Francis, Diana Pharaoh -- Path of Fate
Young healer is drawn into a war, gets magical telepathic bird
companion. I was prepared to approve of this book for showing a
society with healing as a non-mystical profession -- no magical
healing, but a tradition of herb knowledge and antisepsis, with
apprenticeships and social support for people with this valuable
training. The magical animal companions are a separate thing. They
come to people meant to handle law and justice, but it's still up to
the humans to decide justice; they get no magical support other than
a link to a potentially useful scout animal.
Anyway, I was all pleased about solidly human-centered magic-animal
fantasy, and half a chapter later the protagonist gets magical healing
abilities. At this point the floor drops out of the narrative. Her
biggest problem turns out to be whether the Goddess will give her
superpowers fast enough to deal with the ostensible crisis (a
political kidnapping). Feh.
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