ISBN: 0-312-87740-4 Order from: Amazon.com
An colorful and amusing world, with a slew of interesting characters and a well-paced plot make this an enjoyable fantasy of war, politics and magic, but frequent view-hopping and intrusive humor moderate the reading pleasure.
Reviewed by David on March 15, 2003
Genre: Fantasy (War, Politics)
Synopsis: In a world full of sorcery and political struggles, a shrewd empire-builder, Warsovran, recovers an ancient artifact of enormous power. Called Silverdeath by the ancients who buried it deep underground, the artifact is a superb weapon, unstoppable by any modern magic.
As the Emperor Wasovran demolishes his enemies, a small group of people race to stop Silverdeath before it destroys the world.
Full Review: The world portrayed in this complex but fast-moving novel is colorful and exciting. The pseudo-religious orders, the sorcerers and the politicians are all three-dimensional and periodically show unexpected sides. There are moments of high suspense and moments of poignancy throughout the book. The main characters, including the vampire Laron, are sympathetic and intelligent.
The book suffers from two main flaws. There are frequent viewpoint changes, making the narrative more difficult to follow.
In addition, there are a number of jokes which clearly require the reader's knowledge to appreciate. They are too obvious to be in-jokes, and the humor, which is not appropriate to the characters, frays the suspension of disbelief.
Impressively, in spite of these flaws, the book is still enjoyable, and after each disruption, the narrative and the characters still manage to pull the reader's attention to the plot.
This is an enjoyable and exciting novel, which unfortunately misses being a superb one.
Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 6; Style: 5.5; World-building: 7; Originality: 6;
Copyright date 2002, Tom Doherty Associates (Tor), October 2002, Cloth, 496 pages
ISBN: 0-312-87740-4 Order from: Amazon.com