Science Fiction / Fantasy Review

Fantasy Books Reviewed

Dance of the Goblins
Neverwhere
Kushiel's Dart
The Key of the Keplian
Legends II:New Short Novels
Witch World
Dragon'seye
A Spell For Chameleon
Windleaf
Ombria in Shadow
Fires of Azeroth
Wells of Shiuan
Freedom's Choice
Freedom's Challenge
Gates of Ivrel

Dance of the Goblins

by Jaq D Hawkins
ISBN: 1-905336-004
International Waters, 49 Wickliffe Road
Norwich NR4 7DU, England
or by fax; 01603 454854 in UK and 44 1603 454882 outside of UK

Jaq D Hawkins has been one of my favourite authors in another genre for many years, so I was eagerly anticipating the release of her first fantasy novel. I was not to be disappointed.

Dance of the Goblins is the most original and imaginative piece of fantasy work I have seen since Marian Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels. It takes you into another world, the world of the goblins, in an enticing manner that makes you want to visit the place in real life and become one of them. To enjoy the spiritual feeling of the Dance, as they do. I can't wait for the conferences that will surely follow the success of the series, and I've heard that a film is in the pipeline.

The story is based in the future rather than the past, but the past flows into the new conditions that have occurred after a cataclysmic planetary pole shift wipes out most of civilisation as we know it. The humans salvage what they can of their world, and the magicians become the ruling class. How this comes about is one of the most amusing parts of the story.

One magician, the respected Count Anton, has befriended the goblins who have lived underground throughout the ages of mankind but remain hidden from human eyes since the old days when humans used to see them as mythological beings of various sorts. The superstitious humans persecuted them until they stopped appearing above ground at all. It is no different in the new world where religion has preserved the mindless superstitions and branded the goblins as demons.

An accidental sighting of one of them begins a chain of events that will lead to a serious conflict and even war between the races for the first time in centuries. As the story unfolds, we get to know the main characters both among the humans and goblins, as they get to know each other. One of the most important of these is a strong female character. Talla is a goblin, but one with a difference. Learning what this is will take us into some of the deeper realms of the goblins, where even the legends fail to depict the layers of goblin society that have formed over the ages of the earth.

If the sequels are anything like the first book, I'm looking forward to this being the next 'must read' series for those who are jaded with LOTR clones and look for a fresh new perspective of the world of fantasy. Even the cover art is a beautiful new approach that laughs in the face of the standard designs you see on big publisher production-line novels. The book comes to a tidy conclusion, and yet leaves much to build on for the continuing series. I'm going to pre-order the second book as soon as the publisher begins taking orders.

Pam Mandeville

Neverwhere

by Neil Gaiman

Richard Mayhew's life changes utterly the day he meets and saves Door. He is on his way to eat dinner at a posh London nightspot with his girlfriend when he spots Door lying on the street. His compassionate nature doesn't allow him to simply walk away. What intrigues him about her is that it seems to him that she wasn't lying on the street a moment earlier. Well, that and the fact that, just before he saw her, he thought he saw a door open in a blank wall. Aiding her lands him into a heap of trouble with Creep and Vandemar, the two goons from London Below who have been chasing after Door. With his life in jeopardy, Richard follows after Door into the heart of London Below. Richard and The Marquis De Carabis watch Door's back while she looks for clues to find out who murdered her family and why. Will she succeed? Can Richard outrun the goons after both him and Door? Who is behind it all? What does this shadowy figure want? Who is the Angel Islington? Is he friend or foe? Can his word be trusted?

This is a beautiful book from beginning to end. It is one of the several books in my personal collection that I automatically reach for and enjoy reading and rereading. The first time I read it, I was blown away. I didn't expect to thoroughly enjoy it. I had picked it up at a bookstore through the auspices of someone at that store recommending it to me because it was in the science fiction category and I was looking for a good book. I am definitely glad I took the recommendation. After reading this book, I will easily read any Gaiman title that comes my way or that i can find on my own.

Raz

Kushiel's Dart

by Jacqueline Carey
(Tor Books, NY July 2001, $25.95, hardcover,
ISBN#: 0-312-87238-0;
mass market paperback, Mar. 2002, $7.99,
ISBN#: 0-7653-4298-7)
http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/index.html
An American art historian, Jacqueline Carey, produces an amazingly fine first fantasy aptly subtitled "a novel of passion, magic and betrayal" in Kushiel's Dart, first volume in a trilogy, set in a meticulously conceived parallel world version of Renaissance Europe in which geopolitical, cultural and religious manifestations are fascinatingly skewed from their analogs in consensus reality. The protagonist/narrator comes from the Mediterranean-like country called Terre d'Ange where the inhabitants believe themselves descended from angels born from the mingling of the tears of the Magdalene weeping over the sacrifice of Yeshua ben Yosef, (a Christ equivalent), with the blood in the earth below him. The great Earth Mother used the ensanguined soil to form Blessed Elua, the most beloved of Angels and 8 followers who embody various aspects of his sacred precept, "Love as Thou Wilt".

