Howdy you Triumphant Adventure Seekers!
So, one of the pillars of the writing philosophy is that "if you want to write, you've got to read". This way you develop a sense other writer's styles and influence your own; get a sense of what's been done, or at least attempted; maybe even get a sense of how other writers handle mood and atmosphere and other boring technical stuff.
Now, I've read several books, both for entertainment and scholarly reasons, but the simple fact is that I have a wide collection of books, magazines, and pdfs that I have accumulated but not got around to reading yet. Bottom line is: I don't think I read enough. Well, I'm trying to remedy that!
I'm trying to manage my time better...we'll see how it turns out...and one of the changes I'm trying to implement is to read more often. My goal is to spend my weeks working more diligently and spending most of my weekends reading. Still trying to iron out some kinks, but I have successfully started!
I can find no other works by Ross Anton Coe, but according to the copyright page the story is copyrighted to Ron Renauld, which makes me wonder of Coe is just a pen name. Ron Renauld wrote several media tie-in novels like the A-Team and Airwolf (I didn't even know there were novels of these properties!), and ghost-written multiple Executioner books as well.
A web-search has these books come up at various online stores, but they can be found on the old standbys: Amazon and eBay, prices may vary.
There Are Spoilers ahead!
There is a Conan-style little preamble, explaining the continent is shaped vaguely like a condor's head and was thus named after the Condor-God Dorban. Some people tried to break off into their own countries but were brought back into the fold of the Sorcerer-King, who resides in the capital city of Cothe. Then, Time passes...
There is a Conan-style little preamble, explaining the continent is shaped vaguely like a condor's head and was thus named after the Condor-God Dorban. Some people tried to break off into their own countries but were brought back into the fold of the Sorcerer-King, who resides in the capital city of Cothe. Then, Time passes...
We meet our hero, Nuroc, at the age of twelve. He is suppose to be a shepherd, but we never see any sheep. However, he spied a wolf slinking through the brush and is stalking it to protect the sheep. He slays the wolf, and just in time because...
This happens to be the night of a double-eclipse. The two moons are going to get covered by the world's shadow, and this a moment of great significance. He takes the wolf's carcass to offer to the Condor God as a sacrifice but before he can...
A massive rock shifts revealing a cavern and a stream of horsemen pour out and ride away through the countryside. Nuroc recognizes them as Sorcerers from Cothe but does not know why they are riding away. The eclipse happens and catastrophe occurs! The ground shakes! Tidal waves wash over the lands! A tidal wave reaches Nuroc and washes him through the cave that the Sorcerers came out of!
He finds himself deposited in some sub-basement beneath the city of Cothe, specifically beneath a place called the Obelisk. I don't recall any actual desciption of what it looks like, but I imagined something not unlike the Washington Monument, mostly because it was hollow and you could climb stairs to different tiers inside of it. Apparently this is where the Sorcerers learn magic, from runes carved on the inner walls. The higher up you climb, you find stronger magic spells inscribed.
Here, he finds his parents, who are servants to the current Sorcerer-King Talmon-Khash...who is also here! It turns out that some upstart mid-tier sorcerer named Augage wants to use higher level spells to imprison the Condor-God Dorban, kill Talmon-Khash and usurp the kingdom, so he gathered some other sorcerers to his cause and they split, he tried to conduct his ritual out in the wild and miscast the spells, causing the cataclysm!
By some miracle, the capital city of Cothe was untouched by the cataclysm, and the peasants decided the sorcerers did it on purpose and marched in to kill all the sorcerers.
Talmon-Khash cuts open his wrist and extracts some blood, which he magically infuses into Nuroc and his parents so they can carry his blood and he will "live-on" in some sense until they can defeat Augage. Talmon-Khash then sends them to escape while he casts magic to preserve the Obelisk and the magical knowledge and treasure within.
So Nuroc and his parents escape with the help of a loyal sorcerer named Inkemisa and his daughter Myrania, who Nuroc has the hots for. They know that having failed the spell and inciting riot, that Augage will flee to a western land where he will eventually unite the barbarian tribes under his rule and eventually come back to try again.
The only real problem I had with the book was: if they know this, why don't they just go after him now before he can raise an army? I don't get it. They don't go after him. Of course, it is never explained what sort of servants Nuroc's parents are. I guess valets and maids and shepherd boys make lousy medieval commandoes.
Once again, Time passes...and we rejoin our five years later...
Nuroc is now seventeen. He and his parents went north to the town of Weshi, where he and his Dad work in a local mine. That is...until the raiders show to kill his family, leaving only him alive to carry on their destiny and duty to the Sorcerer-King! He fights with raiders, dodges condors, sharks, giant centipede monsters and zombies! He gains and loses allies, finds his girlfriend Myrania working for a shady pimp who travels up and down the river...
Of course, his adventures lead him back to Cothe, where he reunites with Myrania and has a showdown with Augage in the Obelisk, where the renegade sorcerer once more tries to capture the Condor-God Dorban and usurp his immortality, or something, so he can conquer all the known lands! Bwah-ha-ha!
It was pretty cheesy stuff, but it was a decent plot that moved along pretty well in my opinion. It was easy to read and the world was developed enough to tell the story. There was a little cosmology, and a little religion (we're only told about the Condor-God Dorban, but I got the feeling there were others, unnamed). All in all, it was an entertaining way to spend a weekend! If you like light, fun fantasy adventure then you would probably like this, and I recommend you give it a try if you can track it down!
My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:
Thumbs up! It moved along, it was fun to read, sparked a few inspirational ideas, and kinda made me want to get writing. I found it entertaining!
Have you ever read this book? If so, what did you think of it? Feel free to leave a comment below! Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!
Until then, I wish you all...
Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell
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