Reviews

After the challenges of fighting evil horrors in the magical world of Eldh (in Beyond the Pale, which launched the Last Rune series), Travis Wilder has returned home to find life in the rugged mountains of Colorado taking a strange turn. First his best friend, Jack Graystone, dies in a fire. Then a stranger bursts into flame and burns to death in Travis's saloon. As further reports of spontaneous human combustion fill the news, Jack learns that another close friend, musician Deidre Falling Hawk, is a member of an ancient mystical order called the Seekers. They want Travis to tell them about Eldh, and warn him about a shadowy local high-tech company called Duratek, which seeks entr‚e to Eldh in order to exploit it for commercial gain. Suddenly Jack is magically whisked back to Eldh, where similar cases of human combustion are taken as symptoms of the dreaded burning plague, unleashed by the ageless neuromancer Darreketh as he plots to become a god and rule the once-peaceful lands of the Dominions. This novel suffers from the usual troubles of mid-trilogy books, from incomplete back story to heavy-handed coincidences. More disturbing is that the first quarter of the novel has next to nothing to do with the rest of the book; presumably Deidre and the Seekers, and Duratek, figure in the trilogy's promised conclusion, The Dark Remains. Those who can look past these flaws will find a fast-paced, if predictable, fantasy quest adventure. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Seeking a cure for a sickness that immolates its victims, Travis Wilder once again makes the journey from his Colorado home to the magic-rich world of Eldh, where a similar plague sweeps across the land, leaving terror in its wake. Reunited with fellow cross-world traveler Grace Beckett, now a magical healer, Travis confronts his greatest fears in the hopes of saving his own world and the new world he has come to love. Anthony's sequel to Beyond the Pale details a world of medieval customs underscored with deep-rooted magics and ancient evils. For most fantasy collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.