Matthew Hunter

Vanyel Ashkevron, Herald-Mage of Valdemar, is no longer young, and no longer on the front lines. His tremendous talents of mind and magic – along with an impressive reputation – are employed within the walls of Haven, running the kingdom of Valdemar according to the wishes of King Randale. But Randale’s health is failing fast, and there are other problems lurking just out of sight. The “ordinary” Heralds, without Vanyel’s mage-talents, feel themselves worthless in comparison… and the feeling is returned by the people of Valdemar, who would rather deal with a problem themselves then call for help and receive just an ordinary Herald.

Ultraviolet is one of those interesting experiments that occasionally show up on British television. Mostly, I’m a fan of British Comedy; for some reason the really good britcom just hits my funnybone when a lot of more American comedy falls flat. (If you’re looking for recommendations, you can’t go wrong with BlackAdder or Red Dwarf). But sometimes something that’s not a comedy comes along and nevertheless works.

I heard about Ultraviolet by word of mouth. Friends of friends had seen it and declared it wonderful. Nobody had it, but they knew someone who knew someone who had once borrowed it. Eventually, I bought the whole set, sight-unseen, just to see what all the fuss was about. It helps that I got a basic scenario from friends, since I’m a mild vampire junkie, and while Ultraviolet never actually says “vampire”, it’s definitely about vampires.

Hammerfall is set in a desert world where the low-tech populace is completely ignorant of their interstellar origins and of the conflict between (alien?) races that is about to engulf them. The book largely consists of the intricacies of desert travel in a world where the nanotech-enforced scavengers have gotten a little out of control. Several of the primary characters are ‘mad’, they receive visions that direct them to a certain place and warn of an incomprehensible impending disaster. One of these, a former prince of the independent desert tribes, is sent by the enigmatic and seemingly immortal ruler to investigate the cause of the madness; however, she knows far more than she’s willing to tell the mad prince.

A Storm of Swords continues the groundbreaking series that began with A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. It’s a massive tome that weighs in at almost 1,000 pages and continues Martin’s tradition of shaking up the characters and the world with momentous and surprising events.

Rob, King in the North, continues his fight against the Lannisters – winning great victories on the battlefield, but conscious of his two sisters held as hostages. Sansa languishes in King’s Landing in need of rescue, desperately trying to negotiate her way among the hostile Lannister nobility, while Arya continues her journey home incognito. Many of the southern lords come into play, and we learn much more about the politics of the south in this volume. Meanwhile, Jon on the Wall faces tough questions, and continues to mature as a warrior and a leader.

The Elfstones of Shannara is, in my opinion, the best of the Shannara books. Terry Brooks has exorcised the need to imitate Tolkein, and is now free to explore a somewhat different – and more original – story. While he does not succeed in creating a classic that will ring down through the ages, he does manage a reasonably enjoyable fantasy novel.

Unfortunately, reasonably enjoyable is still pretty flawed. The main issue in the story is whether the main character can access and use the power of the Elfstones. The answer is generally no, or at least not yet; eventually the threat grows to the point where their power can be accessed to smash the opposition and the quest continues. Once the reader has figured out the pattern, there’s not really much sense of threat. The quest is pretty much a standard “take the McGuffin to Mount Doom”, conveniently handed out by a Druid with very little backstory.

The Great Hunt continues the story that began with The Eye of the World.

Rand, Mat, and Perrin are three young men recently plucked from their quiet farming community and thrust into the center of events as the Pattern weaves itself around them… possibly in accordance with the ancient Prophecies of the Dragon, prophecies which describe a man who once broke the world and who will be reborn to do it again.

Magic’s Pawn, the first book in Mercedes Lackey’s The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, is a superb coming-of-age adventure. The trilogy itself is without a doubt the best thing Lackey has ever written, and represents required reading for fantasy fans even if the rest of Lackey’s work holds no appeal. The story begins approximately two centuries prior to the events of Arrows of the Queen, at a time when mages were still well-known within Valdemar…

The Postman has a rugged post-apocalyptic setting based on a post-nuclear-war USA that almost - but not quite - survived total collapse. Gordon, a loner who trades old tales of prewar culture in bardic style for his meals, meanders about from village to village, looking for someone who is trying to build something more than a subsistence society.

Falling into misfortune, Gordon uses the uniform of a long-dead postal worker to weave an elaborate lie that will enable him to survive. Unwittingly, the false postman becomes a source of hope to the small, isolated communities that have had no inkling that the nation ever survived. That tremulous hope has its own war to survive before it can really take root, though.

Having established Jean-Claude as Master of the City in Circus of the Damned, in The Lunatic Cafe the attention shifts to Richard… Richard, Anita’s science teacher and romantic interest… as well as beta wolf to Marcus in the local werewolf pack by way of a bad batch of lycanthrope vaccine. And while Anita learns to deal with her beloved getting furry once a month, she’s handed a missing-lycanthrope case and a naga skin.

Cerulean Sins continues the annoying tradition of more sex and angst, less violence.