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The Dragon King
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Blood of the Fold
By Terry Goodkind
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A Game of Thrones:
Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire
By George R.R. Martin
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Mindstar Rising
By Peter F. Hamilton
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Ghostlight
By Marion Zimmer Bradley
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Witchlight
By Marion Zimmer Bradley
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Luthien Bedwyr and his magic cape return in The Dragon King, the stirring conclusion to R.A. Salvatore's epic Crimson Shadow trilogy. In the first two novels, Luthien had been given the magic cape that made him invisible but which created an indelible scarlet silhouette. With this magic, Luthien lead the rebellion against the despotic King Greensparrow and his malevolent wizards.
Now that Luthien and his allies of dwarfs and elves have placed the ancient wizard Brind'Amour on the throne, Greensparrow strikes back in his new incarnation as an invincible dragon. Only the Crimson Shadow is capable of stopping such a necromantic menace in this tale of high adventure and sweeping fantasy.
Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind (Tor, $25.95, 0312890524). In this third book of the Sword of Truth series, author Terry Goodkind continues the odyssey of Richard Cypher, the Seeker, who earlier defeated the wizard Darken Rahl and came to love the Mother Confessor, Kahlan Amnell, in order to preside over the Midlands. Having won these battles, Cypher and Kahlan have used their magical powers to defeat the deadly Sisters of the Dark and the new threat represented by the Imperial Order.
Now Cypher and Kahlan continue their struggle against a new foe, a group of anti-magic extremists known as the Blood of the Fold. These zealots are the unknowing dupes of the Old World sorcerers who seek armageddon in order to free the 3,000 year old magical boundaries of their domain.
A Game of Thrones: Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (Bantam, $21.95, 0553103547). Three of George R.R. Martin's previous five novels are already considered classics: Dying of the Light, Fevre Dream, and The Armageddon Rag. His short story "Sandkings" is one of the outstanding speculative fiction works of recent decades.
Now with A Game of Thrones, Martin has written a splendid saga about multi-dimensional characters engaged in the kind of struggles that stir our emotions. In a labyrinthine plot, the North of Winterfell has winters that last a lifetime, and malevolent forces are gathering beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. In the south where summers last for decades, the king's authority is dissipating as his most trusted advisor is dead under suspicious circumstances, and the king's adversaries seek every advantage. In the middle are the Starks of Winterfell who much like the Atriedes family of Dune are as austere and focused as the land they represent. Now Lord Eddard Stark has been summoned to act as the king's new Hand, a position that will threaten not only him but his family and the kingdom as well.
This is an inventive and intricately plotted story of imaginative fantasy in a time of omens, war, madness, and cruelty.
Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton (Tor, $23.95, 0312859554). In a future world consumed by ecological disaster, this dystopian novel creates a suspenseful atmosphere involving telepathy, artificial intelligence, and sabotage.
In this first book of a trilogy, global warming has irrevocably altered the climate and destroyed societies and economies. Now under the leadership of Philip Evans who leads Event Horizon, an organization engaged in zero gravity manufacturing as well as artificial intelligence, there are signs of progress and return to prosperity. But someone is attempting to kill Philip Evans and stop Event Horizon.
Greg Mandel is a freelance agent who uses telepathy to protect his clients and solve their problems. Mandel is a former commando and freedom fighter and assassin himself. Now he is hired to stop the murder and sabotage.
Author Peter F. Hamilton is a rising star among science fiction writers in the United Kingdom, where his trilogy has been published to much acclaim.
Ghostlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Tor, $13.95, 0312862180). As an adult, Truth Jourdemayne, who was orphaned at an early age, is now seeking to answer her own questions about her mother, Katherine, and her father, Thorne Blackburn. In the 1960s Thorne Blackburn lead a religious cult called Opening the Way which was devoted to returning the ancient gods to earth. When his cult failed, Katherine was killed, and Thorne disappeared.
Now 30 years later a group of malevolent followers have revived Blackburn's Circle, or coven, at his estate, and Truth Jourdemayne is steadily attracted to the cult's magical powers and mind control. In this gothic urban fantasy quest she learns the reality of her mother, father, strange powers, and the status of her own soul.
Witchlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Tor, $23.95, 0312861044). Winter Musgrave was a successful trader on Wall Street. Much like Corwin in Nine Princes in Amber, she has a blank past with memories missing or so faint as to be opaque. Winter's life seems possessed -- the bodies of small animals are left on her doorstep, objects explode in her presence, windows and doors unlock and open while she sleeps. She is consumed by the emotional belief that some terrible thing has happened in her past and may still be pursuing her.
"Can you tell if someone's possessed?" asks Winter as she turns to Truth Jourdemayne and her partner in occult and parapsychological research, Dr. Dylan Palmer, for help in retrieving lost memories where the key to the sinister mystery may lie. Winter's revived memories of college days reveal surprising evidence of dabbling in the occult and membership in a magical circle, or coven. Now Winter, who barely survived her first encounter with witchcraft, must reassemble the scattered coven of her university days to defeat the evil that threatens to destroy them all.
Author Marion Zimmer Bradley has received numerous writing awards and is probably best known for her Arthurian novel The Mists of Avalon.
Larry D. Woods, an attorney, is an avid collector of science fiction.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.