Maskelle, in her mid-forties, is “the Voice of the Ancestors” - a high religious functionary of the Infinite, which is guided by ancestral spirits. She has been called back to the Capital by the Celestial One for the rite that remakes the Wheel of the Infinite each year. The Wheel of the Infinite refers to a round model of the world that represents reality; a change to the wheel will change the world.

As Maskelle explained:

“Every year the highest . . . priests, the Voices, make a . . . a model of the world. Through it the world is remade in its own image. The culmination takes place at the rainy season Equinox, and the sand that was used to make the model is collected and dispersed to wind and water, which strengthens the bonds that hold everything together.”

This time, it was a more significant rite: the End of a Hundred Years, and this time, something kept going wrong with the preparations. There were dark alterations to the Wheel that no one could explain, and no one yet knew how to stop. Thus Maskelle was summoned to help.

Maskelle used to be the Voice of the *Adversary* before she was cursed and exiled from the Capital seven years earlier. The Adversary is the only Ancestral spirit that was never a living being. It was created by the other spirits to destroy evil. Since the Adversary was never a living being, it was personified by its Voice: “So the Voice of the Adversary is not just the Adversary’s voice, but the Adversary Itself. Or Herself.”

Seven years before, Maskelle took consequential action in the Capital that was deemed to have been in response to a *false* vision from the Adversary, thus betraying her sacred duty and status. Not only had she been exiled, but the Adversary no longer spoke to her. While she lived, however, there could not be a new Voice to replace her, so the Empire has been denied the contributions of the Adversary all this time. But now they were desperate for help.


Meanwhile, Maskelle had been traveling with a group of itinerant actors, and in the course of their journey she met Rian, a swordsman who, albeit younger, became both Maskelle’s protector and lover. No one had spoken to her in years with his directness; mostly they were afraid of her. But Rian’s humor and stubbornness matched her own, and she could not deny her attraction to him. And Rian turned out to be critical to the Infinite for the confrontations to come between evil and the Infinite, and for the fate of the world.

Evaluation: The world-building is amazingly complicated as is the plot, but both are impressively rich and absorbing. And there is enough mystery and danger to keep readers turning the pages. It seems that no matter what section of speculative fiction Wells is inhabiting at any time, her writing is outstanding.