Matthew Hunter

Imagine a hard-bitten mercenary company, the last of the 12 Free Companies of Khatovar, wielding swords, spies, sappers, and seige engines with equal facility in a world where wizards rule the battlefield and the last of the dragons was eaten millenia ago by something even more dangerous. Imagine ten of the most powerful wizards in the world, all bound to serve one even more powerful than they: the Ten Who Were Taken.

Legend says that only three things can destroy the Secret Country: the Border Magic, the Crystal of the Earth, and the Whim of the Dragon. Only the last remains, as the five children are summoned once more to the land of their own make-believe. This time, however, it will be different. For as they fled at the end of The Hidden Land, the note they left behind will reveal them as imposters.

The White Rose is the third book in the Chronicles of the Black Company. The Lady’s victory over her husband the Dominator at Juniper Shadows Linger came with a high price: the loss of the Black Company, long sworn to her service, to follow the White Rose… the prophecied rebel who first imprisoned her and her husband 400 years ago, now reborn to meet the Lady’s renewed threat. All unknowing, the Black Company had sheltered the White Rose herself within their ranks, and when the Taken begin to turn on them, chose survival and personal loyalty over the Lady’s service.

The creative exercise in this book is the cheap and easy creation of human ‘dittos’, copies of one’s mind complete with a body, albiet one that only lasts 24 hours. Once the life of a ditto is nearly over, its creator can inload its memories, effectively allowing people to experience multiple lifespans. Even the poorest people can create at least one ditto a day to earn a wage as an unskilled laborer.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an early attempt to bring foreign films – specifically, the Chinese kung fu fantasy – to an American audience with high production values and more sophisticated plotting than the usual chopsui. It succeeds admirably, and was justly recognized with multiple awards. As a fan of chopsui, I was not disappointed. The kung fu is powerful in this movie. Although much is fast, it is not too fast to follow, and the camerawork does an excellent job of maintaining a smooth visual continuity that showcases even the more complex fighting.

The series follows a human paidhi (a diplomatic specialist in alien cultures) in his career as liason between a colony of humans and the native race of the planet, the Atevi, who are undergoing a dramatically accelerated transition from the beginning of their industrial period to a human-guided space age. Although a certain initial investment is required, the tale rapidly becomes engrossing. The paidhi’s unenviable status as the sole human permitted in close contact with the Atevi, with responsibility for interperting all contact between their cultures, embroils him in labyrinthine politics that threaten his life as well as planetary war.

Arrow’s Fall completes the story of Talia, Queen’s Own Herald of Valdemar. Returning from her internship, Talia’s friends and allies at Court welcome her back with the news that the Queen is considering a betrothal for Elspeth, heir to the throne, at the insistence of her advisors. The betrothal offer came from Ancar of Hardorn, a neighboring kingdom with a history of friendship, if not outright alliance, but something about the situation doesn’t sit right with the Queen – nor with the Queen’s Own.

The second novel in the Tales of the Continuing Time series, The Long Run is a masterpiece of the science fiction genre that is difficult to summarize in a few paragraphs. Moran has done some brilliant technological and political speculation set in the late 21st Century. His characters are very real and alive, and the writing is rich and fast-paced. TLR has the most cohesive plot of the three books in the series so far, and if you’re a new reader, I actually recommend starting with it rather than Emerald Eyes.

The Chanur Saga is a compilation of three books in Cherryh’s Chanur universe. This is the obligatory “catlike semi-humanoid spacefaring alien species” series from Cherryh; for reasons I quail at examining the basic idea is fairly popular and has received several treatments by various authors. This compilation includes an introductory novel and the first two novels of a trilogy, so if you decide to buy it, make sure you buy Chanur’s Homecoming too.

The Hidden Land is the second novel in Pamela Dean’s The Secret Country trilogy. Having accepted the Secret Country as real enough for the moment, the children must rise to meet the challenges they invented in the roles they were so eager to play in safe imagination. Yet they must do so without most of the strength and skills of the characters they are playing. Prince Edward, the eldest of the five, now rules a country on the brink of war with the Dragon King.