Daughter of the Bright Moon In this novel, Rifkind is the daughter of a clan chief. She had been born during a lightstorm. In this story, Rifkind returns to her father's camp to find the tents burned and everybody dead or missing. She had warned them of a coming attack, but they would not listen to her. Now her father is missing and her brother is dead.I dug up my old copy of this book at my Father's house where it has been moldering in the basement for the last 20 years. Out of curiosity, I brought it back with me to Holland because I had the notion that I remembered it. Funny how *well* I remembered it. As I turned the pages, I could clearly remember what I was reading and had a sense of what was coming next. Rifkind is a loner in a tribe of loners-- outcast from her desert tribe, she turns to her goddess to help her find her destiny. I'm not sure how well it holds up over time (my real review is something more like 3.5 stars) but there was a fair amount to hold an adult's interest, just like there was enough to hold that of a teenager. Some of the aspects feel visionary in light of the fiction that came after this book and others simply fall flat. Worth reading if you can find it. (Amazon)
The Black Flame In sharp contrast to its predecessor, I found the sequel to Daughter of the Bright Moon to be a talky, tedious affair. I should have been tipped off by the unpromising prologue, which shows Rifkind in the undignified act of running weeping from a ballroom when she realizes it is not her destiny to marry Ejord, the studly scion of Chatelgard manor. I beg your pardon? Romance novel histrionics? Is this the Rifkind I've come to know and love?
Fortunately, this claptrap doesn't last long and is merely a plot device to get Rifkind out of the manor. By the first chapter, she's hacking the tentacles off a slimy swamp thing. Having left Chatelgard with Jenny, a former lady-in-waiting to the court, finds herself in the swampy land of Felmargue, inhabited by raft-dwelling folk known as the Quais. The Quais are clannish and nomadic people whose legends tell that the swamp exists as a form of punishment by the gods, who didn't like what a group of magicians were getting up to in their nearby castle. One day, the legends say, the swamps will be destroyed by the Leveller, who will come when the gods decide the Quais have been punished enough, and the land will return to dry habitability. Rifkind's business in Felmargue is personal. Somewhere in this humid, slimy land is the Hold, an enclosure housing the Descendant, who guards the Well of Knowledge. Here is located a magical substance called the Black Flame, with which Rifkind has been told she can replace the ruby pendant lost in the first novel, and enhance her ability to channel the powers of the Bright Moon. To put it simply: the book is too cool to dismiss, but too lumbering to enjoy. . (SFReview)
The Guardians There's a witch on Riverside Drive...
Lise Brown was thrilled with her new apartment; it was more than anyone fresh from the Midwest had a right to expect in Manhattan. She loved it for the river view and the high old ceilings, but even more for the unexpected way she felt instantly at home there - as if the place had been waiting for her.
She could not know that apartment 647 contained a rift into another world, a frightening world of malevolent spirits kept contained only by the rituals of the previous tenant. She can feel the evil on the other side of the rift, growing stronger, feeding on her fear, waiting for the moment when it will be powerful enough to break through into a helpless world. To stop it, Lise must learn what it means to be a witch...Though I haven't read this book in ages, it was one of the first urban magic fantasy dramas I had ever read, and I was surprised to see it unlisted and with no pictures. So I'm adding a picture and the back of the book text below. It was a good book, at least I remember enjoying it. And seeing how popular this genre is now, perhaps people may be interested. (Amazon)
Unicorn and Dragon I stumbled across this novel recently and found an interesting historical fantasy. The setting is England in 1065 as the Saxon and Norman tensions are escalating. The focus is on a Saxon family stronghold and the events that occur as war inches closer to their home and old way of life. While the book has all of the raw details of such a rough age such as bloody fighting and the rowdy drinking of warroirs, the story is tamed and made interesting in that the women of the house are the main characters. The two daughters, Alison and Wildecent, and their aunt, Lady Ygurna, are the ones who truly run the place and keep the men in order. One reads of their story as their lives are changed by the shifting politics of the country. This occurs quite suddenly when a young Norman, Stephen, is brought wounded into their home. Both girls discover what intrigue and love mean as the result of his presense. While the characters try to occupy the modern world of politics and Christianity, one soon realizes that an ancient Celtic magic is practiced secretly by the women. This magic is hinted at throughout the book, but is shown fully as everything climaxes at the end. Lynn Abbey has created a very realistic world in this novel. One gets a good picture of Saxon life during this period. The characters are personal and believable. I think that this is a good read for anyone interested in this period where England hovered on the brink of a new era. (Amazon)
