Sasha – Joel Shepherd
Hachette Livre, 2007
448 pages
RRP: AU$32.95
ISBN: 978-0-7336-2141-3

Reviewed by Andrew Williams

With Sasha, Joel Shepherd has moved from SF/cyberpunk (Crossover, Breakaway, Killswitch) into the fantasy realm. The main character, Sasha, living in a small village and in training with her mentor, a master warrior, is, as you might expect, a princess. In most stories, however, she would have grown up as an orphan, and discovered (at the climax of the story) that she was in fact a princess. Instead, Sasha grew up in a castle, and when her oldest brother was killed, through treachery, renounced royalty, luxury, and her home to train with the greatest warrior in the kingdom.

Most of the conflict in the book revolves around the two main religions in the land. The nobility are exclusively ‘Verenthanes’, an analogue of the Christian church. They have majestic churches, a holy symbol (a star), and preach austerity. The distant Verenthane ‘holy land’ has been held by non-believers for centuries, so there are growing moves for a crusade to reclaim it.

Most of the populace are ‘Goeren-Yai’, and worship animal, river, tree, etc, spirits, with no complex organised religion. They are also tribal, with conflict between tribes and a multitude of different languages, liabilities which have prevented them from forming a united front against either various invaders, or the ruling classes.

In addition, there is another belief system called ‘Nasi-Keth’, which seems to be an analog of something like secular humanism – ironic, since it originated with humanoid species called the ‘Serrin’. Sasha’s mentor, the great warrior, is a Nasi-Keth.

If this all sounds a bit confusing, it’s becuase it is. Sasha isn’t very long as fantasy books go, and there isn’t really enough space to go into any of this in much detail. The Serrin look a lot like humans, have glowing eyes, are great warriors, and have a very casual attitude towards sex – that’s about as much as you learn them in 443 pages. There’s so much plot to get through (albeit exciting and well written) that the reader never really learns much about the philosophies of the major religions, the Serrin (who are the ones occupying the Verenthane ‘holy land’), or even the personalities of some fairly major characters.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, but I hope it’s about 50% longer, or has a simpler plot, so I have room to get inside the heads of the people in the story, and find out more about them, and the world.