The Cup of the World by John Dickinson

Phaedra is just 15 when she witnesses the court trial of a woman for witchcraft; she and the other young ladies of the court are not supposed to be there, but they see the proceedings nonetheless. The woman is spared and the young ladies are shooed out of the court. The young ladies are presented to the king by their fathers, officially marking their transition to womanhood. Phaedra then goes home with her father to Trant and the courting begins. For two years Phaedra is courted and refuses the young men of the Kingdom; she does not want to marry, she does not plan to marry.

Since she was a young girl, she has dreamt of a man and the two of them talk and have developed a friendship almost. When Phaedra discovers that her ability to refuse may soon run out, she speaks with the man in her dreams and he tells her to wait at a certain place. The man is real and takes her to his part of the Kingdom, against the wishes of Phaedra’s father, but she is happy and in love.

War breaks out in the Kingdom and Phaedra’s husband is gone for long periods of time, in which Phaedra is left alone in a castle that she is not familiar with. She makes discoveries about magic, about witchcraft, about her husband, her father, the King and herself that startle her, and Phaedra must keep going to understand her world and her place in it.

The Cup of the World is an intelligent, thick read. As most epic fantasies, it takes a little bit of reading to get into, but once the story picks up it does not let the reader go. Dickinson does not give anything away to the reader; much of what occurs the reader must puzzle together herself, and this is a rewarding read. This book is the first in a trilogy and is followed by The Widow and the King and The Fatal Child.