Revenge, gender reversal, corruption and murder fuel the dark fantasy Maledicte, a first novel by Lane Robins. When Miranda's lover Janus is stolen from her by Kritos, a minion of the Earl of Lost, and sent out of the land of Antyre to train as the Earl's heir, she disguises herself as a man. She hopes to gain access to the Earl and her beloved in the king's court. But before Miranda, now Maledicte, can attempt this, "he" makes deals with two very different devils.

The lost god, black-winged Ani, gives him a sword and a propensity to recover quickly from wounds. The debauched Baron Vornatti, an enemy of the Earl, promises him access to the Antyraan court to find Janus, in return for physical favors. With a god and a baron as allies, who needs enemies?

For two years, Maledicte learns courtly dances and customs with the help of the complex Gilly, Vornatti's servant/catamite, a man with his own problems. By the time Vornatti and Gilly take Maledicte to the Antyraan court, he has used poison to deepen his voice, become proficient at swordplay and still has an unwavering desire to murder the Earl and be reunited with Janus.

However, after being introduced at the court and drawing blades with a marquis, Maledicte finds that nothing is as easy as it seems from a distance. The temptress Mirabile lusts after him or Vornatti—she's not picky as long as one of them has money and doesn't mind being poisoned like her first husband—and spreads gossip about everyone. King Aris seems to take a personal interest in Maledicte, against the advice of the Earl, who Maledicte finds himself reluctant to kill until Janus has entered the court. When Maledicte seeks a measure of revenge against Janus' abductor Kritos in a gambling den, black-winged Ani, feeding off of his obsession, rises. To Gilly's alarm, Maledicte seems to become both darker and more powerful.

Worse, Maledicte's lustful reunion with Janus is marred by the realization that Janus likes being groomed to be the eventual Earl of Lost. After all, both Janus and the Miranda Maledicte left behind were dirt broke and living in a slum before the Earl reclaimed his by-blow. What's a man with taped-down breasts and no Adam's apple to do when she/he wants to drive a sharp metal point through a man's chest and his/her lover would rather it wait until the Earldom's won?

A newcomer's careful characterization

Maledicte is a spirited, complex melodrama. At heart, Lane Robins has created an old-fashioned tale of revenge in a fantasy setting where guards carry muskets and hedonistic aristocrats like the withered Vornatti (reminiscent of a much less dangerous and corpulent Baron Harkonnen) get injections of a something suspiciously like a combination of absinthe and morphine.

The focus is very much on the action and the characters, with less attention paid to describing the world, which may leave some readers wishing they had a few more details. However, the approach generally works, because it allows the court intrigues at the heart of the novel to breathe, unencumbered by too much baggage. The conversations and the back-and-forth between the bored-cruel aristocrats of the Antyraan court often have a lively and lived-in feel. Maledicte's transformation from woman to man and from someone rough-hewn to a court-worthy figure also provides much pleasure. Gilly's concerns about Maledicte and his precarious position between Maledicte, Vornatti and certain unscrupulous members of the court help make him a major and complicated character, adding depth to the narrative. Indeed, the reader ultimately roots for Gilly's survival over everyone else in the novel.

Black-winged Ani provides additional interest. Robins' idea that the gods have left the world, and in so doing also diminished witchcraft, which feeds off the power of the gods, has a sobering effect on the narrative. The disturbing, creepy interaction of Maledicte with his sword, and Gilly's dreams about Ani and the sword, are sinister and sometimes original.

Where Maledicte falters is in its last third, where the killings and intrigue begin to become slightly farcical. Janus and Maledicte together turn out to be less interesting than the two of them apart. An element of disappointment at the Monster Revealed invades when more is learned about Ani. Robins' control over the material slackens, too, and although the pace of the novel quickens, the careful characterization of the first two-thirds disappears somewhat. Melodrama is a fine thing in a book if muzzled by other elements. Unleashed, it quickly becomes soap opera. Still, Maledicte contains much to admire, and Robins is a writer of genuine ability.