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Duel of Sorcery: Dancer #1
Dancer's Rise
Imprisoned by a spell for centuries, Serroi breaks free and finds a job in her strange new world--to deliver a newly created device to the leader of a distant city-state. Original.
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Jo Clayton
70 books68 followersJo Clayton, whose parents named her after Jo in Little Women, was born and raised in Modesto, California. She and her three sisters shared a room and took turns telling each other bedtime stories. One of her sisters noted that Jo's stories were the best, and often contained science fiction and fantasy elements.
Clayton graduated from the University of California in 1963, Summa Cum Laude, and started teaching near Los Angeles.
In 1969, after a religious experience, she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, joining the teaching order Sisters of Mount Carmel as a novice. She left three years later, before taking final orders.
During her time in New Orleans, Clayton sold sketches and paintings in Pioneer Square to supplement her income.
After being robbed several times, Clayton moved to Portland, Oregon in 1983. She remained there for the rest of her life.
Clayton was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1996. Jo continued to write during her year and a half in the hospital. She finished Drum Calls, the second book of the Drums of Chaos series, and was halfway through the third and final book when she lost her struggle with multiple myeloma in February, 1998.
Literary executor Katherine Kerr made arrangements with established author Kevin Andrew Murphy to finish the third book of the Drums of Chaos series. It is now completed.
Clayton graduated from the University of California in 1963, Summa Cum Laude, and started teaching near Los Angeles.
In 1969, after a religious experience, she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, joining the teaching order Sisters of Mount Carmel as a novice. She left three years later, before taking final orders.
During her time in New Orleans, Clayton sold sketches and paintings in Pioneer Square to supplement her income.
After being robbed several times, Clayton moved to Portland, Oregon in 1983. She remained there for the rest of her life.
Clayton was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1996. Jo continued to write during her year and a half in the hospital. She finished Drum Calls, the second book of the Drums of Chaos series, and was halfway through the third and final book when she lost her struggle with multiple myeloma in February, 1998.
Literary executor Katherine Kerr made arrangements with established author Kevin Andrew Murphy to finish the third book of the Drums of Chaos series. It is now completed.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 4, 2022
This was a chore to finish. 3 stars isn't a bad rating IMO, and Clayton's writing is still enjoyable enough that I can't go lower, even though I didn't groove on the story.
Not even sure why it's still about Serroi. She was so much more interesting as a sorceror's apprentice, then a warrior, than her current role as a resurrected healer. The side plot about her birthing fantasy (and horror) creatures as an effect of her healing powers was interesting, but too tiny a bit of the book. It was mostly a rather large cast of all-new characters, none of whom I felt I had time to get to know in a book that is almost all politics and battle strategy. I like K'Milly but felt very hustled into it.
I'll keep my Duel of Sorcery trilogy, especially my beloved Moongather, which is a desert island book. Donating this one and not going to read the rest of the series.
But despite all my bitching here, I still really do love the way Jo Clayton puts words on paper.
Not even sure why it's still about Serroi. She was so much more interesting as a sorceror's apprentice, then a warrior, than her current role as a resurrected healer. The side plot about her birthing fantasy (and horror) creatures as an effect of her healing powers was interesting, but too tiny a bit of the book. It was mostly a rather large cast of all-new characters, none of whom I felt I had time to get to know in a book that is almost all politics and battle strategy. I like K'Milly but felt very hustled into it.
I'll keep my Duel of Sorcery trilogy, especially my beloved Moongather, which is a desert island book. Donating this one and not going to read the rest of the series.
But despite all my bitching here, I still really do love the way Jo Clayton puts words on paper.
Read
December 9, 2010Couldn't finish it. I only got to page fifty before abandoning it. (it is rare for me to abandon a book once it's started) All I can say about this one is "no" just "no".
July 13, 2015
Mildly disappointed with this book. Lacked the edge the Diadem series held for me.
June 19, 2026
First of Jo Clayton's Dancer trilogy, itself a sequel to her Duel of Sorcery trilogy (beginning with Moongather), but set about 200 years later.
At the end of the Duel of Sorcery trilogy (spoilers!), Serroi (the hero) had faced off against Ser Noris (the villain) and defeated him at the price of turning them both into trees and, apparently, bringing and end to magic. Now, 200 years later, Serroi is freed to a world that's equal parts recognizable and unfathomably strange. And, along with Serroi herself, magic seems to be seeping back into the world.
(Ser Noris, though, remains safely treed.)
As the book opens (well, after a brief prologue in which Serroi is detreed and then two years later), Serroi has already found a mission for herself, traveling with companions (at least one of whom is the descendant of a close friend from her time before) to deliver equipment to the distant city-state of Cadander and its ruler the Marn. And it won't be an easy journey, what with the pirates and the hostile city-state they have to stop at en route, and a vague, supernatural threat looming somewhere in the background and disturbing Serroi's dreams.
And Cadander and the Marn, and the Marn's heir, K'vestmilly Vos, are having no easier time of it, what with having to contend with scheming nobles, the aforementioned hostile city-state, random bombings, and a vague, supernatural threat looming somewhere in the background.
And then Serroi and her party will arrive just after all hell starts to break loose ...
(Oh, and did I mention the part where every time Serroi uses her magic, she apparently also spawns various kinds of elemental spirits, dryads, nixies and the like?)
Another great book by an author who's fallen into undeserved obscurity; and I for one would be very> happy to have more of her catalog (including this series, which hasn't been reprinted since 1993 or so) made more widely available.
At the end of the Duel of Sorcery trilogy (spoilers!), Serroi (the hero) had faced off against Ser Noris (the villain) and defeated him at the price of turning them both into trees and, apparently, bringing and end to magic. Now, 200 years later, Serroi is freed to a world that's equal parts recognizable and unfathomably strange. And, along with Serroi herself, magic seems to be seeping back into the world.
(Ser Noris, though, remains safely treed.)
As the book opens (well, after a brief prologue in which Serroi is detreed and then two years later), Serroi has already found a mission for herself, traveling with companions (at least one of whom is the descendant of a close friend from her time before) to deliver equipment to the distant city-state of Cadander and its ruler the Marn. And it won't be an easy journey, what with the pirates and the hostile city-state they have to stop at en route, and a vague, supernatural threat looming somewhere in the background and disturbing Serroi's dreams.
And Cadander and the Marn, and the Marn's heir, K'vestmilly Vos, are having no easier time of it, what with having to contend with scheming nobles, the aforementioned hostile city-state, random bombings, and a vague, supernatural threat looming somewhere in the background.
And then Serroi and her party will arrive just after all hell starts to break loose ...
(Oh, and did I mention the part where every time Serroi uses her magic, she apparently also spawns various kinds of elemental spirits, dryads, nixies and the like?)
Another great book by an author who's fallen into undeserved obscurity; and I for one would be very> happy to have more of her catalog (including this series, which hasn't been reprinted since 1993 or so) made more widely available.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews