The Mirror of her Dreams by Stephen Donaldson

Review by Alleandra

The Imagers are the users of magic in this land. They can 'translate' or cause things or people to be brought to Mordant from other places or worlds via mirrors. King Joyse has all the skilled Imagers within his own country now, within a Congery and working to keep the peace. But the king has grown older and seems feebleminded. He is ignoring the increasingly blatant signs of unrest and is leaving Mordant vulnerable to attack.

Mordant needs a Champion, and the Congery sends an inept apprentice to go and fetch one. Geraden has been an Apt for longer then anyone ever and is still unable to become a Master Imager. He goes through the mirror for the champion and comes back instead with Terisa Morgan, a rich but insecure and unloved young woman from New York.

I found the world depicted to be quite different from the usual fantasy worlds, and had very high hopes. But Terisa is so dull and helpless, and Geraden is not any better. Donaldson has a tendency to pummel the reader with reminders that Geraden is clumsy. I just grow extremely bored and annoyed with that sort of thing… I got it the first few hundred times it was mentioned, thank you. The other characters are somewhat intriguing at times, but there are too many annoying characters like the maid Saddith. For the most part, no one catches my interest and the plot is not exactly breathtaking.