Matthew Hunter

Oscar arrived in Thatchem by ravenback, still looking frazzled. His robes were scorched and burnt, but he had acquired a book of magic that seemed valuable to the mages in the tower of the leaning goose. He asked me to take his raven back to Highfell and help the others bring back more. With my promise to return Verminbane to Forrest fulfilled, it seemed a reasonable way to spend my time.

We set off for the correct tower bright and early in the morning. The ravens flew us south, following the edge of the floating island, and we saw many towers around the edges. There were even ruined fortifications connecting some of the towers. We saw a tower made of sandstone, two more with a strange dome and a peaked roof. About a quarter of the way down, we came to a river, flowing off the edge of the island and disappearing into mist.

We crossed the pit, finding a T intersection with two more doors. Between us, we listened to them all. We heard voices behind one; someone was chanting. Stria opened the one next to it, just a crack, and closed it quickly. She whispered that there were more Vol cultists there, discussing how to get past some monster obstacle. Behind the third door, yet more dragon cultists. There were no obvious valuables or reasons to reveal our presence, so we left.

A Knight of the Word is the second book in Terry Brooks’ loose trilogy The Word and the Void. This book focuses on John Ross and his crisis of faith, with Nest (from Running with the Demon) trying to save him from himself. In my description of the first book in this series, I felt it was important to note that it wasn’t one of Brooks’ Shannara titles. The same applies here, but there’s also some stylistic differences from the first book in the trilogy as well.

A Talent for War is McDevitt’s latest novel, this one beginning a new series. The main character, a dealer in antiquities, is bequeathed a large inheritance when his uncle, an amateur archeologist, passes away. Along with the inheritance comes a lead on a discovery of great significance. The trail leads straight to the legend of Christopher Sim, a legendary commander whose guerilla tactics bought time to unify the planetary Confederation into a single force to oppose encroaching aliens.

I’m re-reading Katherine Kerr’s A Time of Exile for a somewhat unusual reason. I’ve read the whole series before once or twice, at least up to the most recently published book, but on my last reread someone else had my copy of this book. Since I had read it before, I skipped it and picked up with A Time of Omens. When my copy of Exile returned, I figured I might as well reread it, even though I had finished the original reread quite some time before.

The final installment of the Catechist trilogy isn’t much different from the previous volumes, other than a few twists at the end. Etjole, Simna, Hunkapa, and Alitah cross an ocean and a salt plain, do battle with a townful of demons and a forestful of undead, and make an agonizingly easy entrance into Hymneth the Possessed’s stronghold. Aside from not having read the Evil Overlord List, Hymneth actually does have some character depth, though this is not really explored.

Absolution Gap is the fourth and final book in a series; as such, I will write about my impressions of the entire series as well as the final book specifically. The series also includes Revelation Space, and Chasm City. Overall, the author has a fresh voice, an innovative concept of the future, and interesting stories to tell. The plot twists through some very surprising (and sometimes, too surprising) turns. While I enjoyed the journey into the mind and vision of the author, some aspects of the books did not turn out well.

In his Tales of the Otori series, Lian Hearn presents a vision of Japan passed through a lens of subtle distortion. The main character, Tomasu/Takeo, has ties to three factions: the noble clan Otori, whose head rescued him from the destruction of his village; the persecuted religious cult of the Hidden, who believe in a deity that holds all men equal, and who raised him; and the Tribe, a faction of secretive assassins and magicians, from whom his father came.

There’s not much to say about Adapt and Overcome (The Maxwell Saga), the third book in Peter David’s series about a young man who joins the space navy and comes of age amongst a series of increasingly improbable coincidences. It’s fast, reasonably fun, and the infinite improbability drive is set to just a notch below winning the lottery without buying a ticket. The author’s complete failure to grasp his readers’ comments about his main character’s plot invincibility in prior books is a charming mirror of his main character’s casual stroll through explosions, firefights and love affairs that never seem to leave a scratch on him.