In
a black city on the edge of a red jungle a slave named
Tong yearns to be free, and one day gets his chance. Racing
into the jungle with his enemies in hot pursuit he is
soon overwhelmed, but he is rescued by strange, eyeless
horned creatures. They take him to their
underground home and nurse him back to health, and thus
is set in motion a revolution that is going to have
consequences for the rest of the world….
I
was thrilled to read the second exciting installment
of this series as I have always enjoyed the sword and
sorcery style of fantasy. This is a fast
paced and entertaining tale that not only gives the
modern reader all the world building, court intrigue
and violence more current styles contain, but more besides. There
is a lushness to the descriptions of the exotic cultures
and a feeling that the author had a lot of fun creating
his world that makes it a joy to discover. What
this book lacks – fortunately – is the middle
book syndrome, as although we are learning more about
the people in the first book there are new characters
and fresh developments galore. At no times
does the story take a break or indulge in too much introspection
or “info dump”, it is action, action, action
all the way. I said that the first book was
not original, but in many ways this one is. Mr
Fultz seems to have Edgar Rice Burrough’s Mars
books as inspiration rather than Tolkein as well as
a feel of ancient epics like Gilgamesh. If
you think that this is yet another D&D style trilogy
then dive in and think again. There truly is something
for most fantasy readers in here and more besides.
Very highly recommended.
Other
Titles in this Series
Seven
Princes #1 [BOOK]
[AUDIO]
Seven Kings, #2 [BOOK]
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