"Delightful fairy tale"

In the land of Niurne, Mina Cole hides her femininity by dressing and working like an indentured boy toiling at the mills. Mina is unaware that she possesses strong magic inherited from her Unseelie father. She is oblivious until an accident at the water powered mill where she in disguise works forces Mina to inadvertently use her innate power.

In the city of Dere, a paralyzed from the waist down Duncan RiDahn is the mentor of the feylings (half- breeds). He teaches his charges how to hide in plain sight because if exposed the Seelie Court will hunt them as they did him thirty-five years ago. Mina's display of magic comes to the respective attention of the Seelie leadership and Duncan. Out of control, her magic could cause devastation, but will Duncan save the frightened Mina not just from the hunters, but from the first stirring of his heart and soul since he lost his beloved when he lost the use of his legs?

The powerfully descriptive WINTER'S ORPHANS is a wonderful fantasy tale focusing on an underground movement of a hybrid race trying to survive while purebreds oppress them out of fear. The strength of the tale resides in the belief that the Seelie, Unseelie, and Feylings exist on the real world of Niurne. Elaine Corvidae accomplishes this difficult feat because the cast, regardless of racial makeup and in spite of the classic romance between Duncan and Mina, seem bona fide so that the audience visits an orb that serves as the center of a fabulous fantasy thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 24, 2003

Also in eBook format: ISBN 1931696063 (September 2001)

Summary

At the dawn of Niune's Industrial Age, the Seelie Court has a heartless half-human aristocracy that annihilates any glimmer of fae power holds the kingdom in an iron fist.

Ignorant of her own dark birthright, Mina Cole is a factory slave whose gifts cannot be suppressed. In a moment of terror, she betrays her heritage to the hunters, and her only hope for survival lies in the hands of a man crippled in body and soul.

One terrible night thirty-five years ago, Duncan RiDahn lost both his love and the use of his legs to the hunters of the Seelie Court. Into Duncan's web of regret comes Mina, whose dark strength both alarms and attracts him. Against his better judgment, he teaches her to survive in a world that loathes winter magic, the force of shadow and black waters.

But the greatest danger may not spring from the Seelie Court, for Mina wields a terrible power. Unleashed, her rage possesses the awful promise of transformation, and when Mina wills, dark things walk. And there is no guarantee that Mina, so long an impotent slave of the streets, knows anything of mercy.

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