The D'Angelines, according to their concepts, descended from these demi-gods, (or so our heroine Phedre informs us), interpret this message quite literally and regard all forms of intimacy as holy acts of worship, including those we would find anathema in our culture.

Phedre, "a whore's unwanted get", at a young age, gets sold into one of the Houses of the Night Court where the highly developed arts of sexual expression serve simultaneously to bring pleasure and to honor the higher powers. Phedre, of pleasing appearance, possesses a distinguishing red pinprick mark in one eye, the eponymous Kushiel's Dart of the rare "anguisette", whose gift is to enjoy all types of sensual stimulation including pain.

When the noble Anafiel Delauney buys Phedre's bond, he treats her like a favored daughter, training her to be literate in several languages and in politics, history, philosophy and the arts of pleasure while also encouraging her to hone her observational and critical abilities to become a valued courtesan and a capable and unobtrusive spy.

Allowed to accept only those clients she chooses, Phedre receives payment in the form of rich gifts and gathers information for Delauney's enigmatic purpose which he declines to divulge although his intrigues seem connected to the Royal Family, regnal succession and revenge motives. Phedre becomes the unwitting victim of Melisande Shahrizai, Delauney's former partner, now rival, a cunning and ruthless antagonist whose intricate Machiavellian machinations include not only Delauney's destruction but also the rule of Terre d'Ange. Unable to stop Delauney's downfall or to resist Melisande, Phedre, betrayed along with her sworn companion/bodyguard, a warrior-priest named Jocelyn, gets sold into slavery among the northern barbarian Viking-like Skaldi. Eventually, Phedre and Jocelyn make a grueling escape and journey back to their homeland to deliver a warning of immanent invasion, the beginning of adventures involving: banned poets; scheming courtiers; deposed royalty; daring sea voyagers; fascinating Albans (analogous to Celts); gypsyesque Tsingani (including a reunion with childhood friend Hyacinthe); unexpectedly heroic traitors; an embattled Queen; and rare but significant manifestations of a supernatural nature.

Reminiscent of masterful works of the imagination by Guy Gavriel Kay or such as Richard Adams' 'Shardik' and 'Maia', Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart maintains a distinct voice in its narrator/heroine who, like all the characters, leading and supporting, possesses deeply dimensional complexity and believable motivations. Phedre, with her perceptive, unsparing gaze and wry wit, records her thrilling adventures and personal growth, (she comes to see her 'gifts' as both a curse and a blessing while never losing her religious zeal). She manages to convey a sense of a rich and varied world full of layers of history, tradition and cultural diversity. Most fascinating and potentially controversial are the descriptions of a wide variety of sexual practices with partners of every gender and persuasion, never gratuitous and always tinged with the sacred potential of every such encounter according to the beliefs of that world.

Kushiel's Dart, despite its length, offers such a riveting yarn of intense emotions, intriguing background details, compelling personalities, provocative blends of Christianity and Paganism and spiritual sensuality that readers will finish it satisfied yet eagerly awaiting the sequels hinted at in the concluding passages. Recommended for a mature, non-judgmental audience, brilliantly presenting its non-standard notions of magic and morality, the epic Kushiel's Dart by turns grandiose and intimate, pierces to the core and resounds long in the memory.

The Key of the Keplian

by Andre Norton and Lynn McKonkie.
Allerie, daughter of the Tashowo people, is only 15 years old when her great-grandfather dies. Rather than be taken in by Social Services who will only send her back to her aunt and uncle, cruel people who despise her for who and what she is, Allerie chooses a different path for her life. The path she chooses to follow is a truly old road, one created long, long ago by The Gone Before Ones. At the end of this path lies a gate into a world of magic where Allerie's gentle skills and almost magical affinity to horses is desperately needed. In this world beyond the gate, she finds a keplian mare and its foal being mistreated. Keplians are beautiful creatures that serve the dark by ensnaring those who choose to ride on their back. It's said that the only good keplian is a dead keplian. Allerie sees light in a creature purported to be of the dark. Going against conventions, she risks much to save this mare and her foal. Thus begins Allerie's strange but fulfilling relationship with Sarna and Hylan. In time, this union will be tested as they must risk all they have and are to stop the shadow of darkness once again ensconced in the Dark Tower on Keplian land from slowly and inexorably creeping across Escore. Will they succeed in defeating the darkness? Or, will they lose all that they have made for themselves in this war between good and evil?
From start to finish, this is a captivating book. The narrator hightens the enjoyment of the audio version's reading. At least, she did for me. If you are into fantasy, then this is a good book to pick up and read. If you like fantasy, you will definitely enjoy this fast-paced and gripping read from cover to cover.
Raz

