Tracy Hickman Presents: The Anvil of Time is a new DragonLance trilogy. Book one is The Sellsword, by Cam Banks.

The prologue of the story introduces us to the mysterious Journeyman. He is tasked with using the Anvil of Time to watch history but not to interfere. Our tale then begins 71 years earlier. The War of the Lance has ended but all is not roses in the land of Nordmaar. Highmaster Rivven Cairn, disciple of Emperor Ariakas himself, and her Red Wing of the dragonarmies still rule these lands.

Our central character is Vanderjack. We know he’s the central character because he is mentioned in the first sentence of every chapter of the novel except two. I don’t say that as a criticism. It was obviously done intentionally. Vanderjack is a sellsword. He’s The Sellsword. At the beginning of the story he’s low on coin and seemingly cursed with a haunted sword, the magical Lifecleaver given to him by his mother.

But circumstances find Vanderjack. He’s a man of action and he’s always in the middle of things. Thus, it became something of a matter of intrigue to see what he was going to be in the middle of at the start of a chapter. It wasn’t uncommon for Vanderjack to be surrounded. When he DIDN’T lead off the chapter, that break in the pattern was significant as well.

The Sellsword finds himself in the employ of a noble who wants him to recover something of great value to him. Vanderjack’s plans begin to go awry when he has to take the Baron’s assistant with him. Things become more complicated when they are joined by the gnome warrior and inventor (like all gnomes are) Theodenes, a former adventuring companion of Vanderjack’s. Things went sour the last time they saw each other though, and Theodenes had a score to settle.

After Vanderjack, Gredchen the Baron’s assistant, and Theodenes set off, things got more and more complicated as the group came under attack in their travels, and made enemies. When one makes an enemy of a dragon Highlord, things become more complicated indeed. Vanderjack also learned that the job he was doing wasn’t exactly what he’d thought. However, the need to settle some scores, some old and some new, continued to drive The Sellsword, as his assignment become more than just doing the work and collecting the money.

Through it all, Vanderjack was a sarcastic, trash talking “action hero”, who had a one-liner for every occasion. The dialogue was not classic fantasy. It featured back and forth banter between adventuring companions, between heroes and villains, and between villains. That term is rapid-fire dialogue and I enjoyed it here. Personally it reminded me of the way our characters interacted in my years of playing D&D, rather than the more formal and stylish manner of speaking from The Lord of the Rings.

I could easily imagine Vanderjack saying “Yipee-Ki-Ay Mu…” ahem…you know the rest, Bruce Willis style as he cleaves into a draconian with Lifecleaver. I ate it up, I admit. I loved Vanderjack. He is a very different type character than what I’m used to reading in DragonLance. He’s a man of questionable morality, as much interested in profit as anything else. However, in the spirit of DragonLance, some people are destined for greater things. Sometimes they just need a nudge in the right direction. While this was a bit of a grittier DragonLance, it didn’t turn the principles of the franchise on their ear.

At first I wondered how interesting a gnome character could be. But I liked Theo. His character worked very well with Vanderjack. I did wonder at times exactly why the gnome would travel with his old sellsword companion given how badly their last encounter ended. Don’t think Cam Banks left a plot hole in there. He left some mystery and intrigue in the story, and held some cards up his sleeve until the very end.

Our interesting heroes also had interesting villains to play off of, the determined Highlord and the devious Dark Robed Mage. No, not THAT Dark Robed Mage, but another one.

It appears that book two of the series is not going to focus on Vanderjack. That’s unfortunate, but never say never I suppose. There is a thread that links the books though. That would be the Journeyman. We got a little bit of a flavor of him in book one. Enough to be intriguing. I expect that we’ll learn even more as other authors pick up the series

I will admit that I had some doubts coming into this book. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ARE DragonLance. Every one of their books that I’ve read have been gold. Once other authors began writing books in the series, they definitely became hit or miss.

Cam Banks definitely hit with The Sellsword however. I learned that Banks has been a managing editor with Margaret Weis Productions. So in a manner of speaking The Sellsword was kept “in the family”. That’s a good thing.

The plot was fast paced and action packed. However it wasn’t a one-dimensional creampuff either. Maybe not as deep and layered (yet?) as the original DragonLance Chronicles, but it was no slouch. I enjoyed how every chapter began with a “Vanderjack moment”. That made me laugh. I got a good chuckle out of the fact that one of the major cities is named “Wulfgar”. I appreciate a good tip of the cap to R.A. Salvatore, being a fan of his work as well.

If I have a complaint it’s that the book was too short. It came in at 307 pages. Give us a bit more of Vanderjack cracking jokes and putting on a cocky façade in the face of danger. We got sword battles, aerial battles, gladiatorial arenas, magic and more, all packed into 307 pages of an “action movie story” Give us 400 pages, and give us even more I say.. Or maybe the plan was to leave them wanting more.

I’m going to give The Sellsword by Cam Banks a very solid 7.5 stars. I hope we haven’t seen the last of The Sellsword. I also want to see how these events play into the events in the other two books. I certainly hope the other two books are published, given the state of affairs, or lack thereof, with the DragonLance license and Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Star Trek has always been known for throwing plenty of backstory out there in passing in its episodes, to pave the way for an hour of television. That backstory is then largely forgotten in future episodes since the majority of Star Trek’s run on television has involved stand-alone episodes. That leaves plenty of fertile ground for authors to fill in, which would certainly be a reason why Star Trek tie-in novels are as prolific as they are.

Star Trek Terok Nor tells the story of the occupation of Bajor by the Cardassians. Star Trek: The Next Generation first brought us the story of Bajor in a few of its later season episodes. It then became one of the main storylines of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The very final episode of the show showed us an ending of the story. Day of the Vipers by James Swallow shows us the beginning of the story. Terok Nor, as we learned on Deep Space Nine, was the Cardassians name for the space station when it was under their control. At this point however, the space station that would become the crown jewel of Cardassia’s occupation of Bajor, and later Deep Space Nine, is only a distant dream.

The novel stretches over a ten-year period, from the first Cardassian vessel traveling to make first contact with the Bajorans, all the way through the days immediately following the beginning of the occupation.

