Faery Lands Forlorn

This is book two of Dave Duncan's 4-book, "A Man of His Word", series. The entire series is very enjoyable and its characters and situations are just great! Read this series, and you won't be disappointed. A note of caution though, Don't read Mr. Duncan's sequel series, "A Handful of Men". It is not only an absolute waste of time, but you will also feel ripped off and disgusted with the author.

This is the second volume in the first of two marvellous fantasy quartets. The first series, "A man of his word" has titles taken from Keats' "Ode to a nightingale" and the titles perfectly match the themes of the books. The lines which inspired the titles are as follows - "The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days, by Emperor and Clown .... ... The same that oft-times hath Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in Faery lands forlorn" The four books of the first quartet are The Magic Casement Faery Lands Forlorn Perilous Seas Emperor and Clown These four books tell one complete story and are best read in this order. There is a sequel quartet, set 15 years later in the same universe, which is called "A handful of men" and has its titles taken from Masefield's poem, "Tomorrow." The four books in that story are The Cutting Edge Upland Outlaws The Stricken Field The Living God All eight books are set in a world of Gods and Sorcerers, where magic abilities are conferred by the knowledge of words of power. The descriptions of magic powers and how they work are far more effectively and consistently thought through than in the typical fantasy novel, and as the hero and heroine travel through a strange and diverse world a picture both of that world and the serious threat which it faces gradualy takes shape. At the start of "Faery Lands Forlorn", Inos, rightful Queen of Krasnegar, was kidnapped through a Magic casement just as her castle was being over-run by Imps. Her childhood friend, the stableboy Rap, had jumped through the casement after her. But Inos finds herself a prisoner in a desert land, while Rap is transported to the Faery lands of the title. Rap struggles to make his way round the world to rescue his queen. She had been warned by a God to "trust in love" - can Rap reach Inos in time to prevent her from making a terrible mistake about what this means? The original printings of the "A man of his word" quartet had beautiful covers painted by Don Maitz, and the books would almost have been worth buying for these covers if they had not also comprised a beautiful story.

Faery Lands Forlorn picks up right where Magic Casement left off with Rap fecklessly and fearlessly plunging in through the magic casement to try and find Inos, only to find that Inos and he landed in different realms. Inos was captured by the sorceress Rasha, a self-styled Sultana who has taken over the country of Zark, land of the Djinns. Inos is unsure why she has been captured by Rasha, but she is determined to escape so she turns to Azak, the rightful Sultan, confident that if anyone hates Rasha more than her, it would be the man Rasha has humiliated and enslaved. For Rasha has cast a spell over Azak that causes anyone who speaks his rightful title as Sultan to turn to stone and that any woman he touches (aside from Rasha) he will burn like a hot iron.Meanwhile, Rap, Little Chicken and companion have found themselves wandering in the land of Faerie. By now, Rap has discovered that he has a word of power and that that is why Andor was trying to befriend him. Rap also discovered their secret - that Andor, Jalon, Sagorn and Darad all were cursed by a sorcerer so that only one of them can "live" at a time, the other personalities are all in a kind of limbo while one person gets through whatever adventure they are currently in the middle of. Even though Rap has his doubts about his so-called allies, he is willing to use everyone for their skills to try and find Inos and rescue her. Along the way, he expands his band by befriending Captain Gathmore, a Jotunn sailor who manages to get Rap hired on as part of his crew. At least Rap is mobile now, but he isn't heading in the right direction and he still has old enemies to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention of the witches and warlocks of the regions...Faery Lands Forlorn picks up the adventure from Magic Casement without missing a beat. Since David Duncan is a superb author, I think that you could jump in on this one and understand what is going on without reading the first one, but why deprive yourself of the pleasure? Rap is still a delightful hero in a very non-traditional sense and the reader gets the opportunity to learn about how magic works in the world of Pandemia as Rap discovers more powers and uses for his gifts of farsight and working with animals. The way that magic works in this world is fascinating and it is interesting to note that the author does distinguish between a sorcerer and a magician in that the former's spells are permanent and the latter's spells only last as long as the magician is focusing on them. Again, Rap was by far more interesting than Inos, but she did further along the plot and give Duncan to create another section of this world that reminded me of an Arabian Nights story. Aunt Kade is really starting to come into her own in this book and she makes the parts with Inos sparkle a bit more than they did before. The secondary characters are also delightful and fun to get to know. If you are interested in reading a tale set in a world both fam

Duncan continues to develop his fairly unique world and his entirely unique system of magic in the second volume of "A Man of His Word". The series as a whole is a romp through the richly-detailed world of Pandemia, and each volume is as chock-full of wonders, adventure and cliffhangers as the chapters in a Saturday-matinee adventure serial.Beautiful Inos, rightful Queen of Krasnegar, and her great-aunt, Princess Kadolan (not nearly as fuddy duddy and scatterbrained as she often appears) have been magically spirited away to Zark (where the Djinns live -- the Arabian Nights come to life) and dropped will she nill she into the middle of a rather nasty and dangerous palace intrigue etween the rightful Sultan and the "Sultana" a powerful sorceress who has displaced him and rules him and his land through her sorcery, which has a strong sexual element -- her spell on him causes his merest touch to burn the flesh of anything female (except the sorceress herself) like red-hot iron.Rasha, the sorceress, hopes to use Inos in a political game among the Wardens, the four powerful sorcerors who control the world's sorcery under the Compact.Inos, though apalled by the treatment and place of women in Zark, sets out to make an ally of Azak, the Sultan, in an attempt to thwart Rasha.Meanwhile, Rap the faithful stableboy, Little Chicken, and the Gang (those who have read the previous book will understand that reference, a fuller explication would be a spoiler if you haven't read the previous book yet) find themselves in Faerie, where Much Is Not As It Seems, and Rap meets Captain Gathmore, a genuine berserker Jotunn (Norse/Viking) who will be important for the rest of the series.Caught in a magical trap set for those who know Words of Power, Rap learns a little more both about the Words themselves and about magic and sorcery -- i always like the explanation that sorcery is permanent, magic fades sooner or later after the magician turns his attention away, but the end result is often the same -- a mage explains: "I could turn your head into an anvil. It would be a temporary anvil, but you'd be permanently dead."Rap and Little Chicken manage to escape and join Gathmore's jotunn crew and escape Faerie.Both Rap and Inos seem to be on their way to saving themselves and making progress toward saving the other -- but the book ends with disasterous reverses for both.With two more books to go, all looks hopeless.But, like all good serials, the next chapter will save us from this cliffhanger and give us even more more thrills, chills and adventure...

Duncan does a fine job of telling what appears to be your typical fantasy epic saga, with solid prose and interesting (if familiarly stereotypical) characters. There are three things I am finding praiseworthy in regards to his writing - his world development (nothing splended, but well done indeed), his avoidance of combat scenes that lend little to the plot or to the reader's interest and most importantly his deceptiveness. Both of the 2 books I've read by him so far have been pretty typical fantasy, but while I was reading I didn't notice it. This is a sign, in my opinion, of a good writer - you don't even realize what you're reading because you're so involved. While Duncan's style doesn't recommend his other series to me, he has me hooked enough I likely will buy the other 6 books in this saga just to find out what happens to Rap, Inos and Thinal & co. Recommended for any fan of fantasy epics.