Legends II:New Short Novels

Editor: Robert Silverberg
An anthology collection featuring eleven stories full of fantasy, Legends II catches and holds one's attention from the very get-go. Authors include Robert Silverberg, George R.R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, Neil Gaiman and Terry Brooks just to name a few of the brood. I enjoyed reading the stories from Anne McCaffrey and Neil Gaiman especially. McCaffrey's is called Beyond Between. Is there something beyond the between that the dragons of Pern are able to reach? If so, what is it? What is it like?
Raz

Witch World

by Andre Norton
With a price on his head, Simon Tregarth is a wanted man being hunted by vicious killers. Agains such odds, he hasn't a chance of success. His only hope for survival lies in trusting an unlikely ally whose price is steep but whose help can pay dividends. Simon gambles all, steps through a gate and enters a world at war where experienced fighting men are rare gifts to be treasured by those fighting for the light against implacable enemies. In such a world, can one man make a difference? In the war between the witches of Escarp and the machine-like Kholder, can one man, an outsider at that, change the course of the battle between the light and the dark?
This is the first book of the Witch World series. I read it a number of years back. I loved it so much that I had to reread it. I am now eagerly trying to get my hands on the rest of the series so I can reread those books I have already enjoyed and enjoy even more of the series. Suffice it to say, this is a great book written by a great author, may she rest in peace. This is a book, a series, for that matter, that I thoroughly enjoy and will read again and again over my lifetime!
Raz

Dragon'seye

by Anne McCaffrey
Every fifty years, a parasitic creature called thread makes its presence to devour all in its wake. The people of the planet Pern deal with the cycles of thread as best they can. In this chronicle, the nineteenth of the Pern series, threadfall is imminent. However, Lord Chalken, the ruler of Bitra Hold, refuses to alert his people or make preparations. The other ruling members, lncluding Weirlord and Dragon Rider Kevin of Hanrahan, must figure out what to do to deal with Chalken. Simultaneously, Debra, a young woman who was summoned to the hatching of new dragons, must overcome her father's wishes to reach the ceremony on time. As time goes on, she meets Iiantine, an artist with a heart of gold and a conviction to immortalize all the dragons and their riders. Will Iiantine and Debra fall in love? Will Debra succeed in becoming a dragon rider? Can Pern successfully fend off another threadfall? How will the ruling council deal with Chalken?
From start to finish, this is a beautiful story. I picked it up at random a while back. I am truly glad that I did. If I didn't know it was the nineteenth in the series, I would think it was a stand alone book. Indeed, despite being part of a series, it gives the impression that it easily could stand apart from the series, stand, that is, alone and on its own two feets and merits. This is one of a slew of books in my personal audio collection that I read and reread again and again. I so thoroughly enjoy the plot, the narration, the pacing of the story, just everything about it!
Raz

A Spell For Chameleon

by Piers Anthony Jacobs

Bink is in a quandary. He is coming to the age where he has to display a talent or leave Xanth, the land of magic that has been his home for all his life. Everyone else around him has some kind of talent that they can display at a moment's notice. Only he seems to have been born talentless. As his last hope, he goes to Good Magician Humphrey to ask for help. Not even Humphrey can determine what his talent is. The old king banishes him even though Humphrey has given Bink a note giving Bink an out. Banished to Mundania, Bink is captured by Evil Magician Trent who has amassed an army to conquer Xanth to restore him to the throne. Bink and a fellow exile from Xanth foil this plot. In the process, they re-enter Xanth along with Trent. The three must work together to avoid the dangers of the wild woods. When the traps of the wildrness are tackled, Bink challenges Trent in a game where only one can win. If Bink is successful, Trent won't ascend to the trhone as he wishes to. If Trent wins, then Bink will be dead. Who will win? Does Bink have a talent? If so, what is it and why can't it be devined? Why was Trent exiled to begin with? Has his exile taught him to value life any more than he did before he left Xanth?

