Robert Newcomb

Okay, let's start with the blurb. Huge, devastating war three hundred years ago, following which the leaders of the losing evil side were, um, banished rather than executed, because obviously they'd learned their lesson and were very, very sorry...? Ah, no. (As we find out quite early on, apparently that would be murder, and therefore a Bad Thing. And they couldn't be imprisoned, because to restrain them you'd have to reduce their powers by starving them and they might die, which would, again, be murder. So you cast them adrift -together - two weeks from shore in dangerous waters in a dinky open boat with five days' food, but that's not murder, because they might survive. So that tells us pretty quickly that the 'good' side are spineless hypocrites. Or just not very bright.)

Sorry, where were we? Oh yes, council of wizards more or less in charge. New king shortly, prince with Special Magic Powers due to be crowned. Cue return of 'ancient and unspeakable evil'. But it's all right, apparently there's a prophecy that says the Prince With Special Magic Powers will handle it...

I am now left wondering why, with a back cover so loaded with tired old tripe, I am even in possession of this thing. There's a 3 for 2 sticker on it, so maybe it was the third book that day. I still feel robbed, frankly.

There seems to be a (not very deeply buried) subtext here of 'man with power = Good, woman with power = Evil', which would be annoying enough, but the unspeakable evil of these powerful women seems mainly to involve non-consensual sex, and it's not even particularly imaginative at that. Hell, the Gor books did that better, and that's saying something.

Poorly thought out, poorly plotted, poorly proofed (see Page 18, where the four banishees are described as a blond, a redhead and two brunettes, and then by pages 19 & 20 the leader has grey-streaked black hair and the one standing next to her has jet black hair), overall just... poor.

In case you were wondering, I would not recommend this book.… (mehr)

Blood. People with special blood. Endowed blood. Plot point. Endowed blood. Endowed blood. Endowed blood. Endowed blood. Endowed blood. Similar plot point. Endowed blood. Endowed blood. You get the idea.

It was promising at first, but it started running into the same problems the author's first novel runs into and unfortunately, this novel doesn't overcome them either. The ideas and setting are interesting, the characters have potential. But it gets all too repetitive all too soon, and the author manages to beat the phrase "endowed blood" well into the dead horse stage and beyond. It gets literally painful to read when the same phrase pops up for the 65th time in *one* *single* *chapter*. In the end, I just stopped reading because of this. I wanted to go on, but... Simplistic plot and narrative structure plus "Endowed blood" repeated to nausea - I just couldn't keep reading.… (mehr)