Given the timeframe of the novel most of the characters that we meet are new original characters for this story. However a young Dukat, before he becomes the Gul Dukat who is a recurring character all throughout the run of Deep Space Nine, is one of the central characters of the book. In the beginning he is the first officer of the first vessel to visit Bajor. We then watch him move up in the ranks and in power and influence throughout the novel. More importantly to a good story we learn WHY he is driven to move up in the ranks and to make it his mission to see Bajor under Cardassian rule. There is more to the story than simply waking up in the morning, deciding to hop into a spaceship and make a trip at warp speed to begin a long and complex campaign to take over the world of another civilization.

Make no mistake about it, the Cardassians are the villains of the story. But like good villains that aren’t one-dimensional they have motivations for behaving as they do. It is not evil for evil’s sake. In their minds they are entirely justified in doing what they do. Cardassia is a very resource poor world with a population that scrapes by to provide the essentials. In Bajor, they see a world that has a bounty of resources that they under-appreciate to the point of being wasteful. In Cardassian eyes they are lazy, undisciplined, and underachieving as a society and need a “firm Cardassian rule in order to make something of themselves.

Within the overall cultural motivations we have a variety of personal motivations ranging from the desire to best serve Cardassia, to personal ambitions of wealth and power, to motivations of religious faith. On the other side of the coin Cardassia was able to exploit a number of Bajoran motivations as well. Bajor didn’t willingly cede its world over to an alien race. There were segments of their society that welcomes an alliance for a variety of reasons, some personal and some societal. All of these sub-plots swirl beneath the main plot, the one we know from being Star Trek fans, and come together in the climax, in a number of surprising ways. While the end result is anticipated, the events along the way are quite surprising at times.

James Swallow wrote a very complex story and had a very good grasp of all the characters. He gave us a very good cross section of both Bajoran and Cardassian societies, from religious clerics, to politicians and their political power grabs, to career soldiers, to secret operatives, and maybe especially of Mace Darrah. Darrah is a Bajorian Militiaman who is determined to uphold his duty and serve his people as a lawman even as his society and his marriage crumble around him. While Dukat is the central villain of the story, Mace Darrah is the central hero. Given the nature of the story he was never going to have a totally heroic victory in this book. But he did get a nice little personal victory. Perhaps the stage is set for him to make a heroic comeback against all odds. But maybe he will suffer a heroic and tragic death to set the stage for the rise of other resistance fighters, such as Kira Nerys. According to her backstory she is born about 15 years after the end of this book. One would presume that she will factor into the next book based on the timeline, and the fact that she’s on the cover of the next book. Heroes inspire other heroes, so perhaps Mace Darrah will become Kira’s role model. We will see.

Throughout the story kept moving at a fast pace, even as it got more and more complex with the addition of conspiracies and even conspiracies within conspiracies. The story was well managed and was extremely plausible.

Another thing I liked was that not only was the story not Federation-centric but it didn’t cast the Federation in a particularly favorable light. They are not eager to get involved, for reasons from their point of view that are strategically plausible. It’s easy to understand Bajor’s later distrust of the Federation. It goes to show that the Federation isn’t always a bunch of Boy Scouts. Their policies are sometimes dictated by politics and other concerns just as any real organization would be. So while we had plenty of Star Trek science fiction in this story, it also maintained a strong grip on plausible reality. I thought this was a good story that just happened to be told in the Star Trek universe.

My biggest concern coming into “Day of the Vipers” would be whether or not I would care about all the new characters that we would see in the story, especially since the majority of them will probably be ground beneath the wheels of time as the series progresses over a period of about 52 years from beginning to end. For the most part these are forerunners to the characters that are “near and dear. But thankfully Swallow did not create Jar Jar Binks and gave us characters that add to the richness of the Star Trek universe, not characters that are best forgotten. Day of the Vipers was an outstanding beginning of the trilogy. We’ll see if the authors who will be concluding the series give us as compelling of a story. I rate Day of the Vipers as a 7.5.

“Storm Dragon”, book one of the Draconic Prophecies, by James Wyatt is set in the Dungeons & Dragons world of Eberron. James Wyatt is one of the creators of the Eberron world. . Eberron is a change of pace from other D& D fantasy worlds, in that it has slightly higher technology with magical airships, artificially created warriors called “warforged”, and other elements. In some regards I suppose it is like a steampunk D&D world. Not being familiar with the details of the Eberron world I thought that a story by Wyatt, one of its creators, would be ideal for getting an overview of the world as we built into the story. That didn’t happen though. A familiarity with the world is needed to avoid getting lost in the dizzying assortment of names, places, and historical details. Is having some world background woven into the story an unreasonable expectation? Perhaps, but I admit to having that expectation coming into the book.

The other item that dominated my perception of “Storm Dragon” was how slowly events built up and the story finally gained steam. When the plot elements all come together though, much like one of the storms that main character Gavin Lyrandar can magically conjure, things really get going. That takes very nearly the entire book though, as things unfold slowly. Patience is required as we see Gavin Lyrandar and Haldren ir’Brassek get broken out of an inescapable prison in Eberron. Gavin is a man driven mad by obsession with a Draconic prophecy. As a result, he may know more about it than anybody. There are those who seek to fulfil the prophecy for their own gain, and they see Gavin’s knowledge as a key to it. Alliances are forged, broken, and reforged throughout the course of the novel. In many cases character motivation was passed to the reader in the form of riddle-like prophecy text. The constantly shifting alliances made it very difficult to determine who was key to the agendas throughout the story, who was a pawn, or even who the heroes of the story
would be.

Then there was the prophecy itself. It was the driving force that was shaping the world events in the story. But I still wasn’t clear what the prophecy was. It seemed a tale of Armageddon or of a war among gods on Eberron. These seemed to be, at least as I interpreted them, world altering events, yet something that some power hungry people thought that could bring to pass for their own personal gain. The role of “the bad guys” in the story seemed to be clear if they wanted to destroy the world in order to rule it. Their objectives and the exact outcome they thought they could achieve were extremely hazy, still very far into the book. While I like not being spoon-fed by a plot and being able to make my own interpretations and guesses until the author let’s me know whether I’ve been right or wrong, I was having to do too much of this to be able to settle comfortably into the book for the majority of it. While the bad guys were clear whether or not the expected hero of the story would actually play that role was in doubt for an unsettlingly long portion of the book.

