From Publishers Weekly
Fans of bestseller Lustbader will welcome the third hefty installment in his Pearl fantasy series (after 2002's The Veil of a Thousand Tears), with its wildly complex plot, breathless action and jaw-breaking nomenclature (Khagggun, Mesagggun, etc.), though newcomers might wish they had a roadmap. On the planet Kundala, the conquering V'ornn are having trouble subduing the natives, who have a champion in the woman Riane, aka "the Dar Sala-at, the fabled savior, destined to lead the Kundalan uprising against their alien V'ornn oppressors." Meanwhile, Annon, a dead V'ornn whose consciousness survives within Riane, shows that some V'ornn are worthy of the reader's sympathy. Riane's friend Eleana, who loved Annon, finds herself strangely attracted to Riane. The Kundalans' ultimate salvation, however, rests in securing the mystical Pearl. Tolkien's rings (reflected in the Pearl's "banestones") and the pseudo-Islamicism of Herbert's Dune are among the author's many obvious literary influences, while in a display of tongue-in-cheek humor three V'ornn admirals act a bit like the Three Stooges. Lustbader keeps scene-setting to a minimum ("Sapphire evening spread its wings over the great steppe") amid all the fighting and skullduggery. A surprise twist at the end serves as a springboard to a fourth volume. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Van Lustbader continues grappling with questions of technological morality in volume 3 of the Pearl. The Ring of the Five Dragons (2001) and The Veil of a Thousand Tears (2002) introduced two races in conflict: the invading V'ornn and the peaceful and spiritual Kundalan, oppressed by the V'ornn for more than a century. The V'ornn exploit Kundala for its resources, but the rarely seen V'ornn rulers, the Gyrgon technomages, have a more ghastly agenda: to genetically reengineer the DNA of mixed Kundalan-V'ornn offspring to produce exceptionally powerful warriors who are part creature, part machine. The reengineering process is far from perfected, and most of the resultant children die hideous, bloody deaths or go mad. Riane, the prophesied Dar-Sala-at, and her companions continue their desperate search for the sacred Pearl, with which she can save Kundala and free her people from the V'ornn. Now she faces the most forbidding task thus far, to wrest control of the banestones from the evil Sauromicians, soulless magicians whose black-magical knowledge is vast and who, having found the ninth and last banestone, will wield all the known power in Kundala. Van Lustbader's engaging novel builds powerfully upon its predecessors, thanks to characters of uncommon depth and complexity, lots of perplexing dilemmas for them to wrestle with, and plenty of exciting swordplay and gore. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Kundala is Miina's world, created by that Goddess with the help of the dragons. But Miina is missing, and her people have been enslaved by the alien V'ornn. Now a savior has come, the Dar Sala-at, a messiah promised by prophecy yet unlike anyone's expectations: within the body of a beautiful young woman is the mind and spirit of a unique Kundalan female who is joined in mystical partnership with the mind and spirit of Annon Ashera, a V'ornn male, the last survivor of a noble family. Together the two adolescents have matured and merged into a new joint identity. Now their common destiny, and Kundala's, is in their own hands.

In Lustbader's richly imagined saga The Pearl, magic and science clash on an epic scale. As in the Midkemia novels of Raymond Feist, the juxtaposition shows that neither is inherently good or evil. It is the people using magic or science who give them meaning, and Lustbader has created people you will never forget:

Riane, the Dar-Sala-at; Eleana, the woman she loves twice over; Kurgan, the V'ornn usurper who raped Eleana and sired her child; Marethyn Stogggul, Kurgan's defiant sister, an artist who joins the Kundalan resistance; Marethyn's lover, chief trader Sornnn SaTrryn, who secretly helps the resistance as well; and the fabulous Krystren, the Sarakkon woman from the mysterious southern continent, who comes north on a secret mission and will change the lives of everyone she meets. All the while, the evil Sauromicians threaten the world as they seek to use banestones to bind a dragon.

With each new volume, The Pearl has bloomed and ramified like a gorgeous flowering vine. The Mistress of the Pearl is the best yet, and those who have read the previous books will find new sources of excitement and enlightenment, but this is also a great place to begin catching up with the series, as the Pearl shines ever brighter.



