He is devastated and soon crosses paths with Samarkar and they attempt to find Edene. A devotion and attraction grows between Eden and Temur, as they travel across the titular Range of Ghosts, Edene is taken away by the ghosts who haunt the trail.

The basic thrust of the story finds Temur coming out of the aforementioned battle along the Celadon Highway and taken in by Edene’s people. I hope Bear explores this character in greater depth in future novels, as well as the society from which she comes Yeah, that’s right, Bear threw tiger people in as a race of characters, and though Hrahima is a minor character at the moment, through the other characters in the novel, Bear gives her a great sense of power and awe. These characters, despite and because of their ‘fringe’ status are powerful and persistent in their motivations and actions. While Temur and Samarkar are the focal characters for much of the novel, fringe characters such as the tiger-woman (an outcast of her tribe) Hrahima or the woman with whom Temur initially bonds emotionally, Edene herself is part of a fringe society. Set in a fantasized Middle-East, the novel centers on characters who are at the fringes of society: a young man who is the lone survivor of a vicious battle for succession that took the lives of many his family (Temur) and a young woman setting aside her royal lineage to assume the role of Sorceress (Samarkar). With Range of Ghosts that has changed and the word immersive is indeed apt for my experience with the novel, her first true venture into Epic Fantasy and the first novel in The Eternal Sky. Though I’ve read (and enjoyed) some of her short fiction, I’ve yet to immerse myself in one of her novels. Hardcover review copy courtesy of the Publisher, TorĮlizabeth Bear has been plying her trade in the science fiction and fantasy genres for nearly a decade now, her stories ranging from far future science fiction to Victorian fantasy.

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear