Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: re-read

Showing posts with label re-read. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The Bull and the Spear (Eternal Champion: Corum #4) 4Stars

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Title: The Bull and the Spear
Series: Eternal Champion: Corum #4
Author: Michael Moorcock
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 128
Words: 46K

Corum survived the god wars. But now he is alone, as he outlived his wife and all the humans who he knew. There are no more adventures and Corum is bored, depressed and acting like a spoiled, selfish brat. Then he gets some weird visions, Jary-a-conel comes back and zippy-de-da, Corum travels to the future where humanity is on the edge of being wiped out by creatures from Limbo. Corum falls in love with yet another human princess and goes on another adventure to find a mythical spear which controls a mythical bull that can somehow defeat the limbo creatures even though it didn’t before.

Yeah, not loving this book as much as the previous ones. Corum comes across more like a boorish angsty teenager in this book instead of a melancholic lone survivor as in the previous books. It really lessened the tension of the following adventure.

It was a decent adventure and I really enjoyed that part. It was just overshadowed by the moodiness. It felt much more like Elric and his brand of emotion than Corum’s normal cool aloofness. Plus, having the creatures of Limbo coming into the world made them completely unlike the previous war between Chaos and Law. These creatures were more creatures of instinct than beings of malicious intent, which almost made it worse, because the normal way one would fight a reasoning, rational being have to all be thrown out the window. So that aspect really was fun.

I was going to use the omnibus edition cover for each of the books in this second Corum trilogy, but was able to track down these Berkley covers from the massmarket paperback from the mid-80’s. They match the previous covers in style and tone and I like that. Just a little thing, but little things matter.

★★★★☆

From the publisher

In the ancient Castle Erorn, Corum of the Scarlet Robe dwells in isolation and sorrow. He has out-lived his great love, Rhalina, and is tormented by voices in his dreams—a crowd of shadowy figures chanting his name. Unable to ignore their calls for help any longer, he will travel through eons of time to an age of tragedy, where the people of Tuha-na-Cremm Croich, descendants of Rhalina, are persecuted by the giant gods of the Cold Folk.

A great black bull has the power needed to defeat the monsters of a new age. But to tame the bull, the Eternal Champion must travel to the fatally beautiful island of Hy-Breasail to find the invincible and magical Spear Bryionak...

Saturday, August 05, 2023

Taran Wanderer (The Prydain Chronicles #4) 5Stars

Title: Taran Wanderer
Series: The Prydain Chronicles #4
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 130
Words: 57K

This was a coming of age story in the fullest sense of that idea. Taran wanders Prydain trying to find out who his parents were because he wants to marry Eilonwy and thinks he has to have royal blood to marry her. So he sets out and has many adventures and sees the variety of the people of Prydain, the good, the bad and the just plain stupid. He settles disputes, learns a lot of skills and by the end realizes that he is simply Taran and that is good enough.

This is the kind of story that I think every tween and teen boy should read. Unless they are a sports jock type of guy, in which case they won’t be reading anyway, so it doesn’t matter in their case. But even then, they should be forced to read this. Boys need examples of what a man is. A boy does not grow up and mature into a man all by himself. Without the guidance of a man, he will probably grow up to be a big boy. Seeing another boy having adventures and becoming a man is one of the best ways for a boy to realize that he can be something more than just a boy. But it is a choice on his part. Taran is put in circumstances beyond his control for almost all of the story but in each episode he chooses how to react and what to do. He’s a great example and I think that is wonderful.

Part of my enjoyment of the story was just seeing that idea written out. Part of my enjoyment was the nostalgia of re-reading a favorite story from my own teen years. And part of my enjoyment was simply the fact that I was enjoying this re-read so much.

I chose this cover because it is the one I remember getting from our public library in ‘90 or ‘91. It has that scary yet not “too” scary vibe. Perfecto!

★★★★★

From Wikipedia.org

Taran and Gurgi have returned to Caer Dallben after leaving Princess Eilonwy at the royal court of Dinas Rhydnant for education in the ways of a princess. Taran has come to realize that he loves Eilonwy; but although he has proven his worth as a man, he is restless and determined to know his parentage, partly in hopes that noble birth will support a marriage proposal. Dallben the enchanter tells him nothing about his heritage, but gives his approval for Taran and Gurgi to travel on their own in search of an answer. Taran and Gurgi travel first to the Marshes of Morva to ask the witches Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch. Taran has nothing of great value to give in exchange, so Orddu merely tells him of an alternative: that the Mirror of Llunet in the far east Llawgadarn Mountains will show him who he is.

Taran sets out to Cantrev Cadiffor to be outfitted by King Smoit. After a border patrol of Smoit's vassal, Lord Goryon, steals his horse Melynlas and Gurgi's pony, they spend the night with the farm couple Aeddan and Alarca who have lost their son and livestock. Taran is welcomed to remain, but he gently declines and leaves with new respect for common farmers. Taran and Gurgi recover their steeds at Goryon's fortress because Melynlas will have no other rider, and Goryon is relieved to escape the burden of mastering him. At the neighboring stronghold of Lord Gast, they meet their old friend Fflewddur Fflam, who has returned to wandering as a bard, and together they go on to Caer Cadarn, where Smoit welcomes them.

Goryon and Gast have been feuding over their cattle stock for years, especially over Cornillo, an exceptional cow. When their dispute breaks out again the next day, Cornillo and the combined cattle herds of the two lords run off. After they recover the herd, Taran persuades King Smoit to resort to a wiser judgment to settle the continual dispute: The rival cantrev lords shall resow the fields of Aeddan, which have been ruined by their feud, and Cornillo is given to Aeddan as further compensation, although the lords shall have her next calves. The childless widower Smoit later offers to adopt Taran as his son and future King of Cadiffor. Taran declines, but says he will gladly accept if he discovers noble birth.

Continuing eastward, they cross the river Ystrad. Taran's pet crow Kaw reveals the hiding place of a polished bone the size of a toothpick, which has been stashed high in a tree. Fflewddur's mount Llyan, a giant cat, brings a green and yellow frog, who is really their old friend Doli the dwarf. Doli has been transformed during his investigation of a deadly threat to the Fair Folk: A human wizard named Morda has attained the power to enchant them, and to raid their underground realms. Taran, Gurgi and Fflewddur investigate Morda's abode, but are all captured. Morda begins to boast to his captives, explaining that during a winter many years ago, he was sought out by the enchantress Angharad, who was searching for her kidnapped daughter Eilonwy, but left her to die from exhaustion. Among her possessions, Morda found an amulet, a gift to her from the Fair Folk which became the primary source of his power, and an empty book, which he gave to Glew when the latter begged him to make him a sorcerer.

Morda turns Fflewddur and Gurgi into a hare and a mouse, respectively, but fails to transform Taran. Taran deduces that the bone splinter Kaw found is Morda's little finger, in which he has stored his own life force to attain immortality and then cut off of his hand to keep it safe, and that Morda is unable to harm Taran so long as he possesses it. As Taran and Morda struggle over the bone, Morda inadvertently snaps it, causing his own death and ending the spell which transformed the companions. After recovering Angharad's amulet, Taran reflects that it could make him powerful, but decides to return it to Doli's people, the Fair Folk, who made it. Just before they part ways, Doli identifies the ceremonial horn Eilonwy recovered from the ruins of Caer Colur, which Taran still carries with him, as a magical item with which Taran can issue one single call for aid from the Fair Folk.

Taran, Gurgi, and Fflewddur camp next with the ruffian Dorath and his band. Their hosts suspect a quest for treasure and offer guidance to Llunet, in exchange for a share. The guests try to slip away early next morning, but Dorath prevents it and extracts a wager on hand-to-hand combat with Taran. He cheats and takes Taran's sword, then departs.

An old shepherd with decrepit holdings, Craddoc, welcomes the companions next. From Taran's account of the mission, Craddoc reveals that Taran is, in fact, his son. Fflewddur departs, but Taran and Gurgi remain and labor beside Craddoc. Taran and Craddoc develop a bond, but Taran also resents the end of his dream of noble birth. During the next winter, however, Craddoc suffers a bad fall down a mountain gorge and Taran is unable to rescue him. Near death, Craddoc reveals that he merely posed as Taran's father to gain himself a son. The gorge and the weather threaten Taran as well, and he finally summons the Fair Folk, who are able to save only Taran and Gurgi.

After burying Craddoc, Taran and Gurgi continue eastward, across Little Avren to the Free Commots, and stay for a while with lucky Llonio and his family on the banks of the river. Next, Taran assists and learns the trades of three great craftmasters: Hevydd the smith, Dwyvach the weaver, and Annlaw the potter. He learns enough that he would be welcome to remain as an assistant, and gains a new sword, a new cloak, and a new bowl, but still cannot find fulfillment. While ferrying the wares of Annlaw to Commot Isav, he leads the poor farming village in resistance of a raid by Dorath, killing half the band at no loss of life on the farmers' side.

Upon Taran's return, Annlaw tells him the way to the Mirror of Llunet, which he knows about, but has never visited. After a short journey, Taran and Gurgi find the Mirror: a pool of water at the mouth of a cave beyond the Lake of Llunet. Taran gazes into it, but Dorath interrupts and defiles the pool. He and Taran meet in a swordfight, in which Taran's old sword shatters on his new one and Dorath flees. Taran does not pursue but returns to Annlaw, whom he tells that the Mirror showed his own reflection and nothing more. He does not feel cheated by Orddu, for he has seen what he has become by his own labor and all he has learned on the way. With new confidence in himself, he and Gurgi depart back to Caer Dallben.

Friday, July 28, 2023

A Gathering of Widowmakers (Widowmaker #4) 4Stars

Title: A Gathering of Widowmakers
Series: Widowmaker #4
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 198
Words: 68K

Written seven years after the supposed end to the Widowmaker trilogy, Resnick handles it much better than he did with the sequel to Santiago.

It felt very 2 story line’ish. One was about the original Widowmaker teaching the newest Widowmaker a much needed lesson and the second was of all 3 Widowmakers fighting an outlaw who could multiply himself. They were semi-tied together but it came across more as 2 serialized stories being put together. The whole Widowmaker series IS pretty much a serial, so it wasn’t a big stretch but I just noticed it more this time around.

This pretty much completes my re-read of Resnick’s stuff that I enjoyed in the past, so what comes next will be all new to me. He’s got a 50% success rate, so I’m not expecting a lot. Just hoping I don’t get bored.

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

When every version of the most lethal bounty hunter in the universe comes out to play, you get three times the action from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author.

He may be retired from the bounty hunting game, but Jefferson Nighthawk is still one of the three most dangerous men alive. The other two? His clones.

Trained by Nighthawk himself, Jeff can take down men no one else can. His one flaw is his mind. Jeff can only see in black and white, which leads to him killing an innocent man—and shooting another version of himself.

That would be Jason Newman, the second clone, the one who gave Nighthawk the peaceful future he’s now enjoying. He may have a new face and a new name, but he’s Nighthawk through and through, with the brains and humanity to match. Which is how he winds up on the wrong end of Jeff’s burner. Now, Jason’s in the hospital waiting for his organs to regenerate.

To teach the impulsive Jeff a lesson, Nighthawk lures him to a lawless planet where the galaxy’s most wanted are there for the taking. And where Jeff will learn how to match wits with both of the killers who came before him . . .

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

The King of the Swords (Eternal Champion: Corum #3) 4Stars

Title: The King of the Swords
Series: Eternal Champion: Corum #3
Author: Michael Moorcock
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 127
Words: 45K

While I still enjoyed this, I did not find the story as engaging as the previous two. Part of that was just how weak the gods of Law are. They control 10 of the 15 planes of existence and yet the single god of Chaos is more powerful alone then all of the gods of Law combined. They came across as weak and effete. So when I found out at the end that Kwll and his brother Rhynn had killed ALL the gods, both of Chaos and Law, I didn’t shed a tear. It did make me wonder what that meant for the Cosmic Balance, as Kwll seemed to go out of his way to emphasize how he and Rhynn didn’t believe in the Cosmic Balance and thus weren’t under control by the rules of it.

That kind of philosophizing permeated this book much more than in the previous two. Corum gets to meet Elric and Erekose (other incarnations of the Eternal Champion. Erekose is the only one who remembers every incarnation though and maaaaan, is he a whiny pants cry baby) and Moorcock waxes on (yes Mr Miyagi!) about the nature of reality, blah, blah, blah. I think the ideas here are great for teens and young adults to be exposed to, because thinking about the nature of reality is important. People are ignoring biological facts today, which is reality, and are reaping the consequences by going insane.

We do get to see Corum go whizzing around in one of the flying boats and boy howdy, does he go all over the place. He travels his own world, he travels to other planes of existence and has adventures. He even goes to Limbo. I would say this ends happily with him and Rhalina being at peace, but knowing there is another trilogy to come means Corum is going to get boned somehow. Eternal Champions are Eternally Unhappy.

Why Moorcock chose that line of reasoning is still a mystery to me. Maybe it was pure marketing? When you’re writing for the teen and YA crowd, tortured anguished heros usually sell better. I’d like to believe that he had better reasons than that but I don’t care enough to find out. I don’t even know if there are any biographies on the man. He is just a name on the cover to me and I suspect it will be better for me and everyone, if he stays that way.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.com

A spell - determined to have been cast by the forces of Chaos - forces the inhabitants of Corum's plane to war with each other (including the City in the Pyramid). Desperate to stop the slaughter, Corum, Rhalina and Jhary-a-Conel travel to the last five planes, ruled by Mabelode, the King of the Swords. Rhalina is taken hostage by the forces of Chaos and Corum has several encounters with the forces of Chaos, including Earl Glandyth-a-Krae.

Corum also meets two other aspects of the Eternal Champion: Elric and Erekosë, with all three seeking the mystical city of Tanelorn for their own purposes. After a brief adventure in the "Vanishing Tower", the other heroes depart and Corum and Jhary arrive at their version of Tanelorn. Corum discovers one of the "Lost Gods", the being Kwll, who is imprisoned and cannot be freed until whole. Corum offers Kwll his hand, on the condition that he aid them against Mabelode. Kwll accepts the terms, but reneges on the bargain until persuaded to assist. Corum is also stripped of his artificial eye, which belongs to Rhynn - actually the mysterious giant Corum had previously encountered. Kwll transports Corum and Jhary to the court of Mabelode, with the pair fleeing with Rhalina when Kwll directly challenges the Chaos God.

In a final battle Corum avenged his family by killing Glandyth-a-Krae and decimating the last of Chaos' mortal forces. Kwll later located Corum and revealed that all the gods - of both Chaos and Law - have been slain in order to free humanity and allow it to shape its own destiny.

Corum: The Coming of Chaos Trilogy (2000 “Review”)

Sunday, June 25, 2023

The Castle of Llyr (The Prydain Chronicles #3) 5Stars

Title: The Castle of Llyr
Series: The Prydain Chronicles #3
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 102
Words: 43K

From Wikipedia.org

Eighteen months after the destruction of the Black Cauldron, Dallben the enchanter has decided that Eilonwy, as a princess and last of the line of the House of Llyr, needs a proper royal lady's education that he cannot provide. He sends her to reside at Dinas Rhydnant, a royal court on the Isle of Mona, in the west of Prydain. Taran and Gurgi escort her to Mona on a ship belonging to Prince Rhun, a cheerful but incompetent youth. Taran is finally aware of his feelings for Eilonwy, but is saddened that he is a commoner and she a princess and envies Rhun's noble birth.

While Eilonwy is introduced to the tedium of life at court, Taran encounters his old companion Fflewddur Fflam—a minor king who lives as a wandering bard—and a shoemaker who turns out to be Prince Gwydion, traveling incognito. Gwydion tells Taran that Eilonwy is in grave danger, very likely from the evil sorceress Achren, from whom Taran and Eilonwy escaped in The Book of Three. Taran and Gwydion witness Chief Steward Magg leave the castle at night to signal a ship at sea. The next morning, Magg and Eilonwy do not show for breakfast and it is concluded that Magg has kidnapped the princess. King Rhuddlum organizes search parties, with Prince Rhun in charge of one. The king assigns Taran to the same group and personally asks him to protect his son Rhun during the search, confiding to Taran that he and Queen Teleria hope to betroth their son to Eilonwy. Although resentful and envious, Taran vows to ensure Rhun's safety.

Shortly before dusk, Rhun separates from the group. Taran, Fflewddur, and Gurgi pursue, and the next morning they find Rhun at an abandoned hut in the woods. Inside, they find a small book of blank pages that Rhun keeps for himself, along with a sheaf of notes belonging to the former resident, Glew, a man who experimented with size-enhancement potions. As the companions prepare to leave, they come face to face with Llyan, a mountain cat that Glew made larger than a horse, seemingly intending to eat them. Fflewddur entrances the cat with his harp playing, allowing the companions to escape.

Taran's pet crow Kaw spots Magg and Eilonwy heading for the river Alaw on horseback. Reaching the river, Rhun finds Eilonwy's bauble and tracks indicating Magg and Eilonwy continued their journey by boat. The companions hastily construct a raft to follow downstream, but it disintegrates before reaching the mouth of the river. While repairing the raft, Rhun tumbles into a deep pit and causes a landslide that traps the group. Exploring nearby caverns, the companions eventually find Glew, who is now a giant trapped in the caverns by his enhanced size. The companions promise him Dallben's aid in creating an antidote to his potion, while Glew promises to lead them out of the caverns. Instead, Glew takes the companions to a dead-end and traps them. Glew explains he already knows how to make an antidote that will decrease his size, but he must kill one of the companions for a final ingredient. Glew leaves, promising to free the others if one of them agrees to be a sacrifice for his antidote. Rhun surprises everyone by volunteering to sacrifice himself, believing he is burden to all and incompetent to rule.

Before Glew returns, the companions notice an exit above their heads and convince Rhun to let them help him reach it. As he escapes, Rhun promises to return to the city and bring help. When Glew returns, Taran, Fflewddur, and Gurgi break out and attack him. Rhun does not leave the area but instead doubles back, guided by the light of Eilonwy's bauble. Having grown accustomed to the darkness of the caverns, Glew is overwhelmed by the bauble's light, allowing the companions to escape. Taran discovers that under the light of the bauble, Rhun's book of blank pages is revealed to be filled with writing, though none of them can read the language.

Reaching the mouth of Alaw on the reconstructed raft, the companions reunite with Gwydion, who reveals that he has visited the northeast offshore ruin of Caer Colur, the ancestral home of the House of Llyr, where Eilonwy's grandmother Queen Regat was the last in the line of women to reign. Against Regat's wishes, Eilonwy's mother, Angharad, married the common man Geraint and left Caer Colur, taking a book of the House of Llyr's most powerful enchantments, as well as the Golden Pelydryn necessary to read them. Gwydion tells Taran and the companions that Eilonwy's bauble is, in fact, the long-lost Golden Pelydryn, and that the book of seemingly blank pages found in Glew's house is actually Angharad's book of spells. Gwydion explains that Eilonwy had not been sent to live with Achren to study magic as a child, as Eilonwy had believed; rather, Achren had kidnapped the princess and taken her to Spiral Castle with the intention of harnessing the House of Llyr's magic for her own ends.

Gwydion explains he has seen Achren, Magg, and Eilonwy arrive at Caer Colur with several mercenary guards. Achren hopes to rule Prydain by controlling Eilonwy's mind while also awakening her full ancestral magical power. That night, Gwydion rows their raft to a point of land below the seaward walls that protect the ruins of Caer Colur from the being flooded by the ocean, hiding the book and bauble before they begin their search for the princess. Taran climbs to the tower room where Eilonwy resides, only to find that she does not recognize him or the names of her former companions. She flees from her room and Taran follows, but he is arrested by Magg. Gwydion, Fflewddur, and Gurgi then struggle with Magg and several guards, until Eilonwy and Achren appear, the princess now fully under the witch's control. Achren needs the spell book to master her control of the House of Llyr's magic, and Rhun stupidly reveals that he and the companions know its location. Achren turns to Taran and offers a bargain: she will restore Eilonwy's memories of him and allow them to wed if the young man helps her acquire the book and bauble. Rather than force Taran to decide or be punished for refusing, Gwydion reveals the location of the items.

Eilonwy is given the two heirlooms and begins to examine the book in the light of the bauble. While doing so, she begins to resist Achren's spell. Calling upon the full power of the Pelydryn, she incinerates the book in a column of crimson flame rather than let it be abused. Achren aims her fury at Magg, who responds by opening the gates that protect the castle from the sea. He then escapes on the only ship with his surviving guards. As the castle floods, Taran loses consciousness.

Taran awakes to discover the companions have reached the shallows alive, thanks to the still-enchanted Llyan pulling them up the beach. Eilonwy explains how she was kidnapped by Magg and lost her bauble en route to Caer Colur. Before leaving the sea, she finds a ceremonial horn that has washed ashore, remarking that this artifact is "all that's left of Caer Colur." She gives the horn to Taran as token of her pledge that she will not forget him during her tenure at Dinas Rhydnant. Having no gift of his own to give to her, Taran can pledge only his word in return, but notes that the word of an Assistant Pig-Keeper "shall do very well indeed." Taran then mentions the hope of Prince Rhun's parents that he and Eilonwy will be engaged. Eilonwy scolds him for taking such a hope seriously.

I am absolutely loving this re-read. Every book so far has lived beyond my expectations from my 2006 read. Simple but solid literary fare, lacking the seasoning of a Sanderson that book gluttons have come to expect now, but giving a reader everything they actually need without all the extraneous literary fat that eventually kills. We are a world of ultra-obese readers, enabling authors to shove literary fat directly down our throats. We are the enablers of our own destruction. Well, you all are the enablers. I’m a lone voice in the wilderness, eating locusts and honey telling you fatsos to kick the habit. I don’t expect you to listen to me though.

Ok, enough of that! (for this review anyway)

This introduced the romance element in an age appropriate manner. Both Taran and Eilonwy are growing up and to ignore this part of life would be an oversight on the author’s part. He is showing both these characters becoming adults and I think he handles it quite well. Besides the series long growth arc of both Taran and Eilonwy, we also got a mini-arc of Prince Rhun. He’s a bumbling doofus, not because he’s stupid, but just because he’s one of those people who don’t quite go as smoothly through life as the rest of us. But by the end you could see he was beginning to find his footing. That was really good to see.

While I suspect I would not be giving these books 5stars if I was reading them for the first time now, the fact that I am re-reading them, enjoying them and finding a much needed respite from bloated series, bloated stories and even, “world building” (gasp! Say it ain’t so!), means I having the time of my life with these.

On a side note, I am going to start using a regular star rating in the title of my posts. Google Search Console is choking its guts out over my use of “★” in the title because Wordpress will redirect any search queries to a version of the page without them as it comes out as a long-ass string of text. I just have to go and complicate things, don’t I? Well, c’est la vie...

★★★★★

Thursday, June 08, 2023

Widowmaker Unleashed (Widowmaker #3) ★★★★☆

Title: Widowmaker Unleashed
Series: Widowmaker #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 180
Words: 56K

From the Publisher & Bookstooge.blog

He was the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, the consummate killing machine, a man known only as the Widowmaker. Now, after a century of being cryogenically frozen, Jefferson Nighthawk has a new lease on life--and new enemies who want him dead.... Jefferson Nighthawk has been awakened from his frozen sleep, his deadly disease cured. But although he still has the experience and instincts of the legendary Widowmaker, Nighthawk is now biologically in his sixties. His reflexes slowed by age, looking only to live out his days in peace, he decides on a quiet retirement on a Frontier world. Easier said than done. For while Nighthawk lay in cryogenic sleep, his two clones were killing in his name, leaving a trail of vengeful enemies in their wake. Nighthawk has one advantage: no one knows who he is just yet. But once word gets out that he's back, every assassin on the Frontier will be out to make a rep by gunning him down. Suddenly the Widowmaker has only two choices: pick up his weapons...or face death again--and this time for keeps.

So instead of changing his name and looks, he creates a third clone and personally trains him. This still doesn’t take enough heat off of Nighthawk, so he and the young clone stage the elder Widowmaker’s death in an epic showdown, one where Nighthawk almost does die. Now the world thinks he is dead and the younger Widowmaker can make his own name while Jefferson Nighthawk can live out his days in peace on some dirtball of a world.

Reading my review from ‘14, I mentioned how short this felt compared to the previous stories about the Widowmaker. I realized this time around that is because this is novel is simply a collection of serialized stories instead of being one long drawn out story. Yes, it is all connected, but it is very much compartmentalized. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you are aware of it.

Man, the original Widowmaker is a jerk. At first it is understandable. He thought all his enemies were dead and now he finds out his clones have made him a bunch more, that HE has to deal with. But then his mule headed refusal to do anything but stand and duke it out just got my back up. Because he almost whines the entire time about it. If he had immediately gotten a new identity and a new face (which would have been wicked easy when they were rebuilding him from the ravages of the eplasia), none of it would have mattered.

Of course, we as readers get some cracking good action out of it, so don’t take my complaining that seriously, hahahaaa. So, he’s a jerk. But my goodness, he’s a wicked smart jerk. He’s learned over his lifetime and he puts that learning to good knowledge here.

Much like Santiago, this book was supposed to be the end of the Widowmaker series. Santiago was supposed to be a standalone and the Widowmaker was supposed to be a trilogy. So there is one more adventure for the Widowmaker. But which Widowmaker? I can’t remember, so it’ll be like a brand new book to me.

★★★★☆

Thursday, May 25, 2023

The Queen of the Swords (Eternal Champion: Corum #2) ★★★★★

Title: The Queen of the Swords
Series: Eternal Champion: Corum #2
Author: Michael Moorcock
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 123
Words: 44K

From Wikipedia.com

On another five planes, the forces of Chaos - led by Xiombarg, Queen of the Swords - reign supreme and are on the verge on eradicating the last resistance from the forces of Law. The avatars of the Bear and Dog gods plot with Earl Glandyth-a-Krae to murder Corum and return Arioch to the Fifteen Planes. Guided by Arkyn, Corum, Rhalina and companion Jhary-a-Conel cross the planes and encounter the King Without A Country, the last of his people who in turn is seeking the City in the Pyramid. The group locate the City, which is in fact a floating arsenal powered by advanced technology and inhabited by a people originally from Corum's world and his distant kin.

Besieged by the forces of Chaos, the City requires certain rare minerals to continue to power their weapons. Corum and Jhary attempt to locate the minerals and also encounter Xiombarg, who learns of Corum's identity. Corum slows Xiombarg's forces by defeating their leader, Prince Gaynor the Damned. Xiombarg is goaded into attacking the City directly in revenge for Arioch's banishment. Arkyn provides the minerals and confronts Xiombarg, who has manifested in a vulnerable state. As Arkyn banishes Xiombarg, Corum and his allies devastate the forces of Chaos. Glandyth-a-Krae, however, escapes and seeks revenge.

Alternate Synopsis

In the planes over which she rules, Xiombarg—a Greater God and one of the Lords of Chaos, known as the "Queen of the Swords"—is winning the battle against the humanoid inhabitants. She continues the fight in Corum's plane, sending Prince Gaynor the Damned to direct the barbarian armies.

Corum, with Jhary-a-Conel and Rhalina, crosses the planes and find a world claimed by Chaos with plains of dried blood and other outlandish geography. They meet the King Without A Country, the last of his people who is seeking the City in the Pyramid. They find the city which turns out to be a floating one that originated in Corums own world - and the inhabitants are his kin. The city is under intermittent attack and for the moment its superior technology defends it. It could return to Corum's world but needs special minerals to provide sufficient energy. They are able to send Corum and his companions back to seek the minerals in his own world. There he finds the last human city under threat from a monstrous army of barbarians and chaos allies. He seeks out Gaynor and defeats him in single combat. With Gaynor banished the barbarian armies are largely leaderless but still a terrible threat. Arkyn, a lord of law, supplies the materials needed and they are sent back to Xiombarg's worlds. At the same time the barbarian armies crash against the last city standing. At the last moment the Sky city comes between the planes to help the defenders. Driven by anger Xiombarg follows the Floating city through the rift between the planes. This is in violation of the Cosmic Balance and the balance sends her back and restores Donblas, Arkyn's brother lord of law. The sky ships of the City destroy the barbarian armies with their wondrous weapons.

In many ways, I think the success of this book is because of its contrast with the Elric books. Elric is also an aspect of the Eternal Champion, but he is fighting on the side of Chaos. In fact, his patron is Arioch, the Prince of Swords, whom Corum killed in the previous book. Corum is fighting for Law but there are several times where he and Elric team up together as a greater aspect of the Eternal Champion, thus they are on the same side. That dichotomy is fun to read about but Moorcock doesn’t make it a point here, you have to have read his other stories for it to actually be seen.

The other fun thing is seeing how each eternal warrior views the other side. In Elric, he at one point goes to a world completely governed by Law. It is presented as a dead and static world with nothing alive, just monuments that last forever. In this book, Corum goes to a world completely run by Chaos and it is simply random destruction and presented as untenable for a stable mind. In both worlds, in both stories, each respective Lord of Chaos/Law lectures their Champion about the dangers of untrammeled Other. Chaos warns Elric of Law freezing the universe into a static perfection and Arkyn warns Corum about the entropy of Chaos which will lead to ultimate destruction.

This is also where the Companion is introduced. The Eternal Champion usually has a companion to help him and said companion is as eternal as the Champion. But where the Champion doesn’t remember his other aspects, the Companion sometimes does and this allows him to be of great use. But his end is usually as sad as the Champions. Jhary-a-Conel is as much a plot device as a real character but is nonetheless integral to the story. In many ways, he’s more fleshed out than Corum’s human love interest, but once you start reading more Eternal Warrior stories and see what happens to the Companion, you also realize what a completely melancholic character he has to be. So there’s almost no point in fleshing him out because you know he’s going to disappear into the next realm at some point (the best scenario) or he’s going to die horribly and be reincarnated again. Poor guy.

This is just as good this time as the previous time I read these. I think Corum really is one of Moorcock’s best creations and I sure hope the rest of the series holds up as well.

★★★★★

Corum: The Coming of Chaos Trilogy (2000 “Review”)

Monday, May 15, 2023

The Black Cauldron (The Prydain Chronicles #2) ★★★★★

Title: The Black Cauldron
Series: The Prydain Chronicles #2
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 108
Words: 47K

From Wikipedia.org

More than a year after the defeat of Arawn Death-Lord's army and death of his warlord the Horned King,[5] Prince Gwydion calls allies to a council hosted by Dallben, one of Taran's guardians. Men are disappearing throughout Prydain, while an increasing number of the undead Cauldron-Born have joined Arawn's forces. At the council, Gwydion reveals an elaborate plan to steal the Black Cauldron, the magical artifact used to create the Cauldron-Born, from Arawn. King Morgant will lead the main force in an attack on Arawn's stronghold of Annuvin, while a smaller raiding party led by Gwydion breaks off to enter by a mountain pass known only to Coll that will allow them to steal the cauldron undetected. Three men have been designated to remain behind with pack animals to serve as a rearguard and secure the retreat: Adaon, the warrior son of chief bard Taliesin; Taran; and Ellidyr, Prince of Pen-Llarcau, who is arrogant, wiry, strong, and threadbare. Ellidyr disdains Taran for his place on the farm and his unknown parentage. Taran envies Ellidyr for his noble birth, despite Dallben's counsel that that youngest son of a minor king has only "his name and his sword".[6] Both are dismayed to share a role with no chance for glory.

In spite of the growing feud between Taran and Ellidyr, all goes smoothly until Gwydion's raiders find that the cauldron has disappeared. The company rejoins the rearguard in haste to escape the newly-deployed Huntsmen of Annuvin. Meanwhile, the uninvited Princess Eilonwy and man/beast Gurgi have caught up with the quest from behind. Gwydion and Coll are split off from the party but, thanks to Doli of the Fair Folk, all others find refuge underground in a Fair Folk waypost maintained by Gwystyl. From Gwystyl and his pet crow, Kaw, the companions learn that the cauldron has been stolen by the three witches Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch, who reside in the bleak Marshes of Morva.[a] When they depart the waypost, Ellidyr rides southward,[a] determined to retrieve the cauldron single-handedly. With the Huntsmen abroad, Adaon leads Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Doli, and the wandering bard Fflewddur Fflam in pursuit of Ellidyr. When they are attacked and scattered, Adaon is mortally wounded and Taran inherits his brooch, whose gift and burden is prophetic dreams and visions. With its guidance, he gathers and leads all but Doli toward the Marshes. From the fringe, Taran guides his small party through the Marshes to temporary safety and leads a pursuing band of Huntsmen to their deaths.

Orddu and her sisters refuse to give up the cauldron unless Taran and his companions offer something of, in their judgment, equivalent value. After the sisters reject the magical artifacts offered by his companions, Taran is compelled to barter Adaon's brooch. The companions then try to destroy the cauldron, but learn from the witches that it can only be destroyed by a living person who knowingly and willingly climbs in to die. Horrified, the companions resolve to take the cauldron to Dallben to seek an alternative solution.

At the ford of the river Tevyn, the heavy and cumbersome cauldron sinks into the riverbed. Ellidyr arrives and offers to help extricate the cauldron if the others will credit him for the whole enterprise. Taran agrees, but Ellidyr reneges on their bargain and rides off with the cauldron alone when they have freed it. The companions then encounter Morgant and his army. In Morgant's camp they see Ellidyr beaten and bound and realize Morgant has betrayed them, seeking to claim the cauldron for his own and generate his own army of Cauldron-Born to conquer Prydain. Morgant offers to spare the companions' lives if Taran will enter his personal service. Doli arrives invisibly and cuts the companions' bonds. Mortally wounded, Ellidyr rushes the cauldron while Taran and the others engage Morgant and forces himself inside, destroying the cauldron. Gwydion, King Smoit, and his army arrive and defeat Morgant in battle. As Taran, Eilonwy, and Gurgi take leave of Gwydion at the verge of Caer Dallben, Gwydion observes that Ellidyr has, in death, found the honor he so dearly sought in life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I remembered the uppity prince and his sacrifice but the whole thing with the three witches and the swamp? Didn’t remember that at all. It was rather delightful.

This had a lot of growing for Taran as he is now the one in charge, at least nominally, partway through the story. He begins to realize that being a leader isn’t all swinging swords and glory. It is hard work, it is unrewarding work and it is work that HAS to be done.

I thought the author handled the tension with the forces of Arawn just right. The wolf warriors who grew stronger with each one that was killed were awesome. Sadly, their interaction with Taran and Co wasn’t as fully explored as I could have hoped for. But for a book that is only 108 pages, I can’t really complain. They were scary, they were powerful and Taran managed to outwit or outrun them.

Eilonwy continues to be a really funny character to read. She’s not meant to be funny and it’s not a comic kind of funny, but her absolute conviction that she is right and her I told you so’s just amuse me. She’s the quintessential teenager but without being completely in rebellion to authority. It’s a breath of fresh air to have a heroine who is feisty but can’t lift a sword like Taran. She’s a real female, not a female while actually being a man. She’s certainly not helpless, she just has to approach things differently.

I would say this re-read is going smashingly. Both books so far are 5stars. That’s a really good track record.

★★★★★

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Enders Game (Enderverse #1) ★★★★☆

Title: Enders Game
Series: Enderverse #1
Authors: Orson Card
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 251
Words: 106K

From Wikipedia.com

Humanity has mastered interplanetary spaceflight and they encounter an insect-like alien race called the Formics, and war breaks out. The humans achieve a narrow victory, but fearing future threats of a Formic invasion, create the International Fleet (I.F.) and train gifted children to become commanders at their orbiting Battle School.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is born a "Third": a rare exception to Earth's two-child policy, allowed by the government due to the promise shown by his two older siblings. The eldest, Peter, is a highly intelligent sociopath who sadistically bullies Ender. His sister, Valentine, is more sympathetic towards him. The I.F. remove Ender's monitoring device when he is six years old, seemingly ending his chances of Battle School. He is bullied by a fellow student, Stilson, but Ender turns violent and attacks him. Unknown to Ender, Stilson later dies from his wounds. I.F. Colonel Hyrum Graff visits Ender after hearing about the fight. Ender attests that by showing superiority now, he has prevented future struggle. Graff offers him a place in the Battle School.

Once at Battle School, Graff and the other leaders covertly work to keep Ender isolated from the other cadets. Ender finds solace in playing a simulated adventure game that involves killing a giant. The cadets participate in competitive war simulations in zero gravity, where Ender quickly masters the game with novel tactics. To further wear Ender down, he is promoted to command a new army composed of raw recruits, then pitted against multiple armies at once, but Ender's success continues. Ender's jealous ex-commander, Bonzo Madrid, draws him into a fight outside the simulation, and once again seeking to preemptively stop future conflicts Ender uses excessive force, and like Stilson before him Bonzo dies from his injuries.

Meanwhile on Earth, Peter Wiggin uses a global communication system to post political essays under the pseudonym "Locke", hoping to establish himself as a respected orator and then as a powerful politician. Valentine, despite not trusting Peter, agrees to publish alongside him as "Demosthenes". Their essays are soon taken seriously by the government. Though Graff is told their true identities, he recommends that it be kept a secret, because their writings are politically useful.

Ender, now ten years old, is promoted to Command School. After some preliminary battles in the simulator, he is introduced to Mazer Rackham, a hero from the Formic war who saw key patterns in the Formic behavior. Ender participates in space combat simulations created and controlled by Mazer. As the skirmishes become harder, he is joined by some of his friends from the Battle School as sub-commanders. Despite this, Ender becomes depressed by the battles, his isolation, and by the way Mazer treats him.

For his final test, under observation by I.F.'s commanders, Ender finds his fleet far outnumbered by Formic ships surrounding their homeworld. Hoping to earn himself expulsion from the school for his ruthlessness, he sacrifices his entire fleet to fire a Molecular Disruption Device at the planet. The Device destroys the planet and the surrounding Formic fleet. He is shocked to hear the I.F. commanders cheering in celebration. Mazer informs Ender that the "simulations" he has been fighting were real battles, directing human spacecraft against Formic fleets via an ansible, and that Ender has won the war. Despite Graff congratulating him, Ender becomes more depressed, realizing that he has committed genocide and become just like his brother.

Ender spends several weeks isolated before recovering. He learns that war has broken out on Earth. Ender and Valentine join a group of space colonists.

On their new planet, Ender becomes the colony's governor. He discovers a structure that matches the simulation of the giant game from Battle School, and inside finds the dormant egg of a Formic queen. The queen telepathically communicates to Ender that before the first Formic war, they had assumed humans were a non-sentient race, for want of collective consciousness, but realized their mistake too late. Instead, she had reached out to Ender to draw him here and requests that he take the egg to a new planet for the Formics to colonize.

Ender takes the egg and, with information from the queen, writes The Hive Queen under the alias "Speaker for the Dead". Peter, now the leader of Earth and age 77 with a failing heart, recognizes Ender as the author of The Hive Queen. He asks Ender to write a book about him, which Ender titles The Hegemon. The combined works create a new type of funeral, in which the Speaker for the Dead tells the whole and unapologetic story of the deceased, adopted by many on Earth and its colonies. Ender and Valentine leave the colony and travel to many other worlds, looking for a safe place to establish the unborn Hive Queen.

SEPARATOR

After reading, and immensely enjoying, the First Formic War trilogy, I realized that I had never read the original Enderverse saga. I had read Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, but never delved beyond that. Mainly I suspect because I’d read enough of Card’s other works that put me off of him (mainly the Homecoming series and Alvin the Maker series). But because I’m a completionist at heart, I realized there was a gap in my Enderverse reading that should be fixed. Plus, The Second Formic War trilogy appears to be on hold as the second book was published in ‘19 and there’s no definite date for the final book yet.

I’ve read Ender’s Game multiple times over the years. I’ve never read the original short story and I suspect I never will. I’ll stick to the fully fleshed out novel.

This time around, it struck me that the main theme of the story seems to be that survival of a species justifies any and all action. Don’t get me wrong, if the bugs had attacked Earth for real, I’d totally be advocating for complete and utter xenocide. But I don’t have to worry about that, so it’s the “idea” that Card plays with here and it’s as an “idea” that I reacted to. I do not believe that survival of a species is the be all and end all. That obviously comes from my worldview as a Christian. On an individual level, Christians have been tortured and killed for Millennia in attempts to get them to deny Jesus Christ. When they don’t, bad things happen. They give up their life because what they believe is greater than the circumstance of death or having their fingernails pulled out and their joints broken (a common tactic experienced by many Chinese Christians in the 20^th and 21^st century). So if an individual can hold that something is greater than himself, cannot an entire species do the same?

That was the thought process swirling around in my head as I was reading this time around. In the end, Card allows Ender to atone (even though it wasn’t Ender’s will that had destroyed the bugs, hence the “game” part of the title) by giving him a Formic queen egg.

Now I want to go re-watch the movie!

★★★★☆

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Widowmaker Reborn (Widowmaker #2) ★★★★☆

Title: Widowmaker Reborn
Series: Widowmaker #2
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 198
Words: 64K

From the Publisher and Bookstooge.blog

Jefferson Nighthawk, once the galaxy's most feared killer, is cloned again and given a new mission. This time he is not only armed with the Widowmaker's killing skills, but also with his lifetime of knowledge. Nighthawk's new mission involves the rescue of a corrupt politician's daughter, and the assassination of the rebel leader who holds her captive. But the daughter puts a wrinkle in the plan when she offers her father's fortune if Nighthawk kills her father instead. While the odds are overwhelming, the price may be right.

So Jefferson, the name the clone has decided to go by, finds out that the daughter and the rebel leader are one and the same. He shacks up with the girl, wipes out the corrupt politician and survives. Thus he has to deal with the fact that in a couple of years he too will come down with esplasia.

SEPARATOR

Good stuff! Just as good as last time. I LIKED this version of the Widowmaker. He’s everything I want in a main character. He’s mature. He’s experienced. He’s knowledgeable. He is in control of himself and the situation he finds himself in. I love the fact that he thinks the people who cloned him are scum of the earth and that they will doublecross him as soon as they can. But that doesn’t deter him from doing what he sees as his duty to the original Widowmaker and to himself. He’s a survivor.

I had completely forgotten that the daughter and the rebel leader were the same person, so that little twist was nice to experience all over again. The battle at the end where the Widowmaker and his little crew take down the politician was nice too. Just the right amount of tension and blood and guts and a great big “ka bloom” of an ending so I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth (well, I bought this back in ‘14, so technically I was getting my money’s worth AGAIN, which is even better!).

As much as I like Resnick’s Santiago duology, I wonder if the Widowmaker series would make a better starting place. Just because the first three Widowmaker books were all published in three years and the fourth was done much later, just like the original Santiago was supposed to be a standalone until much later. As a standalone, I think Santiago is Resnick’s best. But as a series, Widowmaker is better.

Once again, I am really digging this new version of the cover. The one I read back in ‘14 definitely left a lot to be desired. While I like the bazooka Widowmaker from the first book better, I like the overall composition of the military looking Widowmaker with the text and background. It just has the “right feel” to me for conveying the lethalness of the Widowmaker. You know you’re getting a kickass story with a cover like this.

★★★★☆

Saturday, April 08, 2023

The Knight of the Swords (Eternal Champion: Corum #1) ★★★★★

Title: The Knight of the Swords
Series: Eternal Champion: Corum #1
Author: Michael Moorcock
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 147
Words: 52K

From Wikipedia.org/The_Swords_Trilogy

The Knight of the Swords is the first appearance of Corum, last survivor of the Vadhagh race. After his family is butchered by a group of Mabden (men) led by the savage Earl Glandyth-a-Krae, Corum tries to take revenge, but is captured instead; his hand is cut off and his eye put out before he escapes. He goes to Moidel's Castle, where he is taken in by a very different sort of Mabden, the Margravine Rhalina. Corum and Rhalina fall in love, but their romance is interrupted when Glandyth leads an assault on the castle. Rhalina uses sorcery (which Corum had never believed in) to summon a ship of the dead which drives off the barbarians. However the bargain required means that she must go with the ship's captain. Corum joins them and the ship takes them to the island of Shool, a near immortal and mad sorcerer who takes Rhalina hostage.

Shool trades Corum two artifacts to replace his lost hand and eye, the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn. The Eye allows Corum to see into an undead netherworld; the Hand serves to summon the last beings killed by Corum, to fight for him. Shool explains that Corum's ill fortune has been caused by a Greater God, Arioch, one of the Sword Rulers. When Arioch and his fellow Chaos Lords conquered the Fifteen Planes, the balance between the forces of Law and Chaos tipped in favor of Chaos. Corum is sent to steal the Heart of Arioch, which will give the sorcerer power to become a great god himself. After an adventurous journey which teaches him more about the metaphysics of Chaos, Corum reaches Arioch's palace. There he finds the Heart, at which point Shool's unknowing role as an agent of Arioch is revealed. The Hand of Kwll crushes the heart, killing Arioch. Corum returns to the island to rescue Rhalina. As it turns out, Shool's powers were entirely of Arioch's gift, so he can no longer threaten Rhalina or Corum. The couple return to their home on Moidel's Mount.

It has been 23 years since I last read the Corum books by Moorcock. I have always meant to re-read them much sooner, but it always seemed that something else was pushing to the front of the line. Once again, they were a staple of my highschool and college days. Back then I read all 6 books in 2 collected omnibuses entitled Corum: The Coming of Chaos and Corum: The Prince with the Silver Hand. This time around I wanted to make sure to read each individual story so there would be as little blurring in my mind as possible.

This was great. The Vadhagh, the race that Corum belongs to, is very unlike the Melniboneans (of which the Eternal Champion aspect of Elric is a member) and thus their destruction was sad and melancholic instead of fiercely just. It makes Corum a much nicer protagonist and makes his fears and desires that much more relatable.

Having read this before, and several of the other Eternal Champion aspect series, I was familiar with the whole Cosmic Balance that Moorcock hangs everything on. Corum isn’t so much a rogue agent trying to do his own thing but is an unwitting agent of Law because he hates what Chaos has done (killed off his entire race!). As such, his adventures feel very much like he is a ball being batted back and forth without trying to forge his own path. While it can make the read feel a bit unsettling, it is also rather a comforting feeling because you know that Corum is as much along for the ride as the reader is.

My only quibble is the romance side of things. Corum has gone on for hundreds of years (I can’t remember if it ever says how old he is, but his father was close to 1000 when he was killed at the book’s beginning) without being interested in romance with another Vadhagh but suddenly, he’s shacking it up and risking his life for a human woman? It wasn’t that it rang false so much as it just felt very quick. Of course, in a story that is under 150, that is kind of to be expected I guess. Which is why it is only a quibble and not a real issue :-D

But for a sword and sorcery, it gave me everything I wanted. Corum gets his eye plucked out and his hand cut off. And then gets mystical items to replace them. Which allows him to call forth those he has killed from a kind of hell to fight on his behalf. He’s not a great swordsman OR magician, which ties into the idea of him being batted around. But as a reader we get our fill.

I am already looking forward to Corum’s next adventure as he battles the Queen of the Swords.

★★★★★

Corum: The Coming of Chaos Trilogy (2000 “Review”)

Thursday, March 30, 2023

The Book of Three (The Prydain Chronicles #1) ★★★★★

Title: The Book of Three
Series: The Prydain Chronicles #1
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 110
Words: 47K

From Wikipedia.com

The youth Taran lives at Caer Dallben with his guardians, the ancient enchanter Dallben and the farmer and retired soldier Coll. Taran is dissatisfied with his life, and longs to become a great hero like the High Prince Gwydion. Due to the threat posed by a warlord known as the Horned King, servant of the evil Arawn Death-Lord of Annuvin, Taran is forbidden from leaving the farm and charged with the care of Hen Wen, the oracular white pig. When Hen Wen inexplicably panics and escapes, Taran follows her into the Forbidden Forest. After a long, fruitless chase, he is attacked by a host of horsemen galloping toward Caer Dallben, led by the Horned King himself. Taran manages to escape, but drops to the ground, wounded. He awakes to find his wound treated by Gwydion, the crown prince in Prydain's ruling House of Don, who has been travelling to Caer Dallben to consult Hen Wen. Gwydion, determined to find the pig, takes Taran along with him. Guided by Gurgi, a hairy humanoid living in the forest, they reach the Horned King's camp, and learn that his target will be Caer Dathyl, the home castle of the House of Don. Gwydion determines to warn the royal court, but the group is attacked by Arawn's undead Cauldron-Born soldiers, who capture Gwydion and Taran, and take them to Queen Achren in Spiral Castle.

The sorceress asks Gwydion to help her to overthrow Arawn—her former apprentice and consort who usurped her throne and claimed the Iron Crown of Annuvin for his own—and to join her in ruling Prydain together. When Gwydion refuses, he is imprisoned, but not in the same place as Taran. Princess Eilonwy, who was sent by her kinsmen as a young girl to learn enchantment from Achren, visits Taran's dungeon cell, and agrees to free first his companion, and then him. While travelling through a labyrinth of tunnels to join Gwydion and his horse Melyngar outside the castle, Taran and Eilonwy steal weapons from a tomb. As they emerge into the woods, Spiral Castle collapses; they later learn that this is because the weapon Eilonwy has taken is the legendary sword Dyrnwyn. Eilonwy has misunderstood Taran's request to free his companion, for the man waiting outside is not Gwydion, but another former prisoner of the castle: Fflewddur Fflam, a king by birth but a wandering bard by choice. The three search the ruins, then mourn Gwydion's presumed death, and decide to take up his task to warn Caer Dathyl.

Rejoined by Gurgi, but pursued by the Cauldron-Born, the group is driven far east of their northward course, and ends up in the underground realm of the Fair Folk, who have rescued Hen Wen. The Fair Folk's King Eiddileg grudgingly agrees to let Taran have her back, re-equip their party, and provide a guide, a dwarf called Doli. On their journey to Caer Dathyl, against Fflewddur and Doli's advice, Taran rescues an injured fledgling gwythaint, one of the great birds of prey that Arawn has enslaved. The gwythaint recovers quickly and escapes overnight, shortly followed by Hen Wen, who flees just before the Horned King's army spots them all. Fflewddur, Doli, and Gurgi stand to fight, while Taran and Eilonwy go ahead on Melyngar, with the Horned King in pursuit. On the top of a hill, the Horned King attacks them, and breaks Taran's sword on the first blow. Taran seizes Dyrnwyn from Eilonwy, but lacks the "noble birth" needed to draw it. White flame burns his arm, and throws him to the ground. Just before losing consciousness, Taran sees another man in the trees and hears an unintelligible word. The Horned King's mask melts and he bursts into flame.

When Taran awakens, he learns that the man who destroyed the Horned King was Gwydion, who had been with Achren at another stronghold when Spiral Castle fell. After withstanding Achren's torture, he learned to understand the hearts of all creatures, and was able to communicate first with the gwythaint, and then with Hen Wen after finding them in the forest. From the oracular pig he learned how to destroy the Horned King, by saying his secret name. Recognizing his nobility, Eilonwy gives Dyrnwyn to him, while Taran and his companions are to receive treasures from Caer Dathyl in recognition of service to the House of Don. Eilonwy receives a ring made by the Fair Folk, Gurgi a wallet of food that cannot be depleted, Fflewddur a golden harp string that can never break, Doli the ability to turn invisible (which he unusually lacks). Taran—who in the course of his adventures has realized that Caer Dallben is where he most wants to be—asks only to return home. Gwydion accompanies him back to Caer Dallben, along with Eilonwy, Hen Wen, and Gurgi, who take up residence there as well.

SEPARATOR

I read this multiple times in middle and highschool (grades 6-12 for you non-Americans) and then once again in 2006. But as was my wont back in those days, I don’t really give a synopsis and I didn’t review each book individually. So I wanted to go into this and read all 5 books on their own and see what I thought of them now.

I am still very pleased with how much I enjoyed this. What struck me the most though on this read was just how derivative of Tolkien this was. Part of that may be because Alexander was using a lot of the same base material as Tolkien, but I really think he modeled a lot of his writing on Tolkien. And for this series, I am perfectly ok with that. I’ll explain why in the next paragraph (just in case you decided to stop reading and go off in a huff, which is something I’ve been known to do once in a while, hahahahaha).

This is a strictly middle grade series. It is meant for tweens and middle teens. By the time someone hits their late teens, I think it might be too late to “introduce” this to them. It was also written for that age group. While it doesn’t pander and is still well written, it takes into account the mental and physiological differences between a child and an adult. Kids need books written FOR them and Taran and Eilonwy represent children in the purest sense. I would give this to a tween long before I’d give them the Lord of the Rings. LotR is meant for adults and while children can read it, they simply aren’t quite ready for it. So give them Prydain and let them become familiar with the old legends and mythologies.

The cover I have used here is not the cover I grew up with. That’s fine but I like the original better. I think I will showcase all the older covers on the final book review, so I can talk about it as a whole separate issue instead of cluttering up each review with essentially the same paragraph of blather :-D

★★★★★

The Complete Prydain Chronicles (2006 Review)