Publisher's Weekly
Fans of bestseller Lustbader will welcome the third hefty installment in his Pearl fantasy series (after 2002's The Veil of a Thousand Tears), with its wildly complex plot, breathless action and jaw-breaking nomenclature (Khagggun, Mesagggun, etc.), though newcomers might wish they had a roadmap. On the planet Kundala, the conquering V'ornn are having trouble subduing the natives, who have a champion in the woman Riane, aka "the Dar Sala-at, the fabled savior, destined to lead the Kundalan uprising against their alien V'ornn oppressors." Meanwhile, Annon, a dead V'ornn whose consciousness survives within Riane, shows that some V'ornn are worthy of the reader's sympathy. Riane's friend Eleana, who loved Annon, finds herself strangely attracted to Riane. The Kundalans' ultimate salvation, however, rests in securing the mystical Pearl. Tolkien's rings (reflected in the Pearl's "banestones") and the pseudo-Islamicism of Herbert's Dune are among the author's many obvious literary influences, while in a display of tongue-in-cheek humor three V'ornn admirals act a bit like the Three Stooges. Lustbader keeps scene-setting to a minimum ("Sapphire evening spread its wings over the great steppe") amid all the fighting and skullduggery. A surprise twist at the end serves as a springboard to a fourth volume. (Mar. 25) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal
As Riane, the prophesied Dar-Sala-at destined to deliver the people of Kundala from their V'ornn conquerors, continues her search for the legendary Pearl believed to hold the key to deliverance for her people, other forces for change are at work within the world. A Resistance movement unites Kundalans with sympathetic V'ornns even as a group of V'ornn scientists conduct ruthless experiments to master a rare radioactive substance. The third volume in Lustbader's fantasy epic (after The Veil of a Thousand Tears and The Ring of Five Dragons) continues a heroic woman's journey to fulfill her destiny in a world in which science and magic war for dominance. Colorful characters and an intriguingly detailed world make this a standout addition to most fantasy collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews
The third in the megalogy The Pearl, thus far a 1,836-page fantasy epic (The Ring of the Five Dragons, 2001; The Veil of a Thousand Tears, 2002), returns to Lustbader's favored la-la-land of Kundala. The advanced alien race, the V'ornn, besiege the spiritual planet of Kundala for a hundred and one years. Kundalans believe that a messiah (the Dar Sala-at) will be born-from both ends of the universe-to lead them out of captivity in the manner of savior Paul Atreides in that sandworld series. Indeed, Riane, a Kundala female, is psychically joined to the soul of Annon Ashera, dead son of a Gyrgon lord of the V'ornn, to save the spirits of both Riane and Annon. Thus Annon (from the far end of the universe) finds himself in a girl's body, and in love with Eleana, a Kundalan female (later raped and impregnated by power-hungry Kurgan, the Regent of Kundala and the intriguing V'ornn usurper who is the novel's most complex character), while women now play strong roles in the story. Why the Gyrgon techno-mages have led the V'ornn from their distant star system to this planet remains a mystery, although various fabled spiritual artifacts-the Ring of the Five Dragons, the Veil of a Thousand Tears (which turns back demons from the Abyss)-project mystical secrets pointing to the greatest secret of all, in The Pearl. Meanwhile, as the Kundalans lose faith in their gods, Lustbader blends religion and sorcery to lend a detailed sociological grip to each society's superstructure of myth and magic. So what is The Pearl? Well, the Goddess Miina protects it from falling into the wrong hands, since it's a storehouse of knowledge with a potential for power so vast that Dar Sala-at alone may possess it. (Fansshould not miss the remorseless assassin Lujon inveigling Kurgan into eating a week-old dish of maggoty jellied cephalopod.) Set at 3,500 pages, the end is far from sight. But sales worldwide? Monumental.