Sinner (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Sinner
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = "Sinner" first edition cover.
author = Sara Douglass
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series = "The Wayfarer Redemption"
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = HarperCollins
release_date = 1997
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages = 495 pp "(first edition)"
isbn = ISBN 073225857X
preceded_by =
followed_by = Pilgrim

"Sinner" is the first novel in The Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy by Sara Douglass. In the United States it is also considered the fourth in The Wayfarer Redemption sextet. It is followed by "Pilgrim" and concludes in "Crusader".

Plot summary

The land of Tencendor has experienced an era of peace in the forty years since the Starman Axis defeated Gorgrael and united the peoples of Tencendor. Eventually Axis choses to leave the mortal world with his wife Azhure, leaving his son Caelum to rule as the Starson. However, Caelum is a less than perfect ruler; insecure, arrogant and untried in this era of peace he struggles to maintain the balance between the various provinces as racial tensions rise.

Matters worsen when Caelum finds himself engaging in an affair with his sister Riverstar, who eventually becomes pregnant and threatens to blackmail her brother with this fact. In a rage, Caelum then murders his sister and implicates his unpopular brother Drago with the crime. However, this Caelum's crime is not revealed until the third book, Crusader. The majority of the novel is narrated from Drago's perspective. Much of it focuses upon the fact that he has been literally stripped of his Icarii heritage - he is mortal. His is growing old, and weak, and the extent of his Icarii powers amount to making the bread rise. Azhure, and Axis distrusted him because of the crime that he committed while an infant, a crime that he cannot even remember committing (allowing the antagonist of the Axis series, Gorgrael, to kidnap his brother, Caelum). The full details of Caelum's relationship with his sister is not fully unveiled until the third book, as "first blood", i.e., brother, sister, father, mother, are forbidden. However, Drago is an unpopular fellow, and when the finger is poitned at him, none are too surprised and have no problem in heaping the blame upon him. What actually transpired was that Drago walked in upon Caelum murdering his sister. Caelum instead, imposes a memory block upon Drago, and creates a false recollection of him brutally murdering his sister.

The ancient and deadly WolfStar also returns to the world of Tencendor; seeking to cause the rebirth of his lover Niah within a powerful body. He selects Zenith as the perfect host, displacing her soul and replacing it with Niah's. However, WolfStar is not the only one to return; the newly empowered Faraday arrives and aids Zenith in expelling both Niah's soul and WolfStar's child from her body. Zenith finds Wolfstar, who is her biological grandfather, revolting, as she is constantly assaulted by images of the past whenever he is near, a rather unpleasant sensation which eventually causes her to lose control of her own body to her former incarnation. In order to escape punishment Drago flees with the help of his sister Zenith until he leaves the world through the Star Gate. However, Wolfstar pursues Drago.

Meanwhile not all is calm in the North, Zared, Axis' mortal younger brother (they share the same mother, Rivkah) and ruler of the northern province has illegally eloped with Princess Leagh, sister to the sterile ruler of the western province. Proceeding from this Zared names himself King of Achar; an action which the other rulers view both as treason and a resurrection of the Acharites xenophobic past.

Meanwhile Drago discovers an odd oasis in the universe outside the Star Gate, containing an insane Icarii woman, many children with the likeness of hawks and five dark and dangerous beings known as the Timekeepers who offer great power. This promise proves false however, when they steal Drago's life force and use it to shatter the Star Gate and destroy most of the world's magic in the process.

ee also

*Wayfarer Redemption