duane@anasazi.UUCP (Duane Morse) (10/22/85)
The jacket reads: "The son of Mavin Manyshaped is back. Let the Players of the True Game beware. A giant stalks the mountains. The Shadowpeople gather by the light of the moon. The Bonedancers raise up armies of the dead. And the Wizard's Eleven sleep, trapped in their dreams. Players, take your places. The Final Game begins." This is the third book of the "True Game" series, the other two being KING'S BLOOD FOUR (which I reviewed last time) and NECROMANCER NINE. The world in these books is full of people with talents, and there are hundreds and hundreds of talents recognized. The story is told by Peter, a shapechanger, who is 17 (he was 15 in the first book). Peter possesses a set of gamepieces, each player of which contains the persona of a very old Talent. He is one of a small number of Gameplayers who has learned a sense of justice, and he is opposed by Huld, a Demon, who has designs on making himself a world power. Peter's association with the game pieces and his opposition to Huld is brought to a conclusion in the book, and we learn quite a bit more about how Peter's world is related to our own. All three of the books are very well crafted. The stories unfold in a pleasing, comfortable manner, and the world is believable, not one that was hastily put together so that the characters would have someplace to act. Peter is a likeable character: he is good-natured, but he has his foibles too. Further, he acts "in character". I found myself quite interested in what's going on, but I seldom had the "I can't put the book down" feeling I get when a story is really gripping. That's not necessarily a shortcoming, of course. I would classify the book as serious fantasy; by this I mean that the characters have powers that one typically finds in fantasy novels, but that (1) there is a pattern to the talents, and (2) there's a connection between this "fantasy" world and our own mundane world, and this link is one of the underlying themes of the series. I give this book and the series 3.0 stars (very good). -- Duane Morse ...!noao!terak!anasazi!duane (602) 870-3330