Conquest The fate of eleventh-century England depends on two sisters--the compulsive Alison and the White Raven. Good stuff. (Amazon)crafty Wildecent--as the dark forces of the outside world invade Malfwynder Manor. Great follow up to a strong first volume. The only negative is she leaves you wanting for the third volume that never got written. the characters are well fleshed out and interesting. In the vein of Diane Paxon's
The Wooden Sword Trapped in stasis for twenty years in the bark of the oldest tree in the ancient forest of Walensor, Dart is finally released by the trees, given three magic gifts, and sent on a mission to save his world. This would merely be a throwaway setup for the second book in a fantasy series if it weren't for the absorbing characters who are developed. Berika ought to be a stock peasant with a calling, but somehow she rises above simple explanations by the tragedies that shape her fate. Her need to escape from her limitations is not just theoretical, but a life-and-death struggle. Similarly, Dart is not just the handsome savior prince with a mission, but a confused man without a past and imperative drives he cannot understand. Both figures are compelling in their all-too-human failings and conflicts. This purchase may commit readers to following a series, but it has virtues that make it a standout in the genre.
Beneath the Web As the Walensor Web, a magical artifact that joins together the souls of gods and humans, begins to die, only Berika, a young shepherdess with untried magical powers, can stop the destruction of her world. In the world patiently crafted Lyn Abbey lets her characters lose to solve the mystery of 'Dart' and wether he is man, demon, fetch, or who knows what. Berika the sheperdess came off relatively poorly in the first book, still gaining her feet. As she finds her power that changes. The obsessive reader of science fiction for some thirty five years, I rarely find a book who's ending I can't guess, but Lyn Abbey makes the whole thing a unique experience with her depth of detail and characterization. I only wish I could say of her that 'she doesn't know when to end a series', as two books seems to be her limit. A pity, because the rich worlds she carves out have the potential for much more. These two books are worth finding. (Amazon)
Out of Time Emma Merrigan, long-time librarian at a Midwest University cherishes her quiet, comfortable life as a librarian for a large, Midwestern university. The last thing she wants or needs is a Capital-D Destiny, especially one that's rooted in the nightmares she's endured since childhood. But her efforts to deny that destiny take her to the brink of disaster and an unimaginable reunion with the one person who can teach her what she'll need to know to survive. Lynn Abbey is a well-established fantasy novelist best known for some pretty gritty fair -- Thieves World, Forgotten Realms, Magic, and the like. This is a book much closer to her -- a middle-aged, unassuming, well-educated woman from Ann Arbor, Michigan who just happens to travel through time fixing things. Her figure isn't perfect, her breasts aren't perky, she doesn't look fabulous in a leather bikini. Instead, she has a job, a house, civic commitments, dysfunctional family issues -- oh, and this whole time traveling thing. This is fantasy that I can relate to. (Amazon)
Taking Time It wasn't easy, but Emma Merrigan,librarian and curse-hunter, has finally gotten her life in order. Her mother's disappeared again, to Emma's great relief. Her stepfather's behaving himself. Her hair's back to its youthful color and, thanks to her nightly rounds in the Wasteland, she no longer has to worry about that mid-life "spread." A more paranoid woman might have gotten suspicious, but Emma isn't paranoid, at least not until she starts attracting attention from curse hunters as well as curses.
Down Time Even a Curse Hunter needs a vacation once in a while. And what could be better than the Caribbean cruise Emma Merrigan's mother suggests? Emma could write a list, but in a weak moment, she agrees to a week of much-delayed mother-daughter bonding. How bad could it be when no sensible curse-hunter would ply her trade from the decks of a moving ship? She learns the answer to that question the hard way after a stranger leaps to his death in moonlit water and a ghostly child begins stalking her through the tropical heat. Aninteresting urban fantasy featuring a heroine who is smart enough to know she doesn't have all the answers and is savvy enough to listen to people who have more of them. The wastelands are an interesting place, a barren dimension with a magnetic sky where curses and rogues abound. Emma is obsessed with destroying as many as she can to make the world a better place. Lynn Abbey is a spectacular urban fantasist. (Amazon)
Siege of Shadows Aristocratic twin siblings--Kyle, a young Hart-lord, and his sister Kiera, haunted by a dream of Rapture--set out to solve the mystery of the Siege of Shadows, a golden throne rumored to hide the mystery of life.
