|
Publisher:
Eos (HarperCollins) |
Release
Date: August 2003 |
ISBN:
0-06-105178-0 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Hardcover |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fantasy |
Reviewed:
2003 |
Reviewer:
Jo Rogers |
Reviewer
Notes: Violence |
|
Journey
into the Void
The
Sovereign Stone Trilogy, No. 3
By Margaret
Weis and Tracy Hickman
In the
first volume of The Sovereign Stone Trilogy, Well of Darkness,
King Tamros received the Sovereign Stone from the gods. He split
it into four parts, one for each of the four races: human, elf,
dwarf and ork. His youngest son, Dagnarus, fought his older brother
for the crown of the kingdom of Vinnengael. He wanted the Sovereign
Stone as much or more than he wanted the throne. His quest ended
in disaster with the destruction of the Vinnengael and the loss
of the Stone.
Guardians
of the Lost, the second volume, begins two hundred years later.
Dagnarus has extended his life by using the Dagger of the Vrykyl
to steal the souls of others. He is now Lord of the Void and has
gathered the alien army of beast-like creatures, the taan, to conquer
New Vinnengael and steal all four parts of the Sovereign Stone.
Now,
in Journey into the Void, the Dominion Lords must keep
Dagnarus from his goals by carrying the four parts of the Stone
away, where Dagnarus can’t find them. They must also find
a way to drive him and his taan from New Vinnengael. In this they
fail, for the king and his son have been murdered, and the boy king’s
body is now inhabited by a Vrykyl. The child urges the people to
make Dagnarus king in return for saving the city from the taan.
Dagnarus allows them to slaughter five thousand of his taan, including
slaves and children. Can he ever be stopped?
The
cultures of taan, elf, dwarf and ork is richly detailed. This gives
the book an air of reality that compels the reader to continue.
The plot twists certainly do nothing to dissuade the reader from
barreling along with the characters toward salvation or disaster.
Though this is a classic “good versus evil” tale, the
outcome remains in doubt until the end.
|