duane@anasazi.UUCP (Duane Morse) (01/28/86)
The jacket reads: "A millennium ago magicians fought a war, and smashed the world into a thousand pieces. In partial expiation these same sorcerers cast spells to set the fragments to floating about each other in the Abyss, to inform them with a proper gravity, and to supply them and the space that separates them with an atmosphere that men and beasts may breathe. But that was long ago; in a thousand years even sorcerers grow old, and so do their spells. Now the doom that was forstalled is at hand. Already pieces of the Shattered World begin to collide. Soon all will meet, and coalesce, and melt into molten Chaos." The summary on the jacket is perfect for setting the stage for the story; as a matter of fact, without it you'd be rather confused for a fair amount of the book. The "world" is an interesting one, and magic is used quite a lot. There are many important characters: a sorcerer and his lover, the lover's husband, a thief, another sorcerer, and a warrior. The author tries to make each of these characters come alive for the reader, but he's only partially successful. The subplots involve only one or two characters at a time, and the action frequently focuses on one subplot for many pages. As a result you never develop much empathy with any of the characters. The author populates the Land with a number of magical creatures whose names you probably won't recognize. I had met "Chthon" before, but that put me on my guard. It wasn't long before demogorgons and cacodemons appeared. That part of the writing was overdone for my taste. I give this book 2.5 stars (good). There are enough novel ideas for 3.5 stars, but the lack of focus on a central character or two and the overuse of archaic terminology seriously reduced my enjoyment. -- Duane Morse ...!noao!terak|anasazi!duane (602) 870-3330