by Lynn Flewelling
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Product Description
A trick of magic, a twist of fate.
As the orphaned nephew of the king, trusted companion to his cousin, and second heir to the throne of Skala, Prince Tobin’s future is clear. But not as clear as the spring in which a hill witch shows him his true face--and his secret destiny....
Now Tobin carries a burden he cannot share with even his closest friend, Ki, his squire. He is to rule--not as he is but as he was born: a woman. Given the shape of a boy by dark magic, Tobin is the last hope of the people of Illior--those who desperately seek a return to the old ways, when Skala was ruled by a line of warrior queens. They still believe that only a woman can lift the war, famine, and pestilence that have run rampant through the land since the king usurped his half sister’s throne. It is these outlaw wizards and witches who protect Tobin--and it is for them that Tobin must accept his fate.
With the unsuspecting yet fiercely loyal Ki at his side, Tobin must turn traitor against the only blood ties he has left. He must lift the masks of Skala’s rulers to show their true colors--before he can reveal the power of the woman within himself.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 BORRRRRRING, 2007-06-08
I didn't read the first book in the series and after the first chapter of Hidden Warrior felt I didn't need to.
The book just went on and on and on and on and on as if she knew she didn't have enough material to do a trilogy but had agreed to so she dragged in everything she could think of and then some. Every fantasy cliche one could think of is in the book. Her one original idea--the basic premise of a girl living in a boy's body--after a while didn't ring true.
I have read and liked Lynn Flewelling for years. Was sorely disappointed in this book. What a waste of talent. I noticed in one of the reviews the suggestion that she get a co-author; according to Amazon's listing, she had one.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 A little bit too upredictable, 2006-09-12
After the Bone Doll's Twin, i expected the triology to find it's form, to take shape. Unstead, this 2nd book became even more of a sterotype: The mad king, his evil counselor, the wizard with a crystal wand (!) and the hero in two minds but with a faithful companion. Any surprises? No, no! But, at least, some entertainment a sunday afternoon.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Disappointment next to Flewelling's other works., 2006-06-11
I am planning to be very careful in this review, since I realize that I am in the minority with my opinion. First, to be clear, I like Flewelling's writing a great deal-- I am particularly fond of the Nightrunner series. I also liked The Bone Doll's Twin. I will admit that I did not love it, but I still expected quite a bit better from Hidden Warrior.
While I still enjoy the conceit of the book-- I like a lot of the issues raised by Tobin/Tamir-- I found the plotting rather surprisingly poor. The evil mad king has been done to death, as has the good indiginous magicians being destroyed by the evil power-hungry magicians. I found the way that the story of Skala developed predictable and rather irritating. To be honest, I am still trying to figure out exactly why it failed to work for me so spectacularly.
I think that the main reason is that so much effort went into the character of Tobin that there seemed to be very little effort left over for the villains. Niryn and his flunkies are entirely one dimensional, and Erius never amounts to much more than a collection of temper tantrums. This is a real shame-- three-dimensional bad guys add a lot to a fantasy novel and do a lot to raise the stakes and make the cost of success clear.
Much of this book reminded me of the great Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz. Out of curiosity, after finishing this I picked up one of those books to figure out what worked with them that didn't work here. One key point I took away from the experiment was that the persecution of the Deryni was sparked by years of Deryni abuses. There was a subtlety to it that I felt the Flewelling lacked. In the world of Hidden Warrior, people are killed because they are different and for no other reason. People are evil or they are good. Nobody seems to act out of fear rather than out of malice. At the end of the day, I do not think that I like the black and white approach that she takes to politics in this novel, and I do not think that it works well for the plot.
Anyhow, I will concede that generally I like her work much more than I liked it this time. I plan to go ahead and read the third in the series, and keep hoping for a return to the Nightrunner books.
You should certainly not let my review dissuade you from reading Hidden Warrior. There are more than enough five star reviews here that tell you that many others liked it just fine. As normal with a series, do not start with this book. Go back and read The Bone Doll's Twin if you have not already done so.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 One of the best series ever!, 2006-05-16
And let me tell you, I read a lot :-)
My life was on standby mode until I read The Bone Doll's Twin and Hidden Warrior, because the books are just too good to put down!
I never skipped a page, although I found myself looking at the end every once in a while just to make sure everything will be all right :-)
It's the most amazing book I've read in I don't know how long. Too long. Read it. Savor it.
If I could, I'd give it 10 stars. Can't wait for the last part!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
...and now I can't wait for book three., 2006-03-24
Lynn Flewelling, Hidden Warrior (Bantam, 2003)
Hidden Warrior, the second book in Lynn Flewelling's Tamir trilogy, is an improvement over the first in every regard-- and the first was no slouch, I tell ya. Where the first began in a manner I can only describe (charitably) as "deadly slow"-- fans of Steven Erikson will recognize the tactic, I'm sure-- this one hits the ground running and never gives out. Much of this, of course, has to do with Flewelling not needing to spend nearly as much time on character-building, though this is not to say that new characters don't pop up, nor that the characters we already know don't develop. (Some of them, in fact, develop mightily, in ways you will not foresee.) Despite that fact that this is the middle novel of a trilogy, which is usually where things slack off, Flewelling has pulled in the reins here, tightened everything up, and produced quite a fine little book here.
When we last left Tobin and Ki, Tobin had just found out the great secret behind his birth (of which Ki is still ignorant), Prince Korin was waiting back in Ero, Arkoniel was holed up in Tobin's house afraid to be seen, and Iya was, well, nowhere to be found. We kick things off just as the last book is wrapping up, so things are just as they were. There are new secrets to be kept, new intrigues to be plotted, new battles to be fought, and more of Korin's well-meaning but empty-headed pranks to be covered up. In short, things are rolling along quite nicely. Cracks start appearing in the rather bucolic framework relatively quickly, however, and you know the whole thing will eventually come tumbling like an avalanche; the only questions are what the lynchpin will be and who will emerge from the rubble, bloodied but alive.
As with the last book, Flewelling brings this one to both a satisfying ending of the events in the novel and with just enough clues of what's to come that the reader is, likely, left panting for the final book in the trilogy (which, as I write this, is slated for publication in July of this year). If it keeps improving at this rate, The Oracle's Queen is a shoo-in for one of my top 25 reads of 2006. ****
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