Vincalis the Agitator

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable fantasy
Review: For three millenniums in Hars Ticlarim, Dragon magic has used slaves as a combustible material to keep the mansions in the skies and seas functional while looking aesthetically beautiful. The Inquestors secretly run everything keeping the elite happy with their starry homes while drugging the masses known as Warreners before incinerting them body and soul as the fuel source of choice.

Now after three thousand years of unchallenged control, a Warrener lad Wraith resists the Dragon magic that keeps his people docile. Wraith escapes and meets Solander, son of a Dragon magic practitioner. They form a friendship and soon ally with the rebel leader VINCALIS THE AGITATOR in a quest to lead a rebellion to end the unnatural order dependent on genocide.

VINCALIS THE AGITATOR is an enjoyable fantasy novel that never quite attains the heights of The Secret Texts Trilogy (same place a thousand years later). The story line is exciting as the forces of good challenge the forces of evil. Though intriguing, the technology employed by the key players hinders the magic they also use rather than enhancing it. Still the adventures of the heroes are fun to watch as Holly Lisle entertains her audience with an action packed tale that never slows down until the reader finishes the story.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Into the Heart of a Rebellion
Review: Holly Lisle's Secret Texts trilogy (Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons, Courage of Falcons) gave fantasy readers the darkly beautiful world of Matrin, where epic battles between the visionary Falcons and soul-stealing Dragons kept everyone all turning pages far into the night. I know those books ruined at least a week of sleep for me. Now Vincalis the Agitator takes us back a thousand years before the time of the Secret Texts, to rediscover this incredible world through the extraordinary events that led to the creation of the Falcons. Better set a couple of alarm clocks before you start reading, because this one isn't going to let you go, either.

Born into mindless servitude, a boy named Wraith discovers he alone among his people is unaffected by the magic that enslaves them, and can leave the ghetto of the Warrens to enter the fabulous air city where his masters live out their pampered, hedonistic lives. There he finds Solander, a young wizard in training, who is stunned and intrigued by Wraith's incomprehensible abilities. For Solander, the chance to study the only person alive unaffected by magic is too tempting to resist. For Wraith, the opportunity to escape the horrific confines of the Warrens and study the ways of the Dragons means a chance for him to save all of his people someday. Both boys are completely unaware that their friendship sets the stage for intrigue, rebellion, betrayal and faith, leading to a future cataclysm so shocking and all-encompassing that it will shape and change the world as they know it forever.

I'd willingly stay up until dawn to read a Holly Lisle novel, and Vincalis the Agitator was no exception. You don't want to miss this one. As an author, I can appreciate her meticulous plotting and consummate world-building, but as a reader I just lost myself in this book. From the first page, Holly Lisle drops you into the heart of Matrin, and lets you see all sides, through the eyes of its heroes and its monsters, and she doesn't let you go. It's really the kind of novel that requires someone to yell at you or smack you to drag you away from it -- so while reading, you'd better avoid cooking, operating heavy machinery, and just go get a babysitter for the kids.

Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: I was very excited to find out that Holly Lisle was going to reveal the interesting but rather vague series of events that led to those that took place in the Secret Texts. At the same time I was also nervous, I wanted so much to love Vincalis the Agitator just as I had loved the other three! Luckily for me, I was not to be disappointed. I have to admit Vincalis the Agitator was different from the Secret Texts Trilogy but in a very important way. The two plots took place in two different societies and therefore each deserved a slightly different approach. What was the same however, was Holly Lisle's ability to create characters that all avid fantasy readers can appreciate. Wraith and Solander were both able to capture my heart just as Kait, Ry, and the many other Falcons in the Secret Texts.
The best part about Vincalis the Agitator is that it answers all those questions that were posed in Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons, and Courage of Falcons. Who is Solander? How is he able to be so pure and loving? Why was Vincalis the Agitator able to reach so many with his wisdom? If you want to know the answers to these and many other questions, I recommend reading Vincalis the Agitator, it is a marvellous prequel to the Secret Text Trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Downfall of the Dragon Empire
Review: Vincalis the Agitator is the prequel to The Secret Texts Trilogy. The Empire of Hars Ticlarim has existed for three millennia, growing in might and expanding into the surrounding barbarian lands. During the last millennium, Dragon magic has powered the Empire, insuring plentiful supplies of food and other necessities for eight billion citizens, creating fantastic works of architecture, and overcoming their enemies. Unknown to the general populace, however, this Dragon magic was based on the flesh, bone, blood and life of the drugged prisoners within the Warrens.

In this novel, Wraith is a Warrener who has awakened from the Sleep. He stopped eating the Wayfare that caused the stupor and instead stole his meals from the surrounding city, sneaking out of the Vincalis gate to salvage food from the garbage. Over a period of time, he found others who are not quite lost in the Sleep and weaned them from the Wayfare, but only he can pass through the gate into the city without being destroyed.

One day, as he is searching for food for Smoke and Jess, Wraith finds a market square where people are apparently taking food without paying. He fills a basket and leaves, but is noticed and pursued as a thief. He ducks into an open gateway and is hidden by Solander Artis, the only child of the Master of Energy, third highest position in the Empire.

Solander discovers that Wraith is immune to magic; the magical force just passes through him as if he wasn't there. Solander wishes to study this immunity and conceives a plan to establish Wraith and his friends in the Artis household as remote cousins from the hinterlands. Solander involves his cousin Velyn in the plans and Wraith becomes infatuated with her on sight.

Wraith returns to the Warrens with a box of Artis edibles to find that Smoke has returned to the Sleep when the food gave out, but that Jess is still waiting for him. He tells her of the plan and then leaves to meet Solander and Velyn. They return with an official aircar and smuggle Jess out of the Warrens.

In this story, Solander and Wraith discover that the Dragon Council has discovered a new, more powerful source of magic based on destruction of the souls of the Warreners. They resolve to liberate the Warreners, with Solander working from within and Wraith writing plays to enlighten the populace to the harmful side of magic. In order to protect their identities, Solander underwrites the first play through intermediaries and Wraith pretends that the plays were written by someone else called Vincalis.

This story shows the callous disregard of the Dragons toward the people in the Warrens; the Dragons label them as inhumans and thus not to be considered when the welfare of the whole Empire is at stake. Unfortunately for the Dragons, the god Vodor Imrish disagrees with them and is helping the rebels. From the destruction that results comes the world of The Secret Texts.

This work has many of the strengths of The Secret Texts trilogy, but the storyline does not flow as naturally as the trilogy. Since this is the prequel, the ending is a foregone conclusion, but some of that inevitability appears to have crept into the development of both characters and plot, causing a sense of abruptness. Nonetheless, this story is fully enjoyable, both as a prequel and on its own.

Recommended for Lisle fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of strange societies and stranger magic together with political intrigue and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin