  | Full Text Reviews: Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2009 Katsa is one of a rare few born with Graces, special abilities that set their recipients apart from those around them. Even among Graces, Katsa’s ability is unusual: her special talent is killing, and since her childhood, her uncle, the king of one of the seven kingdoms, has used this power to his advantage. When an opportunity comes to atone for her reluctantly used power and rebel against her corrupt uncle, Katsa takes it, embarking on a quest for good with a handsome, mysterious fighter, Po. Katsa is an intriguing and realistic, if not always likable, protagonist; on the one hand she’s irascible and unbending, but on the other she’s surprisingly naïve for someone who has murdered, served on a secret council to circumvent her uncle’s power, and spent much of her life traveling on weighty missions. Her good intentions balance her puzzling reluctance to stand up to her uncle for so long, and readers will find compensation for her apparent inability to find emotional depth without the love of a good man in the engrossing, well-written passion and true connection that Po and Katsa eventually find. Katsa is also surrounded by myriad well-developed characters, nuanced and complex in their representations of good and evil and worthy of reader interest even when the protagonist is at her least sympathetic. Fantasy readers seeking tough girl heroines will certainly be satisfied, and they will likely also appreciate the richly described environment, unforgiving yet optimistic, out of which a character like Katsa might credibly develop. AS - Copyright 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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