Beautiful Inos, rightful Queen of Krasnegar, and her great-aunt, Princess Kadolan (not nearly as fuddy duddy and scatterbrained as she often appears) have been magically spirited away to Zark (where the Djinns live -- the Arabian Nights come to life) and dropped will she nill she into the middle of a rather nasty and dangerous palace intrigue etween the rightful Sultan and the "Sultana" a powerful sorceress who has displaced him and rules him and his land through her sorcery, which has a strong sexual element -- her spell on him causes his merest touch to burn the flesh of anything female (except the sorceress herself) like red-hot iron.
Rasha, the sorceress, hopes to use Inos in a political game among the Wardens, the four powerful sorcerors who control the world's sorcery under the Compact.
Inos, though apalled by the treatment and place of women in Zark, sets out to make an ally of Azak, the Sultan, in an attempt to thwart Rasha.
Meanwhile, Rap the faithful stableboy, Little Chicken, and the Gang (those who have read the previous book will understand that reference, a fuller explication would be a spoiler if you haven't read the previous book yet) find themselves in Faerie, where Much Is Not As It Seems, and Rap meets Captain Gathmore, a genuine berserker Jotunn (Norse/Viking) who will be important for the rest of the series.
Caught in a magical trap set for those who know Words of Power, Rap learns a little more both about the Words themselves and about magic and sorcery -- i always like the explanation that sorcery is permanent, magic fades sooner or later after the magician turns his attention away, but the end result is often the same -- a mage explains: "I could turn your head into an anvil. It would be a temporary anvil, but you'd be permanently dead."
Rap and Little Chicken manage to escape and join Gathmore's jotunn crew and escape Faerie.
Both Rap and Inos seem to be on their way to saving themselves and making progress toward saving the other -- but the book ends with disasterous reverses for both.
With two more books to go, all looks hopeless.
But, like all good serials, the next chapter will save us from this cliffhanger and give us even more more thrills, chills and adventure...
Meanwhile, Rap, Little Chicken and companion have found themselves wandering in the land of Faerie. By now, Rap has discovered that he has a word of power and that that is why Andor was trying to befriend him. Rap also discovered their secret - that Andor, Jalon, Sagorn and Darad all were cursed by a sorcerer so that only one of them can "live" at a time, the other personalities are all in a kind of limbo while one person gets through whatever adventure they are currently in the middle of. Even though Rap has his doubts about his so-called allies, he is willing to use everyone for their skills to try and find Inos and rescue her. Along the way, he expands his band by befriending Captain Gathmore, a Jotunn sailor who manages to get Rap hired on as part of his crew. At least Rap is mobile now, but he isn't heading in the right direction and he still has old enemies to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention of the witches and warlocks of the regions...
Faery Lands Forlorn picks up the adventure from Magic Casement without missing a beat. Since David Duncan is a superb author, I think that you could jump in on this one and understand what is going on without reading the first one, but why deprive yourself of the pleasure? Rap is still a delightful hero in a very non-traditional sense and the reader gets the opportunity to learn about how magic works in the world of Pandemia as Rap discovers more powers and uses for his gifts of farsight and working with animals. The way that magic works in this world is fascinating and it is interesting to note that the author does distinguish between a sorcerer and a magician in that the former's spells are permanent and the latter's spells only last as long as the magician is focusing on them. Again, Rap was by far more interesting than Inos, but she did further along the plot and give Duncan to create another section of this world that reminded me of an Arabian Nights story. Aunt Kade is really starting to come into her own in this book and she makes the parts with Inos sparkle a bit more than they did before. The secondary characters are also delightful and fun to get to know. If you are interested in reading a tale set in a world both familiar and strange where Duncan takes everything about a traditional fairy tale and just tweaks it a bit so it is fresh and unexpected, then this is a series for you!