The heart of Myrial - Maggie Furey

Ever since she burst upon the world of fantasy fiction in 1994 with her first novel, AURIAN, Maggie Furey has been one of the most rapidly rising stars in the genre. Her immense storytelling skill has caught the imagination of readers across the world and have established her as one of the most popular writers in the field. THE HEART OF MYRIAL begins a spellbinding new fantasy series which will take her to new heights.
The magical barriers that have held things in place for aeons are beginning to fail, and the planet is subjected to great climatic upheaval. But it is not only a natural disaster. For the boundaries have also served to keep hostile nations apart. With catastrophe imminent, the only hope of salvation lies in the hands of the Shadowleague. But first they must learn what lies within the Heart of Myrial.

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Maggie Furey was born in N.E. England. She is a qualified teacher but has also reviewed books on BBC Radio Newcastle, been an advisor in the Durham Reading Resources centre & organized children's book fairs. She now lives in County Wicklow, Ireland, with her husband and two cats.

This fast-moving adventure opens Maggie Furey's second fantasy sequence, "The Shadowleague"; her first was the "Artefacts of Power" tetralogy, published 1994-7. The Heart of Myrial is set in a particularly artificial-seeming fantasyland which proves to be not a world but a technomagical construct, divided into isolated regions by sorcerous barriers of force. Thanks to the machinations of a bad guy who may have good motives, these "curtain walls" are now failing--the first symptoms being clashes between the enclave s' different environments, leading to prolonged descriptions of truly lousy weather. In theory the barriers are guarded by and can be penetrated only by Loremasters of the Shadowleague, a secret inner circle of representatives from this patchwork world's various species: humans, dragons, centaurs, wind-sprites, insectile aliens and more. In practice the Shadowleague is almost impotent. Against this complex background, various characters struggle across the landscape through terrible weather. A woman Loremaster and her irrepressibly feisty firedrake companion play leading parts in the large cast (many of whom suffer death or worse). After tortuous regroupings and plot twists centred on a particular city that houses a key magical shrine, book 1 concludes with a gory invasion of nasties through the holed curtain wall. It reads well enough, and of course there's more to come.
David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

Her twisting plot keeps the pages turning rapidly ... an enjoyable romp full of adventure, magic and courage
STARBURST