Highlander(tm): The Element of Fire

This is a tie-in novel to the HIGHLANDER movies and TV series, featuring both Connor and Duncan MacLeod. The villian Immortal here is Khordas, an incredibly old Immortal, whose first lifetime was in a prehistoric village where he was worshipped as a god. He is mentally unstable but has managed to survive long enough to cross paths with the MacLeods. Their final conflict with him occurs in the late 1800's. Along the way we meet no less than three female Immortals. This is definitely for HIGHLANDER fans only, anyone else would not be able to make sense of this story. For HIGHLANDER fans it is a good adventure, well written and with an interesting, well developed 'bad guy'. Also the settings are well described, showing some less well known times and places. For fans there is the additional treat of three female Immortals.

This book does something that the writers of the movie sequels or the series could never do: It combines the storyline of the original movie and the series without changing or contradicting either one's storyline. The original movie really was made in a way that only a prequel could be made for it. That's what this book is. It's an exploration of the development of the two MacLeod that serves as a prequel to both the movie and the series. By doing this, Jason Henderson was able to attract a larger portion of the widely divided Highlander fanbase. If your a fan of the original movie who felt they should have left it alone afterwards, don't skip this book. A great service to all Highlander fans, and certainly better than the new movie coming out in September, 2000.

The first Highlander novel based on the television series continues the high standards of the tv hit with an exciting mixture of history, drama, and fantasy as well as making for the first pairing of the two Highlanders, Connor & Duncan MacLeod, since the premiere episode. The biggest attraction of this novel is the pairing up of both screen and television Highlanders and just as the episode "The Gathering" hinted, the world had better watch out when these two guys get together. The fruitful mentor/student relationship glimpsed at in the series is greatly expanded in this novel as Conner takes a still bewildered Duncan under his wing and bestows upon the recently "deceased" Highlander the rules of the Game. The nature of the villian Khordas and his beliefs makes for some good tension between them as the rookie Immortal clashes with Connor over the legitimacy of the Game itself, calling into question the premise and mythology of the series itself. Henderson charecterizations of both Immortals are dead on, however it is Connor's which is the most interesting simply because this novel offers the first real oppurtunity to see the charecter explored in an in-depth manner. Here we see a Connor Macleod as in Highlander III, world-weary and very sure of himself without any of the youthful recklessness of the first or even the second film. Described as the "Elder Highlander" by Henderson, the author protrays him as a pensive and brooding man not as involved in the Game as others Immortals. A gracious bit of continuity is alluded to in the ending of the novel as Connor speaks of his tiredness, a maliase he says other older Immortals have told him will pass him in time; Henderson's attempt at explaining away Connor's lack of pressence in the major Immortal events of the series perhaps? As Connor has charecter development in only three movies (of varying degrees of quality) and one series episode, he remains very much the enigma in the mythology of Highlander both in terms of charecter and continuity. Henderson does indeed opens up the charecter however Connor remains ellusive and mysterious, perhaps buying time for a novel of his own. Despite the inclusion of Connor, Element of Fire is Duncan Macleod's novel and again Henderson shows a good grasp of the charecter with his presentation of Duncan. As both charecters are cut from the same cloth one would think one Highlander would suffer however this does not happen. Despite being originally a semi-carboncopy of Connor in the series, the charecter of Duncan Macleod is a wholley different entiity and if the success of the series has not proven it, then certainly this novel does. As most Highlander stories, the novel is divided into at least two time peroids (actually three in this case) and the reader gets to see Duncan as the young rookie just learning the ways of the world, however unlike in the series where we fast forward to the wiser m

A masterpiece of the Highlander novels which unites the two clansmen together in an effort to stop the salamander from his evil intentions. The mysterious firewalker has nine lives and uses every single one of them to escape the blade of Duncan. This would have made an excellent script for the television series without a doubt. I salute Jason Henderson for doing Highlander an impressive justice as I could see everything happen in my mind.

From the dawn of time they came....now we get to realise the partnership of these two immortals. A great storyline provides the backbone of the real story being told here. The main aim of this story is to provide us with an insight of how Connor and Duncan Macleaod had become and stayed friends through hundreds of years. This book left a lot of scope for more novels based around the two immortals, but sadly nothing more has emerged to fill the void. None-the-less, this is an excellent book and would say it is the best of the series. Richard Evans