That may have been by design as the clouds broke and questions were clearly answered in the climax of the story. However, it made for a frustrating read at times because I felt just as in the dark about which characters I should grow attached to in the story as I was at the beginning. I’m a sucker for a hero, especially when I’m reading fantasy. I want to find that character and travel along with him or her, even if that’s a misdirection to be revealed later in the story. But in this case I had a hard time finding anything redeeming in any of the characters for the longest time so I had nobody to invest in. For the majority of the story the character I liked most was Cart, the warforged. As a constructed warforged, he had a loyalty and innocence to him. Perhaps it is all my years of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the obvious comparisons to the android Commander Data, but it was most interesting, especially in the early parts of the book, to watch Cart strive to interact with his companions as humanly as he knew how to, but still fall short of that.

Still though, it was apparent that Cart was a secondary character in this story. Perhaps he has previously had, or will get, his own book. But this one was not his. It was obvious that this book was Gavin’s. I was expecting to see the classic journey of the hero, ala “The Hero of A Thousand Faces”. So I waited for the character to develop, and his story and growth to occur along the way.

I waited a long time and was very near conceding that it wasn’t going to happen and this book wasn’t going to hit the mark for me. But then things all came together. Gavin found himself, both in character and as a character in the book that I found interesting and drawn to. Gavin had one huge moment of catharsis where all the bitterness and resentment of his life and particularly 26 years of imprisonment was washed away. But I thought he found a bit too much forgiveness, just a bit too quickly, especially toward the person who was responsible for having him sent to prison. That’s an awful lot of instant forgiveness. It seemed forced to me so that the plot could proceed along. Gavin also had a tearful reunion with a family that he had been “excommunicated” from for 26 years that was also too conveniently resolved. Again I thought it farfetched that 26 years of history could be undone that easily and painlessly. “Storm Dragon” comes in at a comfortable 344 pages, so these couple elements that were forced and rushed could have been expanded out in a less abrupt fashion in just a few extra pages. It didn’t seem like these pivotal moments of character growth and revelation had to be glossed over for the sake of the length of the book. I don’t claim to be the editor or publisher, so perhaps I’m entirely wrong there.

For all the slow build-up, “Storm Dragon ended very strongly over the last thirteen chapters. Better late than never in the “bringing it all together” department. The climax was a large battle sequence that was riveting and was the biggest page-turner of the book. I’ll even look past the fact that there was a beholder at the end that seemed to go down pretty easily. The end left us with questions and a setup for the additional books in this series, but it provided a happy ending for our main characters who had managed to step forward and take the title of “heroes” by the time the book ended.

I give “Storm Dragon” a “rising 6” on my scale. It walked a tightrope and teetered on the brink for me at the beginning. But James Wyatt pulled through and brought it home for me at the end. Looking over the whole book I have to give it a 6, but my opinion was definitely on the rise after the last 13 chapters. They saved the book in my opinion and were a solid springboard from which to launch the rest of the series.

However, to have more than just a average reading experience while reading “Storm Dragon” a reader will need to have two things, an appreciation and some familiarity with the world of Eberron and the patience to let the story come together.

Gavril faces his deepest fear-that he cannot exist without his Drakhoul. His comfortable life was turned upside down in the first book of this trilogy with the appearance of a smoky presence that wrapped around him and invaded his being. The Drakhoul, a dark and demanding creature, promised strength beyond reckoning and breathed sulfur into Gavril’s soul. This power came with a heavy price, however. Gavril sustained physical changes without and within, his body changing into a dragon with the appetite of a vampire. Unable to face living as a monster, Gavril throws off his familiar with the help of Kiukiu and looks forward to living as a human again. Unfortunately, without the power of the Drakhoul to protect his people, Gavril is taken prisoner and Eugene proclaims himself Emperor of all he surveys.

Ms. Ash blazes through her descriptions of people. As the second book in the series entitled The Tears of Artamon, Prisoner of the Iron Tower is Act II of a three act play. There are many characters and most seem to be playing more than one role. Attempting to identify the alliances made and betrayed can leave one breathless. Like a typical second act, life seems dark for our hero Gavril and the countries fighting for independence.

I enjoyed this one more than the first, which is a bit unusual. The author seems to delve deeper into the primary characters, making them real. Readers see into the mind of Eugene, the self-proclaimed Emperor of New Rossiyan. He is not a flat, all-out bad guy but is very human, a contradiction. The loving father, afraid to emotionally embrace his new wife because the loss of the first was so painful. This alongside of the imperious ruler who demands instant groveling, paranoid about all around him and whose dreams consist of all he sees bowing to him. Readers sense that if Astasia and Eugene could just communicate better, a love could blossom that could heal the agony in his heart.

However, the character development of Eugene is balanced by a frenetic bouncing between other characters, shifting the focus so much I became a bit frustrated. I wanted the story to land in one place and develop more. I think she attempted to do too much here, trying to balance the story of Eugene as a budding emperor with the rebellion in the south and the destruction of Gavril’s country in the north. On top of all this is the search to understand the Drakhoul and his kind, to control or banish him forever. The story dashes one way and then swerves the other, like the daemon-dragon of the tale. Reader, beware! Ms. Ash invests effort in creating her characters only to pitch them off a cliff for the sake of the story. My hope is Sarah Ash will resolve this story effectively in book three of The Tears of Artamon, The Children of the Serpent Gate.

Exodus is book one of three of a Hellgate: London series based upon the video game of the same name. I generally stay away from discussing plot of the book in a review, but if one is going to read a book based upon a video game, they should know a bit about it. Unless of course they are reading it strictly because they are fans of the video game.