Jerlayne Jerlayne, the youngest child of Elfin heroine Elmeene, ventures through the Veil that separates the worlds of Faerie and humans in order to unlock mysterious secrets that date back to the very origins of Faerie and that now once again threaten the realm. This is one of those odd books that is remarkably hard to categorize, even though it does fit quite neatly into the fantasy section of any bookstore. You see here we have a book about Elves, who live in faire, and the women can all "shape" things (such as fabric flowers out a piece of a thread, or pain into flesh, or healing) while the men forage for any supplies needed-in the mortal world. These elves don't really do anything but farm (or their servants, the gnomes, dwarfs, and so on farm), so they need almost everything from the mortal side of the "veil." Meanwhile the elves have tons of children, since they're immortal, and most of these kids turn into gnomes or dwarfs or some other kind of fairy creature, occasionally even a dragon. There are also ogres about, and to be protected from these beasts, goblins make bargains to protect the homesteads of each elf couple (yup, just like in the Wild West) in exchange for iron chains which the women shape as their induction into adulthood. But this land is full of secrets, upon secrets, upon secrets. Mostly about why all of the children that our heroine has keeps turning into something else when she so desperately wants them to be elves. And there's some kind of goblin conspiracy, a whole lot of weird religion stuff (and I do mean weird) and some fairly odd interactions with the mortal world. All in all this isn't a bad book, it's just strange. (Amazon)
Sanctuary Long before the gritty, realistic and, perhaps, perverse protagonists written by GRR Martin, Robert Jordan, Greg Keyes and R. Scott Baker, Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey's world was populated with heroes but predominantly rogues in the "cess pit of the Empire", the city of Sanctuary. For those overdosed on the stock characters promulgated by, predominantly, the success of Tolkien, the denizens of Sanctuary were all too human (even if not completely human, themselves) in their desires and pursuit of self interest. In contrast to the popular and prevalent high-medieval settings of the day, Thieves' World was, at latest, analogous to the late pre-Christian Roman Empire. Sadly, the series stopped rolling out installments in the mid-1990's.
In Sanctuary, the novel by Abbey from 2005, we return to the mean streets of an even more ravaged city for a much needed update. The cult of the mother goddess, Dyreela, has been expelled and, seemingly, eradicated, allowing the denizens of Sanctuary a tentative breath of relief. Molin Torchholder, former high priest and architect of Vashanka (god of war and storms), discovers a vengeful remnant of the cult, however, and scrambles furiously to complete certain plans and set others into motion in order to protect the city he detests with a passion. Caught up in his plans are Cauvin, formerly a novice of the bloodiest of Dyreela's splinter cults and rescued from death by Molin 15 years before, and Bec, his brother through Cauvin's adoptive family. Cauvin is essentially trained as a thug, and puts his former training to use breaking ruined mansions up for stone to sell through his adoptive father, while Bec is the sheltered child fascinated by his brother's more visceral abilities while remaining confident in his own abilities as a scholar. As Molin, Cauvin and Bec wind their way through the story, we catch up with the stories of those characters prevalent in the previous five anthologies of the series, some of whose ultimate fates proved a bit anticlimactic. Unlike previous Thieves' World installments, this story is concluded within the pages of one volume, and is written solely by the one author (Abbey). As a result, it's also a frenetic page-turner, my having read all of the approximately 500 pages in a day. The level of action, detail and sheer genius of the writing is akin to the best of that of the previous various anthologies. (Amazon)
Catwoman When the crime lords of Gotham City declare war on both the human and feline population, Batman and Catwoman unite to combat this deadly menace.
