Good Sister, Bad Sister (first book, Heart of the Staff)

I must admit that this genre does not always appeal to me but, in this case, the carefully crafted storyline really grabbed my attention from the outset and kept it till the very end. The book pictured an idealistic medieval world with kings, queens, wizards and dragons.

Unfortunately, this perfect world is split between the forces of good and evil. On one hand Razzmorten, the good wizzard, his daughter, Minuet and her loving husband while on the other hand the evil characters, Razzorbauch, who is actually the twin brother of Razzmorten, Demonica who used to be Razzmorten's wife but later became Razzorbauch's partner and lover and Ugleeuh, Razzmorten and Demonica's daughter. Ugleeuh is beautiful, perhaps even more beautiful than her half-sister, Minuet, but she is selfish and ruthless. Her actions engaged the reader's concern, because she wasn't just evil, she was very clever and shrewd with it. Here was a young woman who knew exactly how to turn all situations to her advantage. She seemed to have no conscience at all.

The kingdom of Niarg becomes the scene of the symbolical fight between good and evil. The evil characters being related to the good ones makes the situation even more complex, as it means that while this fact didn't make any difference in the actions of the evil ones, it meant a real struggle for the good ones as they tried the impossible: to overcome the evil traps without destroying the lives of their loved ones.

In the midst of this struggle there was another problem Razzmorten and his friends had to deal with. There was a plague in the country that killed thousand of people and seemed to be unstoppable. As it turned out later, the plague was the result of Ugleeuh's jealous actions.

To make the story more interesting there were some animal characters too with the ability of speech who could think and behave as humans. Ocker, the raven and Hubba-Hubba, Minuet's pet bird, are very important creatures in the story line. Ocker was a very interesting character with his salesman, businessman features. He didn't show much consideration for what the outcome of his services would be but towards the end his character improved and he seemed to develop some kind of conscience.

This book is an excellent first book of a series and I can highly recommend to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy and enjoys the magic world of a fairy-tale kingdom.