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Giving the Tolkienian epic an extreme makeover
David Anthony Durham kicked Fat Fantasy ass with Acacia, which ended up winning him the most recent John W. Campbell Award for the best new science fiction or fantasy writer. He continues his extreme makeover of the Tolkienian epic in The Other Lands: Book Two of The Acacia Trilogy.
After the assassination of King Leodan Akaran, three of his four heirs oppose the mist—a powerful drug used to sedate his subjects—and the quota—a trade in child slaves. Unfortunately, they're not the ones who inherit the Acacian Empire.
Queen Corinn refines the drug and sells ever more children across the sea. And she maintains her power by turning to The Song of Elenet. She doesn't realize her misuse of this secret magic is damaging the world and herself.
She also doesn't realize entire nations and tribes are plotting against her, including the adult slaves her empire sold as children. But, when her foes finally strike, Corinn will stop at nothing to defeat them. And, with The Song of Elenet, she can even bring back the dead. ...
The above description scarcely scratches the surface of The Other Lands, so newcomers to the series had better start with Acacia. Meanwhile, series fans should know that though The Other Lands resolves its storyline, the war between the Known World and the Other Lands has only just begun.
By Clifford S. at 10:54 AM ON 10/20/09
Acacia was an amazing novel. Durham masterfully manages a large cast of characters. If you like George R R Martin or Joe Abercrombie then you will love this book.
By tcodee at 12:58 AM ON 10/21/09
Nice rewrite. But still not a proper review. And what happened to the other five comments
By divephotog at 4:06 AM ON 10/21/09
Yup... When syssyfyed sites don't like the idea of free speech, they trash our comments...
At least the title is less of a flame now. Durham deserved that much, some respect instead of undignified dren.
Still, one would think they would read the book(s) and write appropriately. I for one would rather read a lengthy review and even see a [don't read further if you dislike spoilers] adviso, than see this purported as a review of any kind....
Just because it is on the web does not mean maximun word length is 1000, or that the readers can't stand anything greater than that due to attention deficit. - kh
By Logan40k at 5:55 PM ON 10/21/09
Ok nice change of the name of the article but as others mentioned, the previous comments are gone and the review is not any better.
Science Fiction (including Fantasy) is an intellectual medium that at it's best asks broad questions Mankind and our place in the (or 'a') universe. I suppose that now the readers and commentators on SyFy.com now have to ask themselves: will what I write be part of the process of intellectual discourse or is such discourse now as dead as the 'SciFi' trademark?
By tcodee at 11:32 AM ON 10/22/09
What happened to the other comments? I have emailed the editores and stillno response. Why even have a comment section?
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tcodee:
What happened to the other comments? I have emailed the editores and stillno response. Why even have a comment sec...More »