From start to finish, this is a beautiful story. It is the first of a series that I love. The later books in this series are filled with puns, some of which can really drive one crazy at times. However, this first one is just a straight adventure all the way through. I love each and every one of the books in this series that I have thus far read. I plan on continuing to read them until I have read them all.

Raz

Windleaf

by Josepha Sherman

One blustery night during a storm, a powerful lord walks outside and sees a tree struck by lightning. Seconds after the tree is struck by lightning, the lord sees a young woman in dire need of finding shelter. Gallantly, he lends his aid by taking the young woman under his roof. As time goes on, he learns more about this young woman. He comes to fall for her just as she has fallen in love with him. However, there is a dark shadow that hangs over this love. The young woman is, in reality, the princess of a powerful woodland fairy king. By defying him, she incurred his wrath such that he turned her into a tree for her defiance. Now that the spell has been lifted, the king, her father, vows to take her back. The lord similarly vows that he will do all that he can to rescue her from her father's machinations. Doing so means that he has to brave venturing into the woods, a land that he thought he had known so well, only to discover that he doesn't know it at all. In his quest, he is aided by a mysterious power with its own agenda. At the last, the lord must pass a test devised by the fairy king. If he can recognize his love disguised as a tree in a grove of other similar looking trees, then his love will be his. If not, then all is lost. What is the shadowy presence that lends the lord aid? What is its agenda? What did the fairy princess do to anger her father to begin with? Can the lord pass the test? Can he recognize his lady love? Will love truly conquer all?

This is a beautiful book. I read it quite a number of years ago. However, so powerful is it that it remains with me to this day. It's a real short book. I managed to burn through it in a day or two when I read it. At most, it only took me three days to read it. I loved every single minute of the story. If you like fantasy, then this book is one for you to read, assuming, of course, that you haven't already read it, that is.

Raz

Ombria in Shadow

Moments after the elderly king dies, his young concubine is kicked out into the streets. Since the prince is only a child, a powerful dark adept and the prince's grandmother will rule over the land until he comes of age. The prince's half-brother seeks to overthrow this evil. However, he needs help. He gets it from unexpected quarters: the shadowland, a land that he has been drawn to since he could first put pen to paper and draw those things that it seems only he can see. What is the shadowland? Why is it that it seems only he can see things? Will the prince's half brother be able to succeed in triumphing over evil? Or, will darkness reign over the land?

This is a beautiful book from start to finish. It truly captivated me. I had to keep on reading until I reached its end. That's how spellbinding and gripping it truly is. If you love fantasy, this is one to keep an eye out for and read as soon as possible.

Raz

Fires of Azeroth

by C.J. Cherryh.

Another gate, another world. However, this world is different. On this world the ancient Kohler race that created and opened the gates across space and time still live. Not only must Morgaine and Vonya deal with Roe. Now, they must face a threat from a totally new an unexpected quarter. Faced with this new enemy, will old enemies form a brief truce and alliance? If so, will it succeed? Can the gates truly all be closed? How will the Kohler react to the gates being closed? Even as awesome and mighty weapon as it is, can Changeling stand up against the power and technology of a race that could creat gates spanning distance across both space and time?

To the best of my recolletion and knowledge, this is the last in the series. The way this book ends, I suspect there is room for more. However, if more books are in this series, I don't know their names. As with the other two books, I burned through this one rather quickly. Does Vonya fall for Morgaine? I think that this third installment is starting to show him doing just that. It also shows that Morgaine is coming to trust Vonya more than she did in the past. All three books are really great. I blew through the whole series as quickly as I could get my hands on each installment. If you like fantasy akin to LOTR with space and time mixed in, then this is for you.

Raz

Wells of Shiuan

by C.J. Cherryh Mi Vonya ~y Cha and Morgaine have succeeded in closing the space/time gate that leads off of Vonya's homeworld. Now, they are on a new world, one that is bedeviled by rising waters. They have come to this world on their endless quest to close all the space/time gates created and opened by the Kohler race. However, that isn't their only task as they are after an old enemy of Morgaine's. What makes chasing this enemy difficult for Vonya is that it wears the face and body of his beloved cousin, Cha Roe ~y Cha. Morgaine wants this enemy dead and orders Vonya, as her servant, to forget that her enemy was once his cousin. She orders him to kill this thing that inhabits Roe's flesh if he ever gets a chance to. If Vonya gets a chance, will he do as his new mistress commands? Or, will filial loyalty triumph over the commands and orders of one who owns him after saving his life? How will the people of this new world greet Morgaine? If their reception is hostile, why are they so hostile? Do they attribute the water's rising to Morgaine's presence? If so, what makes them do so? Is it a trick employed by Morgaine's wily enemy? If the people fear and hate Morgaine, is it because of her awesome and death-dealing sword Changeling?

