Renloret is a pilot who prefers to spend his spare time in the library rather than in meetings. He's got to work today though; a strategy meeting is called to discuss another planet where the populace is intermittently at war. The inhabitants don't like the idea of other races from space, and earlier emissaries may be in hiding somewhere on the surface. THE BLOOD: THE STONE'S BLADE follows a rescue mission. There's a catch. The person they most need to find is a five-year-old girl whose blood may be able to save her race from a virulent disease.

With mystical stones which transmit visions to chosen people, this story hovers on the edge of fantasy. But just because we can't explain how something works, that doesn't make it magic. Ani is a young woman on the planet which is the rescue party's destination; she is summoned by a telepathic dog friend Kela to the site of a plane crash. Renloret alone is the person she manages to save. Just a pilot, he doesn't even know all the details of the people he needs to find. Ani is a blade instructor and keeps her wits about her, hiding the scene of the crash in case those people who fear aliens should want to cause harm. For all she knows Renloret, who appears just like herself, is from the continent opposing hers. However the crash has been noted by others, including the police and army. How long can she keep him hidden? And has the rescue mission ended, in the wreckage of the spaceship?

The engaging story reminds me of Anne McCaffrey's interplanetary books. I like the telepathic dog, and the traveller's efforts to appear a native. A chapter about a social event slows the story, but it shows us that well- liked Ani has been keeping her own company since the death of her parents a year previously. The local lawman Taryn has an unrequited crush on her, and amusingly so does the approaching general Dalkey, who has become something of a stalker. I enjoyed fine details like the visual of the moon with rings in the night sky. There's more conversation than drama.

While this story contains a romance, it is understated and suitable for young adult readers. Allynn Riggs is writing a sequel to THE BLOOD: THE STONE'S BLADE, which may answer some unresolved questions. Crystals, swords and a potential cure are a heady mix in this space fantasy.