Valery Leith: The Company of Glass, Everien book one, fantasy series

The Company of Glass is an interestingly, complex fantasy adventure. The setting feels like ancient lands, or perhaps a low tech future, which makes it different than many fantasy books.

The Clans of Everien are fighting the mind enslaving Sekk using Artifacts found in the floating city of Jai Pendu, which appears for only one day every nine years. A group of adventurers want to go to dangerous Jai Pendu to find another Artifact. An older swordsman doesn't want to recall his Company's quest there eighteen years earlier. The time of the coming of Jai Pendu is approaching.

The writing is good and the characters are multi dimensional. Places and scenes are often vividly described. Some sequences, although creative, are cryptically strange. The book is separated into short, cleverly titled chapters. The plot builds to an action packed ending, but there are unexplained mysteries remaining.

The Company of Glass by Valery Leith is book one of the Everien series

Click here to go to my page for Everien book two The Riddled Night

The Story, follows several story lines...
There's the swordsman Tarquin. He races to Jai Khalar to report to the King of Everien that the Pharician army is gathering on the plain of Ristale to the south. His eyewitness reports are discounted since no such army is viewed through the Eyes, a tool of Everien ancient Knowledge that enables Seers to view distant places. But the Eyes seem unusually fallible of late. A group including King Lerien and Tarquin leaves to investigate.

Eighteen years earlier Tarquin was called Quintar. He was a favorite of Queen Ysse. He commanded the Company, an elite highly-trained group of Clan fighters. He lead The Company on the White Road to the floating city of Jai Pendu where all his men were lost. Quintar returned alone, a broken man, but with The Water of Glass, an Artifact.

There's a party of young adventurers seeking Jai Pendu. They hope to find another Artifact to fight the Sekk, but also knowledge and fame. There is the spunky female fighter Istar, the Bear clan fighter Kassien, the Scholar Xiriel, and Pallo the Pharician. The group petitions the King, but when other events take precedence, they decide to leave without his support. They travel over rugged mountains, battle a Sekk, and save two Seahawk clan fighters. They pass through H'ah'vah tunnels and traverse odd bridges and passages in the Floating Lands.

There's the Head Seer, Mhani, in the rearranging castle of Jai Khalar. She is seeking the mystical White Road which leads to Jai Pendu at risk to her health and sanity. She locks herself in the Eye Chamber and searches the Liminal. Meanwhile there are political factions within Everien.

Characters:
Tarquin the Free, also known as Quintar , a swordsman, former Captain of the Queen's Guard, found Water of Glass at Jai Pendu
Sekk , beautiful humanoids that Enslave men and can make them fight their own family
Istar , an Honorary Lieutenant, Chyho and Mhani's daughter
Kassien , a Lieutenant, Bear Clan
Xiriel , a Seer and Scholar who studies Everien Knowledge
Pallo , a Pharician young man
Pentar , a Seahawk Clan fighter saved from the Sekk
Queen Ysse , former ruler of Everien, found the Fire of Glass
King Lerien , current ruler of Everien
Mhani , Head Seer in Jai Khalar, Seeker of the White Road
Hanji , wise seneschal at Jai Khalar
Ajiko , Everien General
Kivi , Deer Clan Seer
Stavel , older Wolf clan captain
Ketar , a young Seahawk fighter
Night , a Sekk Master
Hezene , Phracian ruler
Tash , a Phracian Warlord
Keras , a Pharician woman who breeds horses
Ice , an unusual horse

Some members of Quintar's Company:
Chyko , an uncontrollable Wasp Clan fighter
Vorse , a Snake Clan fighter
Some others... Lyetar, Ovi, Riesel, Irisel, Mojise, Ruarel

Things:
Everien Animal clans : Bear, Wolf, Wasp, Snake, Seahawk, Deer
Jai Pendu , a glowing city that appears for one day every nine years
Jai Khalar , a hidden fortress in Everien that rearranges itself
The White Road , a strange road that leads to Jai Pendu...and Jai Khalar
Carry Eye, Eyes , Seer's tool to communicate to Eye Chamber
invading mice in Jai Khalar

The Company of Glass is book one of the Everien trilogy.
This book's cover illustration was nominated for a Chesley Award

The Everien Trilogy
-- The Company of Glass (1999)
-- The Riddled Night (2000)
-- The Way of the Rose (2001)

Click here to go to my page for The Riddled Night (features cover art and blurbs)

Valery Leith is an American author living in England.

Valery Leith is the pseudonym of award-winning science fiction writer Tricia Sullivan. She has written the following books:
-- Lethe (1995)
-- Someone to Watch Over Me (1997)
-- Dreaming in Smoke (1998)
-- Maul (2003)
-- Double Vision (2005)
-- Sound Mind (2007)

Book blurb from back cover of US trade paperback of The Company of Glass:

Knowledge is Perilous....
       Quintar was once the greatest of Clan warriors, leading his notorious Company against the ethereal, deadly Sekk. The Sekk are only one of the mysteries left in the wake of the vanished Everien civilization. The Everien Knowledge is another. And it seems only Knowledge can defeat the Sekk.

       But when Quintar tried to capture an Everien Artifact from the Floating city of Jai Pendu, he lost all his Company in a bloody battle beyond the worlds - a battle which brought him close to losing his mind as well. Broken and shamed, he changed his name to Tarquin the Free and fled Everien.

       Eighteen years later, he returns with news of a massive foreign army that threatens Everien with certain destruction. Worse, he finds his best friend's daughter hell-bent on the same quest that killed her father. And unless Tarquin can face the nightmare of his past and assail the lost city of Jai Pendu once again, all of Everien may pay the price...

Book blurb from back cover of UK paperback of The Company of Glass:

Everien - A civilization long vanished but for the Knowledge left sleeping in its very stones.

The Sekk - Beautiful. Terrifying. Only the Knowledge can defeat them.

The Company - Queen Ysse's elite warriors, lost on a quest for Knowledge in the floating city of Jai Pendu.

Tarquin the Free - Leader of the Company and its sole survivor. Eighteen years later, he returns to find Ysse dead, the Sekk out of control, and the Pharician Empire massing armies on Everien's borders. But the orphan, Istar, is grown and wields her father's sword. And soon the tide will carry Jai Pendu, and the Company, home.