In 2020 London, the Knight’s Templar is alive and well, having staked out a large and advanced operation in the London Underground. Their duty is to train and be ready to defend the world from demons if and when they should attack the world. They have been vigilant for hundreds of years, and now they design and train with the most advanced weapons and armor that technology and magic can create.

The hero of our story is Simon Cross. After years of a life defined by training and living secretly in the London Underground, he decides that there is more to life than giving it over to some myths and legends that he no longer believed in. So he left London and went to South Africa, where he was a safari guide.

When news reports said that London had been overrun and decimated by aliens, Simon knew what had had happened and that the stories were real. He knew he had a duty to perform. He also knew that is father was still in London.

What would Simon find in London other than possibly a quick death?

I will reiterate that this book is based on a video game. I’m not familiar with this game but I imagine that it’s similar to Halo, Half-Life, Doom, Quake, or any of a host of first person shooters. The Knights are clad in high tech armor augmented with magic, and rely on weapons that are the same. There is much combat in this book. Scenes of combat, carnage, death, and destruction fill the book. There is nothing upbeat or cheery about the apocalyptic London landscape. In that regard it is a video game. If you don’t want a book that focuses this heavily on these elements this one won’t be for you.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some interesting characters. Simon became progressively more interesting as the story went on. There was also the development of a nemesis and possible villain for this series, as well as a couple mystery groups with unknown intentions in this world that is being newly re-written. I wouldn’t say there were any bombshell surprises but the story continued to build up and move along as the book progressed. Character concepts were not incredibly original but they worked well in this setting. I saw a lot of Raistlin in Warren, our rising villain, not that I minded. That said, the story was not dull. I did find myself rooting for the main character, and pitying the circumstances of the villain even as, through desperation and manipulation, he became increasingly more and more unlikable as the story went on.

I admit that I was dubious of reading a book based upon what looks like a first person shooter video game. The concept of demons overrunning London didn’t seem like a particularly appetizing plot to me. But the two main characters in the story were interesting enough to me that they overcame that. I think I would give the other two books that will be coming in this series a read to see how the saga ends. I’ll give this book a solid 7 on the ratings scale.

Dragons of the Highlord Skies is Volume II of the Lost Chronicles. Again it’s set between books 1 and 2 of the original DragonLance Chronicles. We get more of the viewpoint from Kitiara and the forces of Takhisis. Kitiara and Lord Soth occupy one sub-plot of the story, and a knightly quest occupies the other sub-plot.

We do get to see some of the Companions during the course of the book and that is always enjoyable since those characters are always the high point for me. I enjoyed the focus on the Solamnic Knights as well, and the interplay between three knightly friends and their differing interpretations of honor, duty, and even The Measure, by which they conducted themselves as Knights, was very well done. I often see depictions of knights that are one-dimensional. They’re honorable, loyal, duty bound, rigid and unyielding in their beliefs, and often stereotypically done. It was nice that to deviate from that in this book.

In Volume 2, Sturm was the Companion who stood out and shined for me. I was glad to see that, as I was disappointed with him in Volume I. That was addressed though. The character grew from that and was now more of the character that I remember him being in the originals. His nobility and honor shined through in this story.

The story did actually pick up where the previous story left off. So where I did expect to have to spend time acclimating to another snipped in time as we peered through the looking glass at a portion in time from the War of the Lance, I was able to get right back into the timeline of the story, since Volume I was still fresh on my mind. If it is for you too, that’s great. If it’s not, Weis and Hickman get you back up to speed in short order before they move on.

It took me maybe 20 pages to get into the story and get interested in the non-Kitiara characters. So maybe slow starting, but just long enough for the story to draw me in. I think maybe in the back of my mind some characters weren’t interesting right off the bat because in the back of my mind I knew how things were going to end. Their fates were sealed. But this series is more about the journey than the destination, since that destination was already written 20 years ago.

The one other thing I will note, just so I can review this book and not just say “Bravo! Bravo! Perfection! Write more books!” is this. I thought Kitiara’s climactic moment for this book built up wonderfully and dramatically throughout the book. Then right at the apex, boom it was over. I was surprised. I thought that could have played out for a couple more pages? “That’s it? Just like that?” I thought. I read it a second time to see if maybe I was just so sucked in and flipping pages at a furious pace that I just lost the overall sense of the build up and the payoff in the scene. I still had the same sense of abruptness the second time. But then maybe I’d build it up in my mind over the course of the book (because I really was sucked in. I like Lord Soth, what can I say) so however it played out couldn’t match my imagination. So maybe that scene was a bit of a victim of its own success. I’m not sure on that. But my feeling was “Great scene, could have been a couple pages longer in its resolution.”

The locations that we saw on Krynn were rich and vivid as they always have been. Weis and Hickman took great care in establishing the history of the world, and making it clear that there was a deeper history than the pieces that we were seeing at that moment. That creates depth, which makes the reader (or at least me) care more about what’s happening. You’re not just seeing a dusty library that the characters are walking into, will then use to suit their needs, then move on from. Or a generic icy castle, which must be taken because the heroes of light will defeat the villains of darkness.

It seemed to me that Weis and Hickman took great care to maintain continuity with the original series and to continue that same standard of excellence. I have too high of a regard for them to ever think that they’d just “mail it in” so to speak and let the DragonLance name alone sell books, but I suppose things like that have been done before. There was one thing at the end of the book that made me smile in regards to the level of attention that they paid. In the Author’s Notes (of the Advanced Reading Copy at least) they addressed a point from the previous book, which some readers have apparently been pointing to as a continuity error. They knew exactly what they were doing they said and the point noted was done deliberately. It was a catch that I admit that I didn’t make. But even in having readers catch that point, they’d intended to use that as a subtle plot point to make the reader learn a little something that they hadn’t known before. It’s almost as if they knew they’d be leaving us in suspense for 20 years then come back for an encore performance.

As an encore, I for one give it a standing ovation.

The next book will be Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. I don’t think I need to tell you who is central to that story. It will be a long year waiting for that book. But I sure hope it’s me who gets to review that one as well.