This is the second book in what I have taken to calling the Ivrel series. In truth, there is no set name to this group of books. The first in the series, Gates of Ivrel, whetted my appetite for more. This second book fulfilled that appetite. However, in the end, it too left me wanting more. That is to say, both Ivrel and Shiuan are great stories. However, each ends with a journey through another gate to yet another world. What will happen to Vonya and Morgaine on this new world? Is Vonya starting to fall in love with his mistress? If so, will he show his feelings to the woman he has come to view with both awe and revulsion? Why is he so awed by her? Why is he so revolted by her? Could the revulsion have to do with the fact that Morgaine, like her enemy, would do whatever possible to stay alive and youthful even if it means preying on others and taking their bodies? If so, can Vonya reconcile this revulsion with his awe and any other feelings? How will Vonya handle any confrontations with Roe? These and other questions are yet to be answered by the third book in the series.

Raz

Gates of Ivrel

by C.J. Cherryh

Mi Vonya ~y Cha has been cast out of his village. The reason is that he killed one of his half brothers while severly injuring another. One day, he stumbles upon a legend out of his planet's past: the White Lady, Morgaine Prospera ~y Cha. She and her sword of power, Changeling, are traveling across space and time. Morgaine has been charged with a mission to close all of the gates of spacetime that the ancient Kohler race created and opened. She takes Vonya along for the ride. Why? Can the gates be closed? Why is changeling something that Vonya would rather not hold and use? What is its awesome power? Is the fact that it contains such awesome power the reason Vonya doesn't want to hold it?

This is the first book of a great series. I greatly enjoyed reading it when I got my hands on it. I burned through it in several days. It really is a great book.

Raz

Freedom's Choice

by Anne McCaffrey
Narrator: audio dramatization from Brilliance Audio

"I dropped, I stay." This is what Zinell has told his brother when he was called for to come back home for Eeosi duty. Lembeck hates his brother for deserting his post leaving Lembeck to assume the duty, i.e., assimilation and sublimation by an Eeosi brain. Lembeck's last free thought is to revenge himself upon his brother.

While Lembeck is being subsumed, the colonists are slowly spreading out across their new world of Botany. Zinnell, taking advantage of a scout ship's secretly arriving to try and collect him, sets a plan of attack against the Eeosi into motion. It is a bold plan with several phases. It is one that has a good chance of succeeding. Then the Farmers enter into the picture. They are a race of far advanced being who don't believe in any form of species injury. In their own way, they aid the colonists. This aid angers the Eeosi no end.

Is it true that the longest journey begins with the first step? What is the first step for the colonists? Will it succeed or fail? Why do the Farmers believe in no species injury? Why does the Farmers' presence anger the Eeosi? Can Botany use this anger to succeed? If so, how? Against the might of many, does a small planet of colonists stand a chance of winning out in the end?

This is the second book in the Freedom series. It is beautiful. Where the first audio version is read throughout by a female narrator, this book is actually acted out. That is to say, each person mentioned has a different voice recorded by a different actor. This gives the book a unique flavor. I truly enjoy this series. I think I have mentioned this already. OK, so I'm mentioning it again. I can't do that enough.

Raz

Freedom's Challenge

by Anne McCaffrey
Narrators: Brilliance Audio

The first two phases of Botany's plan to rid the universe of Eeosian domination has gone off without a hitch. Now comes the hard part. Zinnell wants to rescue his two sons and bring them to Botany. He also wants to thoroughly eradicate the Eeosi. His wish for eradication isn't just for the 2000 years that his people have served as slaves to the brains. It isn't just for the enslavement of countless races. It isn't just for the destruction of countless planet's cultural frameworks. It isn't for how the Eeosi brain wipe those who they think have scientific information that will benefit the Eeosi somehow. It is for all of these things. However, with the brains being so heavily guarded, taking them out is utter suicide. There's just one chance in a million that it can happen. This chance requires Zinnell risking all that is dear to him - Chris, his sons, Botany, his friends, his very life - in order to accomplish the overthrow of the domination. Will the gamble pay off? It remains to be seen, does it not?

This is book number three of the series. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better after finishing book two, I was proved wrong by this one. Man, is this ever good! It feels like this is the series's end. Everything seems to have been taken care of. However, is that really the case?

Raz