mte@busch.UUCP (Moshe Eliovson) (07/31/85)
Excellent reading recommended to those readers of fantasy
who like a smooth novel opposed to the Leiber/de Camp hack and slash
humor stories.
This book is the sequel to The Doomfarers of Coramonde which
I reviewed earlier this summer. It was nice to find that the second
effort by Daley was better than his first, which was good too.
This book has the stuff that every writer could turn green
over in jealously. Daley has cleverly incorporated major ingredient
themes of fantasy into his on world/dimension. We have:
1) Every type of hero, well described with a
characterization that is easily assimilated
2) Artifacts: which include a sword like Stormbringer,
a staff, much like Donaldson's Staff of Law (and
suspiciously arising from the "Lifetree"), items
that call on the user's lifeforce (like the staff
in the Dilvish the Damned novel), and more if you
look.
3) We've got the geography (map not included though).
4) Wars between demons & deities with malign sorcerers
battling wizards on the "right" side (sorry, no pun
intended).
5) There are a few enhancements to fantasy here too.
I define a fantasy "enhancement" as a writer's
contribution to a topic of fantasy which does not
contradict previous writer's and adds a new facet
of approach and viewpoint to the subject in question.
6) Armies and battles galore.
That's all I'm going to say; the book is very worthwhile but you've
got to trudge through it's predecessor first.
I have also just finished the Black Company by Glen Cook, and
since I've missed the previous discussion I won't be redundant and review
it, but, I will recommend it- it is very enjoyable reading.
Moshe Eliovson
{allegra, ihnp4}!we53!busch!mte