“Demands of Honor” is book two of the Errands of Fury Star Trek series. This book is set in the Classic Star Trek era. In an interesting twist though, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and company were secondary characters in this story. The focus of this story was Michael Fuller and his Starfleet Security team. Typically the role of the redshirt in the original series has become stereotypical that it is now a running pop culture joke. This book puts them in a role other than cannon fodder.

Also in the forefront was political drama as the Federation and Klingon Empire teetered on the bring of war. Council Member Duras showed that his family’s penchant for sneakiness and treachery stretched farther back in time from the Next Generation Era. The crew of the I.K.S. D’k Tahg had no doubt that he was up to something. The question was what, and would they be able to find out before it was too late to do anything about it?

Errand of Fury was an appropriate title for this novel. Several characters confronted the demons of their past. First Officer Karel on the D’k Tahg sought to avenge the death of his brother. Michael Fuller was still haunted by the death of his son in battle against the Klingons.

As the Federation and Klingon Empires stared each other down, the primitive race of Klingon inhabiting a dilithium rich planet in System 7348 were caught in the middle. The younger Adon and his clan sought to save their race from an act of treachery. He too had a personal score to settle.

The focus on different characters in the Star Trek universe was a two-headed monster. It was a breath of fresh air. The Enterprise has a crew of several hundred. Presumably all these Star Fleet personnel are highly trained and competent at their jobs. Yet it seemed to be Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and Uhura getting all the action, leading all the missions, etc. The security personal? They go on an away mission and they die. “They’re dead Jim!”

On the other hand, when you read a Star Trek book you’re expecting to see certain characters. It was strange to see the senior officers confining themselves to the bridge of the Enterprise while there was a lot of action going on in an away mission. The storyline justification for that seemed odd, when circumstances in the show didn’t often keep Kirk confined to his ship. So I found myself mainly wondering when the Security personnel would meet their seemingly inevitable demise. Would they be the sacrificial lambs to add gravity to the plot as things teetered on the edge of war and the plot switched back to the main characters? Since these are “temporary” characters, it was hard to really care about the characters. Whether these characters would die, heroically or tragically or whether their demons would get the best of them and add fuel to the plot fire did make the story “interesting” but not a classic. It wasn’t a bad book, but it was short and pretty predictable. But if you’re a fan of Redshirts and yearn to see them have a life expectancy of longer than about 5 minutes you'd definitely enjoy this book.

Watch Your Back is my first John Dortmunder novel, although I have read and enjoyed Donald Westlake novels before. Starting with a random book in the series was probably a mistake; this particular book seemed to lean away from Dortmunder as a main character. Following the story was not difficult, but there were at least seven or eight points of view, and had I not known that Dortmunder was the series star, I would not have known he was the main character of this one.

In Watch Your Back! Dortmunder is up to his usual tricks; an old friend contacts him about a NY penthouse just waiting to be robbed. Of course, this is supposed to be a very easy robbery; the owner of the huge penthouse is out of town and can’t come back because he is wanted by four ex-wives who wish to sue for better settlements. Dortmunder rounds up his gang of breaking-and-entering experts, but before they can get started, they get sidetracked. The bar where they generally make their plans is the target of a mob takeover. The robbery plans and trying to save the bar are mixed in with chapters told from the POV of the penthouse owner, his assistant, one of the penthouse owner’s current girlfriends, a mob character, another thief on the team and a young man who wants fame and fortune especially if it means learning from Dortmunder and his buddies.

Westlake does an amazing job of weaving the two plotlines and the numerous characters, creating a zany, fun tale. My only problem was that I don’t love multiple POVs and in this case, I had no previous knowledge of Dortmunder so there was no affection on which to draw. Nevertheless, I found myself wanting Dortmunder and his buddies to successfully pull off the heist. How Westlake managed to create sympathy for the bad guys was somewhat of a mystery to me. Sure, the penthouse owner, Preston Fareweather was a jerk, but listening to the chapters where he starred was boring and predictable. Fareweather was a one dimensional rich guy, lacking depth, drive or any redeeming qualities—which left me wondering how someone such as himself was even educated enough to have made or kept his wealth. My attention wandered during the Fareweather chapters and at the end of one such chapter, my husband said it all when he asked, “Was that chapter even necessary?” There were at least two such chapters that had me gritting my teeth and wishing it were not audio so that I could just skip ahead.

I don’t listen to a lot of audio books—I prefer to be able to race through at my own pace. I think I would have enjoyed Watch Your Back! more had I been able to skim through the parts that I didn’t love. That said, I have also read other Westlake stories and believe his usual style has more action, far less point of views and a faster pace. This book is good, but not gripping. I certainly will read other Dortmunder novels, because Westlake knows how to tell a story, how to create sympathy and how to tie things up into a satisfactory ending.

Watch Your Back was read by William Dufris—he’s a wonderful reader and I highly recommend his readings—I’d rate his abilities, voices, enunciation and talent an easy 10. The audio was published by Sound Library

The last half dozen to eight issues of Devil’s Dues G.I.JOE: America’s Elite has represented the first worthy successors to the early Marvel line of the 1980’s. The final installment of the Sins of the Mother quartet continues the developments I noted in my previous review – and sports a what is perhaps nice slight homage to the classic Kirby cover of Fantastic Four#8. The majority of content in this issue takes place in a single room; as in our own world in a single room multiple decisions are made that will have personal and global ramification. What many would consider the true original triumvirate of COBRA is reduced to and thus advanced by the ascension of the idea that Cobra Commander is what he always should have been – one of the most canny men alive – and now is perhaps the most powerful. It is done not by minimizing Destro or the Baroness; we witness the determination and are humbled by sacrifice of the former and the deadly proficiency of the latter – these are still among the most dangerous people in the world but are simply outmaneuvered by a man whose view extend beyond the immediate, beyond the mundane passions that drive and diminish his cohorts and most people in general.

The JOE fan will appreciate the familiarity that exudes between the characters. The relationship of and the fact that a history exists between Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander would register to all but the most daft reader and gives the story a very human undercurrent. Even in the process of and midst of his greatest triumph, Cobra Commander cannot help but to take the opportunity to verbally abuse the JOE commando. This is personal and you get the feeling he relishes these jibes as much as he does the certainty of his more global victory.

