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                       Reviews by Sue

Shadows Fall - Simon R Green / VGSF p/b œ5.99

Shadows Fall is a most unusual town in many respects. You
won't find it on any map but if you need it, you'll find it.
Or maybe it will find you. It's a place where all stories
find their ending, all quests are concluded and every lost
soul finds its way home at last. If you walk through it,
you'll pass through every time zone and meet very strange
people. Many of them don't exist, except in stories; they are
fictional characters who have lost their popularity and
following. Others are dead, held there until the time comes
for them to pass through The Forever Door.

Like all towns, it has a police force and a mayor, though the
main power is held by Old Father Time and his lackey, Jack
Fetch. You don't mess with Jack. He has some very nasty
habits. The police, led by the Sheriff, have had very little
to keep them busy until now. Things are starting to change in
Shadows Fall with the arrival of a young man who left the
town many years ago with his parents and who is at the centre
of a prophecy concerning Shadows Fall and The Forever Door,
and the first in a series of grisly murders.

From this start, the pace of the book doesn't let up
throughout its 506 pages. Though it starts very much as
fantasy, it soon slides into horror, but so subtly that you
don't notice for a while. If I had, I might have stopped
reading; I'm not a great fan of horror any more but by then
the book had me hooked and I had to find out what happened
next.

This is one of the best books I have read. Highly
recommended.

                             *

The Book of Mordred - Peter Hanratty / Ace Fantasy & New
Infinities Productions Inc (USA) p/b import, USA price $3.50

This is an unusual retelling of part of the Arthurian legend
because it is seen through the eyes of Arthur's son, Mordred.
Mordred is invariably portrayed as evil through and through
but in this book, he comes over as a sensitive and thoughtful
man, any black stains on his character mainly due to his
over-enthusiasm for any causes in which he develops an
interest.

From his childhood in the Forest Sauvage with his mother,
Morgause (unknown to him, his father, Arthur, is his mother's
brother), the story shifts to his subsequent upbringing in
Camelot after his mother's death (again, Mordred is ignorant
of the true story of her death). In order to "make a man of
him", Arthur sends him with Lancelot and Galahad to search
for The Grail in a castle many months travel from Camelot, in
the far north of the country. This trip takes up the last
half of the book.

Not only is Mordred a very different character from usual,
Arthur is shown as a spineless ditherer, Guinevere as an
empty headed beauty and Merlin as a sick, lecherous old man.
Nimue, the Lady of the Lady, is evil in a detached sort of
way, holding herself apart from human affairs, but thinking
nothing of destroying any who inadvertently annoy her.
Galahad isn't much better, nor is Lancelot, whereas many of
the knights are described as bullies who get their kicks
through destruction and mindless violence rather than good
works.

Despite this twist in the usual characterisations, The Book
of Mordred is completely believable and moving in parts,
especially regarding the Fomor, a group of faery creatures
whose last home is the Forest after their expulsion from
Ireland. I had put off reading it for a few years since
buying it (it was written in 1988) but I am glad I finally
got round to it.
                             *

Rune Spear - Victor Milan and Melinda Snodgrass / Questar
Fantasy US import, p/b

The year is 1936, the place Germany, the time of the start of
the Nazis' plans of conquest. Three people, an explorer, a
female reporter and a British professor, are dragged into
Himmler's plans to recover a fabulous artifact, the Spear of
Odin, which is said to be hidden in the wastes of Greenland.
The three aren't really given any option to refuse, but are
coerced into helping and forced to travel into inhospitable
territory in the company of SS officers and others. Danger
waits at every turn, not only from the elements and other
aspects of their trip, but also from those who want to
expedition to fail.

This was a most aggravating book to read, yet it could have
been much better. For one thing, the actual trip is relegated
to the last third of the book, the three heroes are


unrealistic and, generally, unsympathetic characters and
there are so many different German groups and names in the
book, that I got thoroughly confused until I decided just not
to worry about who belonged to which faction and just divided
the people in the book into goodies and baddies (though that
distinction was a bit murky sometimes).

The heroes go under the unlikely names of Rafe Springer
(adventurer), Wilhelmina aka Billi Forsyth (reporter) and
Professor Melbourne Shrewsbury. In the end, I didn't care too
much what happened to them as some of the Eskimos (and even
the SS men) travelling with them were much nicer characters.

Some of the descriptions are good if vividly messy but the
ending of the book was quite neatly worked out, and that
alone made it worth reading.

                             *

Maskerade - Terry Pratchett / Gollancz h/b œ15.99

The latest Discworld novel is one of Pratchett's best, not
least because it stars Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and
Nanny's cat Greebo, who is one of my favourite characters in
the series. Trying to find a third witch to replace Magrat,
the two (and Greebo) travel to Ankh Morpork in search of
Agnes Nitt aka Perdita X Dream, who has decided she wants to
be an opera singer rather than a witch.

But strange things are going on in the Opera House with dead
bodies dropping from the walkways above the stage and a
mysterious figure in a white mask flitting about the place
and leaving strange notes. Yes, once again, TP has taken a
well-known tale and woven it into the Discworld environment -
this time it's the Phantom of the Opera. Needless to say,
Nanny and Granny (and Greebo!) get heavily involved in the
events, completely taking over and interfering as only they
can, completely and wholeheartedly.

Maskerade is as well written as all of Terry Pratchett's
other books, and better than several. I don't get as much
time to read as I used to, but I was hooked and finished it
in about four days (Neal, Alan's nephew, read it the day he
bought it). There are some great lines in it, and as with his
other books, and unlike most other humorous authors, he
doesn't spend ages building up to them and then almost
standing back to get the applause. He throws in his humour
almost incidentally, which is one of the things that makes it
so effective.

Highly recommended for a thumping good read.







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