Having rejoined Prince Josua, bearing the great sword Thorn, Simon (now knighted as Sir Seoman Snowlock) must begin to fight in earnest. King Elias has sent an army to destroy the stronghold of Prince Josua's resistance. Only if that army can be defeated will the prince be able to make his claim credible before the realm and attract the support necessary to topple Elias from the throne. Even in defeat, however, the sword Thorn must be kept from the clutches of the Storm King, for in that great sword and its two brothers lies the power to defeat Prince Josua's enemies... or so prophecy seems to say.
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Thu Mar 24 03:01:29 CST 2005
by Matthew.
Comments
The Stone of Farewell suffers from the usual problems of a middle book in a trilogy; the characters are caught midway between their youth and their maturity, the plots of evil seem ascendant, and neither the beginning nor the end are entirely satisfactory. Still, this is by no means a poor example.
Simon's quest to recover the sword Thorn from beneath the Rimmer's tree has succeeded, at the cost of some lives and much trouble. He and his companions must now escort that sword back to Prince Josua, where -- combined with it's brother Minneyar -- they may be able to defeat King Elias. But first, they must rescue Binabik from his own people, who name him oath-breaker.
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Tue Mar 22 19:56:16 CST 2005
by Matthew.
Comments
The fantasy genre is notorious for its cliches. The same elements that make up a compelling tale, as expressed in The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, occur again and again. Fans continue to embrace them tirelessly, because as any fan of the genre knows, it's the details that matter. It's not where you're going, but how you get there, and what happens to you on the way.
Tad William's
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy is a perfect example of that basic principle.
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Tue Mar 22 01:03:23 CST 2005
by Matthew.
Comments
Andre's writing has been an important part of the science fiction and
fantasy genre for many years now. She will be missed.
Fri Mar 18 10:51:12 CST 2005
by Matthew.
Comments
Destroyer is the latest in Cherryh's Foreigner series, the tale of Bren Cameron's tempestuous relationship with the alien atevi. As the paidhi, Bren is the sole human permitted to enter atevi
society, and on his head rests the task of translating not only
language and culture, but also the instinctual behaviors that can seem
deceptively similar ... with sometimes deadly results.
As Destroyer opens, Bren
returns to his adopted planet following the 2-year space mission to
retrieve human colonists from a remote space station. That
mission had been concluded successfully (though not without
difficulty). He is accompanied by his atevi staff, the dowager
Illisidi, and the heir-apparant to atevi society. But the
situation he finds upon his return is not at all what he left.
The government, run by his close atevi associate Tabini, has
collapsed. Tabini himself is missing. The shuttles are no
longer flying, leaving the orbiting station without supplies and
desperately struggling to become self-sufficient. Bren must
confront the possibility that his own mistakes are responsible for the
disaster, and rescue Tabini's Western Association from its dire straits
if he can. For if he fails, the present atevi government will
want nothing to do with him, and the alien kyo are likely close behind, looking for reliable allies against an alien menace that threatens human, atevi, and kyo alike.
Wed Mar 16 06:28:30 CST 2005
by Matthew.
Comments