That said, I do not hesitate to anoint the latest issue, #24, the weakest from a storytelling point of view. There is a contrivance in the sequence of events that perhaps caused it to be necessary to be rather overly dramatic within a too-confined allotted space. The issue felt like it needed more room for a more natural path to the conclusion to truly develop. The ultimatum given to the JOE agents seemed hollow, the terrorist you essentially exist -as an elite military unit - to take down, threatens you with knowledge of your family and you just walk? Snake Eyes, Flint and Spirit would pull his card, push his hood back, and then simply call in what has to be already established safety protocols protecting their families - especially since they were fully aware Cobra Commander has access to this information. There is also an oddness to the Baroness talking to herself at the beginning flashback, but it could be written off as the workings of the mind of a mother who had just escaped isolation and interrogation looking and desperately looking for her cub. The eventual outcome is effective, both as an end to an arc and as an ideal platform for future stories, but there is a sense of being in the room as well - betrayed like the rest – and left wondering if my copy is missing a couple of pages. For some reason the title that I always remember from the original series is Snap Decisions (issue#52, people – a classic) and the title would seem so apt here.

If this is the valley, I’ll gladly march in it; a slight stumble due to a longer stride at the end of the race, but all in all a book still worthy to be on any pull list. The end crowneth the work indeed – I’ll be here until the coronation.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

My latest review is Star Trek: Mirror Universe – Obsidian Alliances. The book features the novellas “The Mirror-Scaled Serpent” by Keith R.A. DeCandido, “Cutting Ties” by Peter David, and “Saturn’s Children” by Sarah Shaw.

As the name implies, all three stores are set in the Star Trek Mirror parallel universe. This universe, a cruel and dark version of the Star Trek universe, was first seen in the Star Trek Episode “Mirror, Mirror”. Deep Space 9 returned us to the universe a number of times.

In this book, we get a look at the mirror Voyager crew, as they encounter Kes and Neelix from the “real” universe. “Cutting Ties” gives us the first look at the mirror universe versions of the ‘New Frontiers” crew. “Saturn’s Children” returns us to the saga of Intendant Kira, Smiley, Bashir, and the other Deep Space Nine characters.

I really enjoyed all three of the novellas. This was my first read of Keith R.A. DeCandido’s material. All of his characters were delightfully wicked. I’m not sure that anyone from that universe had any redeeming qualities. The characters I was rooting for were Kes and Neelix to be able to escape from there and return home. Supervisor B’Elanna was delightfully hedonistic and brutal, even as she loathed her ‘half-breed’ Klingon status. Chakotay was the captain of the rebel vessel Voyager, with Tuvok as second officer. Harry Kim was a psychotic security expert or interrogator with a death wish upon as many Klingons as he could get his hands on. By the time the story ended, that was a lot of them. Seska betrayed the Alliance to join the rebellion and had her own agenda even now. Kate Janeway was a fiery engineer who also had her own agenda. This story was a whole lot of gleefully reading of bad things happening to bad people. For me that was a lot of the fun, as there weren’t many in the story that didn’t deserve what came to them. Almost everyone got some measure of what they had coming to them. The rebels aboard Voyager weren’t much better than the Alliance that they were fighting. So, no happy endings (and how can you really have a happy ending in the mirror universe) but this serves as a great springboard for further stories, as Kes’s telepathy has major implications for the universe.

DeCandido did an outstanding job with the characters. He managed to blend some of those character traits that made the characters so recognizable on the TV show, and twist them in that mirror universe fashion. I’ve intended to read some of his work for quite awhile to see what he brings to the Star Trek table. I think that he brings characters, dialogue, and engaging plot that is worthy of my personal upper tier of Star Trek writers. I certainly look forward to reading more of his work to see if he does rise up there with, William Shatner/Judith and Garfield-Reeves-Stevens, Diane Duane, Peter David, and a couple others. Room in my penthouse of Star Trek writing may be getting a bit more crowded, and I personally am very pleased by that.

Speaking of Peter David he wrote “Cutting Ties”. I always like his work and this story had its own fascination. I’ve read only one “New Frontiers” novel, so I didn’t have a lot of preconceived notions about how the “real” characters should act. I didn’t need a solid baseline for Captain MacKenzie, although one previous well-written novel gave me a bit of one, to realize that ‘Muck’ was radically different. I liked that character. He was almost a 'Star Trek barbarian", or “Wulfgar meets Star Trek” if you’re an R.A. Salvatore person. “New Frontiers” focuses on a lot of never before seen Star Trek races. The Mirror version of course was no different, so it was refreshing to see a whole different angle of the universe. The mirror Romulans haven’t really been seen before, as they’re as reclusive in that universe as in the “TV universe”. But we get a look here. This story had a number of plot twists and turns, and it was exciting until the last page, as it wasn’t clear until the end how things would turn out. Don’t worry though, if you want some carnage, this is the mirror universe so you’ll get it.

“Saturn’s Children” by Sarah Shaw was the final story of the book. This story was her first professional fiction credit, having previously written fan fiction. I’ve seen some very talented fan fiction writers, and it’s nice to see someone go from fanfic to “professional”. She did a very good job with this story, and handled the characters very well. The Deep Space Nine crew is the most well fleshed out of the mirror characters from TV. Intendant Kira is perhaps the most prominent of all those characters. She’s devious, she’s conniving, she’s cruel, and hedonistic. That’s a pretty large character to take on, and Shaw did it very well. I could see Nana Visitor in my head as I read. She nailed that character, along with all the others. The Intendant had fallen on some hard times, but she’s always got a plan for turning things around. It was fun to watch that unfold. That’s a character that always “wins” in the end. She was the star of the show and I expected her to somehow rise out of the ashes with her typical flair. Miles “Smiley” O’Brien anchored the other half of the story. He was the most honorable, sympathetic character in the whole book. He was the hope for an honorable rebellion, fighting for a bright future. Zek (not the Grand Nagis of the Ferengi in this universe) and Julian Bashir represented the cruel, “the cure is not much better than the disease”, Alliance. Again, you can look for bad things to happen to bad people. One expects a collection of “dirty deeds done dirt cheap” in the mirror universe. Sarah Shaw lives very well in this universe. If this is her first professional venture, I look forward to many more.

