{"id":385,"date":"2006-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T23:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=385"},"modified":"2025-05-03T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T04:21:45","slug":"the-assassin-of-gleam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2006\/10\/21\/the-assassin-of-gleam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Assassin of Gleam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>James Norcliffe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Hazard Press<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, October 21st 2006<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">There seem to be few New Zealand authors writing fantasy fiction for adults, so James Norcliffe\u2019s latest offering, <em>The Assassin of Gleam<\/em>, is a real treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Set in a feudal, preindustrial time where black magic and tyranny hold the keys to power, two forces hold sway in the city of Gleam. The Margrave rules the citizens through terror and violence, while the Brotherhood, scholars of the dark arts, hide their manipulations behind a veil of secrecy and superstition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Something is changing, however, as the streets come alive with a prophecy \u2014 The Maiden is coming to replace the Margrave and usher in a new and gentle age. An inauspicious time for strangers to enter the city, indeed, and it is hardly surprising that newly arrived medical student Tobias Sparrow, his younger sister Johanna and their uncle, musician Hugh Cassin, find themselves at the centre of events. Seduced by the promise of power, Tobias falls under the control of the Brotherhood, not realising full initiation will require his sister\u2019s murder \u2014 an action that also serves the Margrave\u2019s ends, for by casting Johanna as The Maiden, her death will also kill the prophecy that threatens him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Norcliffe, a former Burns Fellow, uses the fantasy setting not as an end in itself, but as a backdrop for a cast of strong and convincing characters. His poetic background is frequently evident (rumours proliferate \u201clike mushrooms whose spores had been liberated by soft rain\u201d, while looking up at the Margrave\u2019s tower is \u201clike looking up the nostrils\u201d), and the writing has a tautness often lacking in contemporary fantasy, where quantity serves as proxy for quality (think David Eddings). <em>The Assassin of Gleam<\/em> is obviously the first in a series, and I look forward to the sequel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Norcliffe<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review October 21st 2006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[47,370,58,500,18,407,470],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-47","tag-fiction","tag-james-norcliffe","tag-nz-author","tag-odt","tag-speculative-sci-fi","tag-ya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}