"Turns Of Fate" By Anne Bishop

Review by Terrance McArthur

Anne Bishop is a maker of worlds, a builder of societies, and a creator of characters that are very human, even when they aren’t human. I have followed her through the series of The Others and its companion World of the Others, the Black Jewels series, and have now entered her new series, The Isle of Wyrd with its first novel, Turns of Fate. The Isle of Wyrd is weird, and that’s a good thing.

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Beth Fahey, junior detective in the 13th precinct special investigations team, is assigned by her boss, Charles Forrester, to go to the Isle of Wyrd to get information on a weapon from Lucas Frost, Wyrd’s Sorcerer King. None of the other detectives like to go there, but she gets different feelings from Destiny Park, where visitors go to get fortunes told or have requests answered by the Arcana who live there.

Words and intentions count on The Isle of Wyrd   A joking bully is transformed into something grotesque. An abused woman is given refuge for a year in another form, emerging as someone stronger. A man who thinks he is above the rules is hooked into a different path. Characters are injured, are threatened, and some die, usually because they won’t follow the island’s rules (an island that seems to expand beyond its borders, because—face it—many places in this world are Wyrd). A teen is transported to another land, where he gains strength, goals, and purpose. Beth is attacked by her past and finds her future. There are purple cows! Strange things happen on The Isle of Wyrd.

Parts of it are unsettling, parts are funny, and parts harken back to The Others, but all the parts hang together. Bishop is known for populating her novels with people and non-people with strange powers, different ways of thinking, and their own forms of justice. This is the first installment in what I hope will rival the 12 Black Jewels books in longevity.

Turns of Fate has many twists within its turns. Go with it, because there are times when everyone needs to get Wyrd.

You can click here to purchase this book.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur is newly retired as a Librarian in Fresno County, California. He is also a storyteller, puppeteer, magician, and maker of pine needle baskets. On top of that he writes stories that range from rhymed children's tales to splatterpunk horror. He's an odd bird, but he's nice to have around.

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