Riddle of the Seven Realms: #3

as good as the other two books of the trilogy. Does this author have any other books? I can't find anything else from him...

The 3rd book in Hardy's magic series stands up well. Such a strong magic system and wonderful storytelling. I see that a lot of people are asking about Mr. Hardy so I will print up a quote which updates you on him. "Lyndon Hardy was born in 1941. In his college years he became fascinated with fantasy-dom. Outside of being a fantasy author, he has correlated work with the New Zealand Geology Society, started an Artificial Intelligence Company named Alodar Inc., and helped develop the Isis intelligence tool for medical research. He has two daughters and is married. Publishing News Magic in Triplicate was supposed to be Hardy's next work but he has supposedly reported on SFauthors.com that he has not even started the work and has no future plans on doing so on the moment but hopes that an opportunity will arise."

Lyndon Hardy wrote a wonderful trilogy Master of the Five Magics Secret of the Sixth Magic Riddle of the Seven Realms I highly recommend all three books and I hope someone out there will reprint them in hardcover editions! Hint Hint ;-)

I read the first in the series - Master of the Five Magics - as a kid. Liking it so much, I bought the other two (the second being Secret of the Sixth Magic). Looking back I think I stumbled a little on the second book and never got to read this final book, which was truly a shame. This book is, I believe, the best of the three, with Master of the Five Magics being a very close second. The author took much more time in this book to examine more closely the characters and personalities of the main characters - Kestrel, Phoebe, Astron and Nimbia....Kestrel and Astron above all. In a nutshell, Kestrel, a glib (for want of a better word) con man, tries to fob inferior wood onto the wizard Phoebe. While testing the wood, she summons forth a demon like no other - Astron, the one who walks (named so because, unlike other djinns, he has no wings, nor can he hurl bolts of lightning). The demon, however, is on a quest for his prince, Elezar, to seek out Alodar the Archmage, who bested Elezar in a battle of wills years ago. For Elezar is in trouble - if he cannot solve a riddle posed by another demon prince, he must surrender everything...and in doing so, the one agent acting in the interests of humans by diverting the attention of demons elsewhere, would be gone. As such, the Archmage sends Kestrel, Astron and Phoebe on a quest to help solve the riddle. I found myself wondering, about halfway through the book, whether this was merely the author's excuse to create and describe new worlds and different creatures, whether there really was a solution to the riddle. And yet, I should not have doubted - the author once again leaves subtle clues throughout the journey, and uses the events to expand the characters, making them more endearing, if you will. The dramatic conclusion was exciting to say the least and draws on the understandings of each other for the main characters to struggle against seemingly impossible odds. A great read, which I'd thoroughly recommend. But as the other revier mentioned, there is one greater riddle still unanswered - what happened to this author??

Once again, Hardy displays deep thoughts on the workings of magic.The third in the series flicks the protagonists through a series of parallel worlds, each providing a clue toward solving the riddle.The characters are appealing and the description of various worlds and their inhabitants is well done.What has happened to this author? I bought Riddle several years ago and would like to purchase more of his books.