The Pearl Saga: Book review

When one attempts to define fantasy, thoughts of sorcery, magic rings, ward stones, supernatural beasts, and duels between good and evil come to mind. These are all present in The Pearl Saga; but alongside them are artifacts usually associated with science fiction: space-traveling civilizations, particle beam weapons, genetic manipulation, and bio-cybernetic engineering. This uneasy juxtaposition helps to make The Pearl Saga a unique read. Echoes of Chinese traditional medicine and philosophy add piquancy.

I did find the books rather long and, perhaps, a little too Byzantine in plot with many story jumps and subplots to keep the reader slightly off balance. I still am puzzled by the location of the ring of five dragons which I thought the Dar Sala-at had taken with her when fleeing from the storehouse under the palace which the V'ornn used as their administrative center. This was how the first book ended. But in the third book, she finds the ring in the lock mechanism of the circular door of the same storhouse where she was said to have put it. I thought the techno-mages had put it in the lock and had been destroyed for their attempts to open something not meant for them. I know there are web sites that list movie mistakes and wonder if there are similar ones for mistakes in books. I hope I misread. But it's still a good series. I think 5 books would be perfect. Five moons, five dragons, why not five books, a pentology? I give the series an A-minus/B+plus. I wonder how the author keeps track of all the plot lines.