the winner of that contest would marry his daughter. When Morgan eventually finds that out, he starts a journey to ask Raederle – who he had become friends with at school and had a crush on – to marry him. That journey turns into a quest to answer a riddle about Morgan and leads to his disappearance.

This book starts with Raederle waiting restlessly for Morgan to reappear. She knows what she wants: to marry Morgan, who she had not allowed herself to admit she loved when she spent time with him at the college because, when you are promised at birth to marry someone unknown who will someday win a riddle contest against a ghost, falling in love with your brother’s friend could only cause trouble. Things are a little uncomfortable at home; so, although her father nixes the idea of a vacation, she sneaks out to spend time with an old woman who teaches her little folk magic tricks. When Raederle returns to the castle, a messenger from Hed arrives to announce Morgan’s death. Her father vows he will find out what happened, turns himself into a crow – rulers of An have a little magic in their blood thanks to a mysterious ancestor – and flies off.

Raederle goes to retrieve her brother from college and, while there, meets the heir of another country. Raederle and the heir decide to figure out what happened to Morgan and set out on a journey, discovering along the way that Morgan’s little sister has run away from home, overheard them talking, and stowed away on their ship. Raederle uses a little magic to help their journey and, the more she uses, the stronger – and more mysterious – her abilities become. Strange people show up and reveal even more of her powers and tease her with hints about where it comes from. The further Raederle gets from home, the less certain she is about her identity.

Raederle determines to solve three riddles of her own: What is the extent her emerging powers? What was the nature of the mysterious ancestor that introduced these powers into her bloodline? And who exactly is she turning into?

Raederle is, like so many people in fantasy books, moving through change: she goes from being an ideal – throughout the realm, she is known as The Second Most Beautiful Woman in An, a legend – to learning little tricks (which is isn’t very good at, to start with) to mastering fire, and then realizing that there may not be a limit to what she can do. This discovery unravels her. At her lowest point, she is dirty, her fine clothing torn by briars, her hair is a mess, her face smudged – a rejection of the ideal that she started as. As Kurt Lewin might say, she has unfrozen from her previous state and is in the perilously slushy state of uncertainty and possibility. And she is afraid of what she may become, when things solidify again.

This is also, for me, a book about the nature of love. She and Morgan met when she visited her brother at school. Each of them – he in the first book, she in the second – have memories of special moments that they spent together. It’s clear that Morgan had a crush on her. She clearly feels fondly about him and looks forward to marrying him. But they never dated. They never went through the phases of falling in love. And Raederle’s brother tells Morgan in the first book that, as long as Morgan has not solved the riddle about himself, about who he is, offering Raederle his love would be a lie. As she discovers the riddles about herself, Raederle feels the same way: returning to be the mute, unchanging Legend of An would be lying to Morgan, and she won’t do that.

This is something I think people often overlook about love: I have seen so many people who go from being taken care of by their families to leaning on someone they love, without ever standing on their own two feet. To me, that’s a lie. Until you live independently, take care of yourself, you don’t know who you are; and falling in love with someone else is a lie. Sometimes people spend their whole lives lying like this: they live with someone, break up, find someone else to depend on, get married, get divorced, find someone else to depend on, break up. They wonder what is going wrong in their lives, why no one will love them. If asked, I suggest that they take a break from looking for love, live independently, struggle, figure out who they really are, trust that once they know who they are, love will find them. Only when you know who you are, can you really share yourself with someone else. But they are too scared of what they might find out. Too scared of who might emerge when the struggle reveals what they are capable of.

Whoa, a little deep for a post about a light fantasy book. Anyway, give this trilogy a try and let me know what you think.