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Review by Larry D. Woods
The adventures of innocence and innocents is a constant theme in horror, fantasy, and science fiction as illuminated by Ray Bradbury's haunting short stories and Stephen King's youthful protagonists. Now a new author with a fresh voice and intricate characterizations writes an old story in a magical, innovative way.
Children of Amarid: Book I of the Lon Tobyn Chronicles by David B. Coe introduces Amarid's Children who are the most honored men and women in Tobyn-Ser. They serve along with the Sons and Daughters of the Gods as the leadership of Tobyn-Ser to resolve disputes, to protect the communities, and to heal.
Seemingly, a traitor now works among the Children of Amarid as stories and rumors circulate of murders, attacks, and burned cities. Jaryd and eventually Alayna, his soulmate, may be the only source of salvation for the land. Jaryd is having dreams and nightmares which started a year ago which seem to be visions or signs of future events. His dream foretells an attack on his village, and as a result the outlaws are repulsed. Now many of the villagers fear his strange powers rather than admire him, and consequently Jaryd is ready when his uncle Baden, the Owl-Master, suddenly appears and asks Jaryd to embark on a journey across the land to discover the traitor among the Children. This debut novel in a series is a rich, magical adventure.
In similar mode, The Demon Awakens by R.A. Salvatore also explores with magical referents the issues of integrity and danger in a sweeping fantasy adventure novel. In a volcanic cavern in the enchanted land of Corona, a demon dactyl beast finally screeches awake. Whether the dactyl was "the source or the result of evil" was long debated but mattered little to its victims.
Elbryan Wyndon and his closest friend Jilseponie, better known as Pony, hold the key to preventing the violent apocalypse threatened by the demon dactyl. Their adventures draw together a band of allies: a young monk/mystic capable of powerful magic, a young human trained by the elves as a ranger, and a centaur who has lived for
centuries as the courage of their magic preserves the only hope for survival of their world.
On a different note, Nebula Award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer debuts his first hardcover thriller novel Frameshift. Pierre Tardivel, who is working on the Human Genome Project, has a fifty-fifty chance of having the debilitating neurological Huntington's disease. Tardivel discovers that his insurance company is secretly selecting genetic samples, possibly to defraud its policyholders. Through his investigation, Tardivel realizes an even worse possibility: the insurance company may be weeding out the genetically infirm through murder, and he may be next in the line of fire. Finally, the originator of this scheme of evil may be Ivan Marchenko who was better known at the Treblinka concentration camp as Ivan the Terrible. Author Sawyer is a brilliant stylist who depicts daily life events with a shattered world view.
Larry D. Woods is an attorney and an avid collector of science fiction.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.