In A Circle of Arcs Kate Saundby weaves a tale from threads that include medieval France, present day Minneapolis and a doomed Alien world. The common theme within all of these diverse backdrops is Jeanne D'Arc ( or Joan if you prefer ), the Maid of Orleans, bane of the Fifteenth Century English Army and Mystic visionary. In medieval France a time travelling Alien who goes by many names, plucks Jeanne's most loyal knight from the flames of a heretics pyre. Gilles De Rais wakes up from his fiery near death experience in the gutters of Minneapolis and falls under the protection of the D'Arc family once more in the form of Darcy Norris, stunning entrepreneur extraordinaire.

The initial part of the story details a flurry of characters who populate Darcy's romanticised world and focuses on the transplanted knights confusion with the changed world around him. As Darcy slowly begins to realise he is actually a Fifteenth century French knight she also discovers that another new man in her life is also not what he seems and has the power to move her backwards through time to witness a Black Mass the condemned knight may or may not have taken part in.

The action then switches to another world where the knight and Darcy discover they are simply the means to an end for the Alien, who is trying to win the favour of his own Emperor and claim the Emporer's daughter. Further twists ensue but the ending is at least what you might expect from a story involving Knights and Merchant Queens.

I found the amorous nature of Gilles De Rais to be highly entertaining and would expect nothing less from the flower of French chivalry. The other characters are equally well drawn, Raymond De Silva, the Porsche driving Priest, Patron of the Homeless and Time magazine man of the year was another favourite and just one of the many larger than life Minneapolitans populating the book. Unfortunately the early success of these characters overshadows the Alien world, which is suddenly sprung into the narrative and seems confusing in both plot and in the array of the many new faces that are introduced. I found it hard to sympathise with these scheming magical beings and wanted to go back to the medieval intrigues of poisonings, murders and secret dark temples.

The story is nicely paced but did work better when it was dealing with Jeanne D'Arc and her modern descendant. During the conclusion of the story on the Alien world I kept getting confused as to who was who and had to keep flipping back a few pages to find out. That may be a symptom of introducing a whole new cast half way through in a world with few reference points for the reader but one benefit of this attempt is that it was an original piece of writing and not some off the shelf Alien / magical society. The journey into the Alien world does conclude the story well though and provides a suitably magical prop to the expected romance between the two central characters.

Synopsis
The much-acclaimed A Circle of Arcs, which is a unique blend of time travel, actual historical figures and speculative fiction. The sequel to A Circle of Arcs, A Distant Bell is in the works and is anxiously awaited by her readers. Joan of Arc and an alien sorcerer, time travel and a centuries-old mystery, Gilles de Rais on a modern city street, why?