The Simbul's Gift The Simbul, Storm-queen of Aglarond, is unhappy. Though she has triumphed over her enemies, she lacks an heir to the throne—a child to love and nurture. But now she's found the perfect father for her child: Elminster, the old mage of Shadowdale. All she has to do is win his consent. (Amazon)
The Nether Scroll is set in the south-western reaches of the Anarauch desert where the Zhentarim reign supreme. The book describes the story of an unlikely group of adventurers consisting of a human female fighter, a human male wizard (who happens to be her ex-), a human male thief (who is her adopted son), and a goblin (who works for a mysterious lady-of-the-forest and who happens to be holding the female's husband, the wizard's best friend, and the thief's step-father) as they venture into an abandoned by the Netherese mine complex in search of an ancient scroll. The Nether Scroll is the last in a series of four novels (known as the Lost Empires series and which includes The Lost Library of Cormanthyr, Faces of Deception, and Star of Cursrah) that deal with the secrets of four of Toril's long lost ancient civilizations. The book starts off with a bang and then it's downhill all the way to the end...
Wolfsong From the authors of Elfquest and the creators of Thieves' World, this second volume is set in the Elfquest world--a time when the Wolves and the Wolf-Riders were forming their deep emotional bonds and learning how to live on the World of Two Moons.
The Brazen Gambit The best of the Dark Sun books to be published, though not the best of Abbey's own work. Possibly because of TSR guidelines, but who really knows? The book is still enjoyable, and with the exception of Abbey's sequals (of which The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King is the best, surpassing even this) the only Dark Sun book that captures the world it was set in. The book features Pavek as its hero, and while a jaded, depressed, lost templar, he is a likable hero--a stark change from the farm boys who will be king, blah, blah, blah... You understand. And he has his good sides and bad, which is another change for books shot out of the cannon by TSR. I won't go into details of the plot, since most are simplistic enough as they are, but I read the whole thing in one sitting: which says that I didn't want to put it down and turn on the TV instead. The style is Abbey's own, the characters are working well, and the dialogue is crisp--all a plus, and all making it a good read. And Hamanu is excellent. He alone is worth the price of admission (which is why Rise and Fall of a Dragon King is better). So, verdict: a pleasent book, with a good style, and likable characters that are not farm boys who will be kings and other such useless trash. I read it and I liked it.
Cinnabar Shadows Escaping a life of slavery by hiding beneath the city among other outcasts, Maribe of the "New Race" is forced to accept a contract from King Hamanu to search for the alchemist Kakaim, whose views threaten the stability of Urik.
Forge of Virtue Lord Ironhawk's son, Jordan Hawson; Althea; Drum, the blacksmith; and Jordan's kid brother, Squirt, search for Balthan, Althea's magician brother, the only one to know the truth about the evil infesting the land of Britannia. This is a spinoff of the long-running ULTIMA series of computer games. Unfortunately, it doesn't tie close enough with Ultima mythology to please fans, while at the same time not explaining things well enough for newcomers.
Temper of Wisdom A plucky band of adventurers returns to Britannia to find that it has been overtaken by a dark and evil force.
Planeswalker As the follow-up to The Brothers' War (Magic: The Gathering: Artifacts Cycle), PLANESWALKER disappoints. Where the previous book was full of action and intrigue, this tedious book is contains lots of philosophy and a gradual build-up towards a climax that ends just a few pages after it begins. Additionally, the writing style of Abbey doesn't hold a match next to Jeff Grubb. Dialogue between characters who don't seem to know each other even after about three thousand years of constant companionship annoys, and dull action scenes fail to excite. All the being said, this book is worth reading. Find out what happened to Urza after he unleashed devastation at the end of THE BROTHERS' WAR, and follow characters as they travel through the Multiverse and visit bizarre but somewhat familiar realms, including Serra and Phyrexia. Also, the characters are actually quite unique and intriguing. Xantcha in particular (who is really the main character) presents a very complicated character that you'll wish you could appreciate more. The interplay between her and Ratepe is very emotionally satisfying and thought-provoking. Even the two-fold way in which the story is presented, from Xantcha's reminiscing of the past and of her adventures in the present was a good idea, just not pulled off all that well. Bottom line, this book was a disappointment, but I'm not too upset that I spent a couple of days reading it. I'll continue with the series, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone.(Amazon)
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