Abbey, Lynn (1948– )
Lynn Abbey made her fantasy debut with Daughter
of the Bright Moon(1979), the first adventure of
Rifkind, a female warrior in a predominantly male
world. She followed up the next year with a sequel,
The Black Flame(1980), which had more definite
feminist undertones and which developed the
character of its protagonist significantly. Rifkind is
a powerful woman whose self-confidence grows as
she gains the patronage of a goddess and realizes
the full extent of her own physical and mystical
abilities. Although the form is that of the quest
story, much of what Rifkind accomplishes is as
much internal as external. The protagonist of
Abbey’s next novel, The Guardians(1982), under-
goes a similar transformation, although in this case
the setting is the contemporary world and the dan-
ger originates from alternate realities wishing to
cross the barrier that separates them from each
other and from us.
Abbey’s next sequence of two novels was set
in a variant of 11th-century England, where magic
works and history is slightly different. The king is
dying, and evil sorcery threatens to affect the suc-
cession to the throne. Opposing the mysterious fig-
ures moving behind the scenes are two sisters who
have magical powers of their own and who are
loyal to the existing bloodline. Another duo of
books followed, based loosely on the computer
game Ultima,consisting of The Forge of Virtueand
The Temper of Wisdom,both appearing in 1991. Al-
though constrained by the limitations of the game
world, Abbey turned out two surprisingly enter-
taining stories of rebellions and quests. The Wooden
Sword(1991) was a much more original work, set
in a far more diverse and interesting world, one in
which sentient trees interact with humans. The se-
quel, Beneath the Web(1994), continued the story
but did not measure up to its predecessor. Several
shared universe novels followed, most based on
role playing games, of which the only one that rose
above its subject matter was Cinnabar Shadows
(1995).
Abbey’s next major work was Jerlayne(1999),
a thoughtful, understated adventure that was
something of a reversal of her earlier The Guardians
(1982). Fairies are traditionally poisoned by the
touch of iron, which is unknown in the Land of
Faery, but the borders between their world and
ours are eroding, and traces of iron that pass
through the barrier are causing serious problems.
The protagonist is a healer whose efforts to stem
the onset of diseases and other problems brought
inadvertently by intruders from our world become
increasingly desperate. The story is far less melo-
dramatic and action-oriented than the author’s
previous work and seems to have indicated a
switch to more serious subject matter. Even more
significant was the Emma Merrigan series, consist-
ing to date of Out of Time(2000), Behind Time
(2001), and Taking Time(2004), with Down Time
scheduled to appear soon. Merrigan is a librarian
who discovers she has been given the magical
power to travel through time and the obligation to
use those powers to help people by removing fam-
ily curses, solving generations-old mysteries, and1