The Griffin Mage Trilogy — (2010) Publisher: Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes. Their feathers, ruffled by the wind that came down the mountain, looked like they had been poured out of light; their lion haunches like they had been fashioned out of gold. A white griffin, close at hand, looked like it had been made of alabaster and white marble and then lit from within by white fire. Its eyes were the pitiless blue-white of the desert sky.
Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes' life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path — or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human... or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.
 
 Lord of the Changing Winds
Lord of the Changing Winds is a very well done, straightforward fantasy novel. While there isn’t anything earth-shatteringly new here, neither is there a sense of “same old story.”
Rachel Neumeier takes an interesting direction with Kes, one of her main characters. Kes is a 15-year-old orphan girl, raised by her sister in a small, quiet village. She has healing abilities and doesn’t quite fit in. So far, all the clichéd standards. Kes, however, is not a cliché. Once Kes meets the griffins and is taken by the griffin mage who awakens the magic within her, she changes. She becomes more and more distant from her human emotions. Kes isn’t your typical teen heroine and I for one was happy that this wasn’t just another “youth bonding with a magical creature” book. The other main characters are Bertaud, advisor to King Iaor of Feierabiand, and Kairaithin, griffin mage and the Lord of the Changing Winds of the title. They are well written and believable in their roles. The interactions between the men and Kes will affect the future of their kingdom and world. Each interaction changed my perspective on the characters. Every time I thought I had them pegged, something else would happen and my view of them changed. None of them are wholly sympathetic characters, which makes for a better than average book.
The griffins are well done and I appreciated that Neumeier gives them a very believable, non-human — not sure if I can use “alien” in a fantasy review — perspective and attitude. Griffins are not often used in fantasy, and Neumeier’s griffins can take their place with the best of them. They perfectly fit my idea of how a griffin should look and act.
The weakest point in the book is the military aspect. The ability to move the sheer numbers of troops around in the time frames mentioned would take a kind of magic that isn’t part of Neumeier’s fantasy world. Even so, only those readers who are sticklers for realism in those aspects are likely to be bothered by those sections.
Lord of the Changing Winds is highly recommended to anyone looking for a good solid fantasy, and especially to fans of Robin McKinley and Tamora Pierce. —Sarah Webb
The Land of Burning Sands
The Land of Burning Sands is another well-crafted story from gifted author Rachel Neumeier. Instead of carrying on with the characters from the first book, we interact very little with the griffins and Kes in The Land of Burning Sands. They are a presence, but mostly as a menace overshadowing the developing story. I for one appreciated Neumeier introducing her readers to new characters. So many trilogies stick with the same main characters throughout, and it can get old in a hurry. In addition to new characters, The Land of Burning Sands changes settings as well. Here we get to find out more about Casmantium.
Gereint Enseichen sat on a narrow pallet in the lowest cellar of the Anteirden townhouse, waiting.
Gereint is a geas-bonded slave who is trying to escape the bond. This first sentence pulled me in, and 441 pages and a few hours later, I closed the book on a satisfying, wholly believable conclusion. Gereint eventually meets Tehre, a young lady with a talent for engineering and a gift for making. Between the two of them, they use their various talents and magical abilities to create a solution to the threat the griffins are posing to Casmantium as well as the other two countries that make up the world of these books. Neumeier’s characters will stay with me long after the book is done.
Not every author can pull a reader into a story and make you care about the people involved. Rachel Neumeier has perfected that skill. She has the gift of wonderful writing, intriguing characters, plots that work, and lyrically descriptive passages. —Sarah Webb Comment
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Rachel Neumeier started writing fiction to relax when she was a graduate student and needed a hobby unrelated to her research. Prior to selling her first fantasy novel, she had published only a few articles in venues such as The American Journal of Botany. However, finding that her interests did not lie in research, Rachel left academia and began to let her hobbies take over her life instead. She now raises and shows dogs, gardens, cooks, and occasionally finds time to read. She works part time for a tutoring program, though she tutors far more students in Math and Chemistry than in English Composition. Learn more at Rachel Neumeier's website.
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