In conclusion, this book represents the Mirror Universe very well in 3 stories. If you like the Mirror Universe you’ll like these stories, as they were written very vividly and capture all those elements that we love to hate among these bad, bad people. If you don’t like the Mirror Universe…give it another shot. And if you don’t like one story, there’s another one only 160 pages or so away. That’s the beauty of short stories/novellas.

We visit the realms again, but this time we venture to another unlikely locale when we follow some returning characters to the Plane of Fire. Kaanyr Vhok, fresh off the defeat suffered at the hands of the Menzoberranzan drow, is looking for a new conquest, and it seems a complex plan has been hatched. Kaanyr’s plan not only involves the human city of Sundabar, but he is venturing into the Plane of Fire for a scheme that can only have a devastating impact on the Forgotten Realms. We also get to see Aliisza – a fan favorite from “The War of the Spider Queen”. She had some interesting interactions with Phauran Mizzrym and the rest of the drow.

The first concern is the choice of Kaanyr Vhok and Aliisza as part of this story rather than bringing new players to the table. Though, Thomas Reid does introduce an interesting supporting cast: Myshik Moreume the blue-scaled hobgoblin with half-draconic heritage, Zasian the priest, and Tauran the angel of Tyr. Reid perfectly played Myshik in regards to how much stage time he is given and his actions in the book. Zasian is as well a great character; right when you think you know what he is about, Reid flips the script and he is really not at all what we thought. Tauran seemed to be the only weak supporting character, but then again, how much personality can an angel of Tyr really have?

The characters not only visit Sundabar, but we also get to see them visit the Plane of Fire. While on the Plane of Fire, the anti-heroes – in an attempt to keep cool – get to venture into the famous City of Brass after a battle with some efreeti slavers. From the crystal trees to the overall theme and look of the plane, Reid does a wonderful job at describing the locales and puts the reader right alongside the characters in their journey. Reid could have added to the story by giving a little more background as to the inhabitants that Kaanyr Vhok’s band met on the Plane of Fire, but there are only a certain amount of pages in the book, so this is understandable.

Reid refers to Vhok as "the cambion" far too often in his attempt to break up the monotony of using his name. This was very distracting to the flow of the story and effectively changed the enjoyment of the story by sheer annoyance. Reid seems to do this with other characters as well, but not to the extent that it is done with Kaanyr Vhok.

This book can be a little frustrating for the reader as they can feel a little left out until the end where things that seem out of place are explained. It is also going to be a stretch for some readers to connect with Kaanyr and Aliisza due to having rooted against them in the past.
Even though Reid’s first book in the story did not allow him to be the author we know he can be, he has the skill to be top notch. He really shines when he gets to create new characters. With that said, the supporting cast of this story could use a spin off of its own.

Overall, Reid brings us a good story and setting while introducing some well thought out and alluring minor characters. Kaanyr Vhok and Aliisza seemed forced into the story, as if they were only present for their name recognition. We could have had some new characters take their place, but WoTC does rely heavily on recognizable characters, which is understandable in a shared world setting. Let us hope we can understand why Vhok seems bent on Sundabar so quickly after his defeat at the hands of the dark elves and how Aliisza's piece of the puzzle fits. We can only assume it has some part of the greater plan at hand. Well, we can only hope that is true.

This book was set in the aftermath of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Still without a ship of their own, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Sulu take a shuttle to Alpha Ceti V. Kirk intends to confront his guilt over the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Kirk is determined to find answers regarding the horrible cataclysm that befell the planet, and the conditions that Khan and his followers were forced to survive.

His answers come in the form of Khan’s own journal and data chips left by former Starfleet Lieutenant-turned Exile Marla McGivers.

The majority of the book fills in the years between the series episode “Space Seed” and Khan’s return in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I thought Greg Cox captured Khan very well in the novel. He painted the personality of a complex villain. Khan’s escalating anger, bitterness, and obsession for vengeance upon Kirk evolve over years of frustration, loss, tragedy, heartbreak, and desperation. I found that I had to remind myself that the hero of the story was in fact the most legendary villain in the Star Trek franchise. I like a story that turns good and evil on its ear. Good guys and bad guys are not black and white. I more enjoy the shades of gray or the flawed characters. Watching the build up of events that led to the “breaking point” in the movie really made this book a page-turner throughout.

The event that shattered the world made for an exciting event. That was an event that was expected from the beginning. The intrigue would be how it was presented. I thought it was well done. Being a geology and astronomy buff, I was captivated by that section of the book.

There would be one other event, established early on in the book, that was highly anticipated. It was teased dramatically a couple times earlier. As expected, the book’s moment of romantic tragedy sealed Khan’s ultimate path.

The book did hold a sub-plot that was set in the present. It provided a link between the flashback story and the present. However, I found myself awaiting the end of those sections just to get back to the primary story. The “B” story did not add much in my mind. The ending of that story, also the very end of the novel, was anti-climactic. It served to provide some closure for Kirk, but for me the end of the story was really the end of Khan’s tale.

Khan’s story was fascinating enough that it totally carried the story. Despite my ambivalence toward the “B” story it did not detract as it only heightened the anticipation for the next installment of the Khan storyline.

If you liked the Khan character at all in “Wrath of Khan” I think you will enjoy this book as the “prequel” to those events.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are perhaps one of the best-known works in the eponymous "Dying Earth" sub-genre, alongside other greats like the Viriconium stories and Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe has in fact cited Vance as an influence on Book of the New Sun).

Tales of the Dying Earth gathers together all 4 of the Dying Earth novels penned by Vance: The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto The Marvellous. The setting therein is that of a far-future Earth where the sun has diminished to a faint red sphere struggling to warm the planet and science has all but vanished to be replaced by magic as the world slides ever-closer to an inevitable doom.

The first novel, The Dying Earth consists of several inter-connected stories following various characters and their adventures.