About the Author
Eric Van Lustbader is author of many bestselling novels, including The Ninja, White Ninja, and French Kiss. He lives in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
A fantasy more epic in scope than J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. A saga more thematically multilayered than Frank Herbert's Dune sequence. A realm more vividly described than Robert Silverberg's Majipoor. One of the rare series worthy of such acclaim is Eric Van Lustbader's The Pearl, a literary tour de force that is redefining the term epic.

Set on a mystical world where a technologically advanced race of alien conquerors known as the V'ornn -- a male-dominated society based on a strict caste system -- have struggled for decades to rule over the native Kundalan, the saga of The Pearl is essentially the story of Riane, the Dar Sala-at, the prophesized savior destined to lead the Kundalan uprising against their militant oppressors.

In Mistress of the Pearl, the third volume of The Pearl (following The Ring of Five Dragons and The Veil of a Thousand Tears), the Kundalan resistance against the V'ornn is growing stronger, as more and more disgruntled V'ornn secretly join in the rebellion. As this already bloody struggle intensifies, the V'ornn technomages desperately search for a way to escape an unstoppable race bent on ferreting out and annihilating all V'ornn in the universe. The answer, they believe, lies in bioengineering hybrid V'ornn/Kundalan beings; but thus far they have only succeeded in butchering innocent natives. Meanwhile, Riane must somehow unlock the doors to her forgotten past and unravel the mystery -- and much-needed wisdom -- of the Pearl.

Simply put: This series, which encompasses both science fiction and fantasy elements, is an absolute must-read for any serious fan of the genre. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Lustbader's richly imagined saga The Pearl, magic and science clash on an epic scale. As in the Midkemia novels of Raymond Feist, the juxtaposition shows that neither is inherently good or evil. It is the people using magic or science who give them meaning, and Lustbader has created people you will never forget:

Riane, the Dar-Sala-at; Eleana, the woman she loves twice over; Kurgan, the V'ornn usurper who raped Eleana and sired her child; Marethyn Stogggul, Kurgan's defiant sister, an artist who joins the Kundalan resistance; Marethyn's lover, chief trader Sornnn SaTrryn, who secretly helps the resistance as well; and the fabulous Krystren, the Sarakkon woman from the mysterious southern continent, who comes north on a secret mission and will change the lives of everyone she meets. All the while, the evil Sauromicians threaten the world as they seek to use banestones to bind a dragon.

With each new volume, The Pearl has bloomed and ramified like a gorgeous flowering vine. The Mistress of the Pearl is the best yet, and those who have read the previous books will find new sources of excitement and enlightenment, but this is also a great place to begin catching up with the series, as the Pearl shines ever brighter.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fans of bestseller Lustbader will welcome the third hefty installment in his Pearl fantasy series (after 2002's The Veil of a Thousand Tears), with its wildly complex plot, breathless action and jaw-breaking nomenclature (Khagggun, Mesagggun, etc.), though newcomers might wish they had a roadmap. On the planet Kundala, the conquering V'ornn are having trouble subduing the natives, who have a champion in the woman Riane, aka "the Dar Sala-at, the fabled savior, destined to lead the Kundalan uprising against their alien V'ornn oppressors." Meanwhile, Annon, a dead V'ornn whose consciousness survives within Riane, shows that some V'ornn are worthy of the reader's sympathy. Riane's friend Eleana, who loved Annon, finds herself strangely attracted to Riane. The Kundalans' ultimate salvation, however, rests in securing the mystical Pearl. Tolkien's rings (reflected in the Pearl's "banestones") and the pseudo-Islamicism of Herbert's Dune are among the author's many obvious literary influences, while in a display of tongue-in-cheek humor three V'ornn admirals act a bit like the Three Stooges. Lustbader keeps scene-setting to a minimum ("Sapphire evening spread its wings over the great steppe") amid all the fighting and skullduggery. A surprise twist at the end serves as a springboard to a fourth volume. (Mar. 25) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

As Riane, the prophesied Dar-Sala-at destined to deliver the people of Kundala from their V'ornn conquerors, continues her search for the legendary Pearl believed to hold the key to deliverance for her people, other forces for change are at work within the world. A Resistance movement unites Kundalans with sympathetic V'ornns even as a group of V'ornn scientists conduct ruthless experiments to master a rare radioactive substance. The third volume in Lustbader's fantasy epic (after The Veil of a Thousand Tears and The Ring of Five Dragons) continues a heroic woman's journey to fulfill her destiny in a world in which science and magic war for dominance. Colorful characters and an intriguingly detailed world make this a standout addition to most fantasy collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews