Its title characters are mercenaries, one of whom is called Leopard for his shape-shifting ability to assume the identify of a predatory jungle cat and the other called Tracker for having a sense of smell keen enough to find anything (and anybody) lost in this Byzantine, often hallucinatory Dark Ages version of the African continent. Man Booker Prize winner James ( A Brief History of Seven Killings, 2014 etc.) brings his obsession with legend, history, and folklore into this first volume of a projected Dark Star Trilogy. Wrought with blood, iron, and jolting images, this swords-and-sorcery epic set in a mythical Africa is also part detective story, part quest fable, and part inquiry into the nature of truth, belief, and destiny. Lila in particular is a winningly unconventional heroine who, as she declares, would “rather die on an adventure than live standing still.” The brisk plot makes this a page-turner that confronts darkness but is never overwhelmed by it.įantasy fans will love this fast-paced adventure, with its complex magic system, thoughtful hero and bold heroine.
Schwab ( Vicious, 2013, etc.) creates a memorable world-actually, three memorable worlds-and even more memorable characters.
And it’s when a wanted Grey London thief named Lila steals the artifact that the real trouble starts-for both of them. It’s that habit that leads him to accept a dangerous relic, something that shouldn’t exist. Unofficially, he’s a smuggler who collects artifacts from other worlds. Officially, he’s a royal messenger, carrying letters among the rulers of the three Londons. As for Black London, the city consumed, no one would be so foolish as to risk a trip- not even Kell. Now the doors are closed, and only a chosen few have the power to travel between Grey London, a world without magic, Red London, a world suffused with it, and White London, a world where magic is scarce, coveted and jealously guarded. Long ago, the doors between worlds were open, and anyone with magic could travel from one to the next.
#ALAN DEAN FOSTER BOOKS MID FLINX SERIES#
A fairly typical Foster outing: pleasant, breezy, and of no great craft or significance.Ī fast-paced fantasy adventure that takes readers into a series of interconnected worlds ruled by magic-or the lack of it. Then the maniacal Coerlis shows up, closely followed by a squad of alien AAnn Empire troopers-these latter intent on grabbing Flinx's state-of-the-art spaceship. He ends up on Midworld, an unexplored planet covered by a vast forest containing innumerable curious and hungry beasties-not to mention humans, descendants of those who survived a long-ago crash, and their large, intelligent native symbionts, the furcots. Rather than kill Coerlis, Flinx flees into space. Here, Flinx is resting on the tranquil planet Samstead, where the headaches and mental turmoil caused by his talent are minimized when the rich, arrogant Jack-Jax Coerlis demands to buy Pip-and won't take no for an answer. His constant companion is Pip, a similarly gifted, venomous flying snake. Also weighing on Flinx's conscience is the danger represented by the vast, disembodied essence of pure evil that he's sensed far out in space. First hardcover in an established paperback series about a young man, Philip Lynx, the product of illegal genetic experiments, who has the ability to sense (intermittently) the emotions of those around him.
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