Spirit Fox

Spirit Fox, Mickey Zucker Reichert and Jennifer Wingert, DAW Books, 1998

Set in a land where a war among the Immortals has been settled, the "Joyous Reunion" has come about, bringing permanent peace to all; or so they thought. An army is coming from the south, led by powerful mages who practice the forbidden sixth magic of destruction. Their purpose is to commit genocide, if necessary, to rid the world of what they call the Abomination.

It actually is a process where some people, at birth, are spirit linked to an animal born at the same time. The two have something of a telepathic relationship and the human lives much longer than normal. Kiarda is a young woman who was supposed to be spirit linked to a fox at birth. The fox kit was killed, causing her link to turn in on itself. She acquires the ability to turn into a fox, one such episode of which leads to a major misunderstanding which causes an innocent man to be condemned to death. It sends Kiarda on a quest into the heart of the southern forces, who have adopted a scorched earth policy to rid the world of any hint of this type of magic.

Reichert is a veteran writer who certainly knows her way around a novel, and, if this book is any indication, Wingert is a name to watch for in the future. Together they have done a very good job from start to finish.