The following two novels (The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga) follow the misadventures of Cugel the Clever, who after attempting to rob a magician famed for a cruel sense of humor, is forced to wander distant lands before he can return home.

The final book Rhialto The Marvellous follows the magician Rhialto and his fellows as they quarrel with one another in the course of overcoming various challenges.

Out of the four stories, I'd have to say I enjoyed the two Cugel novels the most, mainly for the various peoples and challenges Vance invents for Cugel to overcome in the course of his journey homeward, although it suffers a bit from the same episodic feel of The Dying Earth, with Cugel constantly fleeing one scenario only to immediately encounter another. Rhialto The Marvellous moves away from this a bit, though it still consists of three inter-connected stories.

However, Vance's slightly archaic style of writing, his impressive vocabulary and great attention to descriptive detail serve to lift even the lesser stories up to a higher level and gives the overall work a very distinct feel. It may have its flaws, but Tales of the Dying Earth is still deserving of classic status.

Bust is destined to become a modern classic of crime fiction. It is the first collaborative novel in the Hard Case stable and a better paring couldn’t have been had then Ken Bruen and Jason Starr. With every outing Hard Case continues to live up to their stated goal to “bring you the best in hardboiled crime fiction, ranging from lost noir masterpieces to new novels by today’s most powerful writers” by putting out some of the best crime novels being published today. Sometimes when books are written jointly the two styles don’t blend well and the differences are often noticeable, especially when each contributor has their own unique style as Bruen and Starr do. Starr and Bruen came up with a unique approach to this common problem they decided to write each others parts, Bruen handled the Starr parts and Starr handled the Bruen parts

Starr and Bruen tell us what happens when a business man wants his wife killed. His secretary, whom he is having an affair with, convinces him to hire her boyfriend, a low-level IRA member to do the job. Does this simple hit on an unwanted wife go smoothly or as planned? No, he turns out to be a psychopath and botches the job. The question doesn’t become 'will it spin out control' but 'how far will out of control will it go'.

Max Fisher is the self made business man who feels that death is a more viable way to end a marriage then divorce. He is presented as a thoroughly despicable man with no redeeming qualities to his person to speak of. You spend the entire novel wishing horrible thing to happen to him, which is exactly why he is such a compelling character. You want to rush to the finish to see what exactly, if anything is going to happen to him.


Dillon is the crazed Irish hit man. Cursed by a tinker he leaves Ireland after meeting Angela in a bar. His soul is so thoroughly black that he wanders from one situation to the next without a care in the world, for himself or for others. There is also a reference to Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor series that is embedded in Dillon's past for any who care to search for it.




Of all the characters the one that rises to the top is the secretary Angela. She starts out as a cliché and quickly develops a more faceted personality that shows great depth of character. By the end of the novel she has become a classic Femme Fatale with modern sensibilities. You begrudgingly wish her well and want some level of success for her regardless of the despicable things that she has done throughout the novel.


The writing is tight, smooth and seamless. Each writer’s strengths are showcased in the best possible way. Bust isn’t just hardboiled fiction redux, it is a smartly told caper novel filled to the brim with black humor. The situations that are presented are so absurd and the characters are such dunces that Bust is at times laugh out loud funny.


-Brian Lindenmuth

Gather round, kids. Paul is going to share a little bit about himself in this review of Cherie Priest's Wings to the Kingdom. This better be good, you say? You better shut your mouth else I shut it for you. Sorry about that, I’m a little on edge after reading about ghosts and haunted battlegrounds. All right, here it is then—I love discovering things. I listened to Fall Out Boy back when they were producing such unheard albums like Fall Out Boy's Evening Out With Your Girl. I also read the first two Harry Potter books back in the late 1990s, long before the movies came out which really raised awareness of their existence to Muggles. I've shown everyone I can why Suikoden is a wonderful RPG series that is relatively pushed aside for the big names like Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft.

What? I'm rambling? All right, fine. Here's the point—I'm more than ecstatic to have discovered Cherie Priest so early on. Ten years down the line when she's got a handful of books out and everyone is tossing her name around like she's Stephen King's holy granddaughter, I'll gladly smile and nod, maybe throw out a "I knew her when…" or two, and move on. All right, share time is over.

Wings to the Kingdom, a standalone sequel to Priest's 2005 debut Four and Twenty Blackbirds, once again features Eden Moore, the outspoken and determined young woman who can see ghosts. But this time she has actual friends, which helps take her mind off those ghastly things. Unfortunately, Old Green Eyes, a spirit of legend, has abandoned his watch over the Civil War fields in Chickamauga, Georgia. This has gotten the spirits all stirred up. They're appearing more often, pointing off in the distance, trying to communicate with anyone that is able to hear them. This is where Eden and her friends come in though it is anything of a free choice. But something else is out on the fields, armed with a rifle, keeping both the dead and alive away, searching for something as well. A deal has been broken, revenge is being sought.

One thing that I found lacking in Four and Twenty Blackbirds was just how alone Eden was. In the beginning it seemed like she had friends, but for the rest of the novel it was just her doing her thing. In Wings to the Kingdom we find Eden being more of a socialite: there's Jamie, a boy with girls on the mind most of the time; Benny, the techie of the group; Dana Marshall, one part of the famous ghost-hunting media duo. And these characters are great; they’re fun, full of personality, each distinguishable from the other, and I couldn’t help but enjoy watching Eden interacting with them.

One doesn’t necessarily have to have read Four and Twenty Blackbirds to understand the plot of her latest, but they will probably miss out on a lot of small things. Malachi’s involvement in the story, for one thing. The other is her relationship with her aunt and uncle, a sort of “on/off” thing troubled by the fact that she continues to keep secrets from them. Priest's skills with setting and creating a strong mood throughout the story are sound, and her ability to toy with language even better.

I’m eagerly looking forward to the third and final part of this series (Not Flesh Nor Feathers) as I heard it will contain exploding zombies. Yup, that’s right. So hurry up all you yuppies and get to reading Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom else you'll have to try and jump on the bandwagon, which might be hard considering how full it's going to get real soon...