Initiate

My first experiance of Louise Cooper was "Lord Of No Time" a 1977 book that told the tale of the mage Tarod and how he fell foul of his one time friend Keridil Toln. I loved it and hoped that the characters would appear in additional volumes. They did but not in the way expected, Louise Cooper rewrote the whole thing, spreading it out over the three volumes of the Time Master trilogy. Fortunately at no time does it lose the sharp freshness of the original, it's well worth getting hold of as is the subsequent series The Chaos Gate trilogy, though I would only give that four stars.

I first read this trilogy as a teenager, more than 10 years ago, and unlike other fantasy writers who shall remain nameless, these books have stood the test of time. My only regret is that Cooper's stuff, like that of other excellent UK fantasy writers, is difficult to find. "The Initiate" is the first of the Time Master Trilogy, which also consists of "The Outcast" and "The Master," in that order. The series takes place in a nameless world, vaguely bronze-age, which is ruled by a triad of powers, two of which are religious and one of which is secular. The reason that religion is so powerful in this world becomes clear as the series progresses. Thar's gods in them thar hills, and they come into the world periodically to clash, wreak havoc, and overturn the very nature of human society. At the start of the series, this overturning has happened at least once that we know---when the gods of Chaos were overthrown by the gods of Order (related in a prologue, and in the later-published "Star Ascendant" trilogy). An unfathomable amount of time later, the world has been ruled by Order for so long that no one remembers anything of Chaos other than dark rumor and superstition.The story focuses on a young boy, nameless at first, who through tragic circumstances reveals that he has a phenomenal amount of sorcerous power. He is miraculously transported to the Castle of the Star Peninsula, the ruling seat of the highest of the two religious organizations which govern the world: the Circle. There the boy, who names himself Tarod, seems to fit in perfectly, in an environment where his hunger for occult knowledge and magical power are encouraged---at first. But Tarod is different from the other initiates of the Circle. He's arrogant and hot-tempered and a bit cold and cruel, although he is also fiercely loyal and scrupulously honorable. He scorns their adherence to ritual and tradition, and experiments with magic in ways that no one else would dare. Yet the greatest difference between him and the other initiates only begins to make itself known gradually and insidiously, slipping into his dreams and darkening his personality yet further. His fellow initiates react to these changes with fear and suspicion, and gradually they begin to close ranks against the outsider. Matters come to a head when Tarod's best friend, the young High Inititate Keridil, discovers Tarod's true nature. Will he decide Tarod's fate according to his friendship with Tarod, or the tenets of tradition? Whatever he decides will affect Tarod's decision between the path of good and the path of... something else.This is only the start of an extremely complex look at the old good/evil, order/chaos theme---an original one, which deliberately plays with the reader's conception of the two powers. The defenders of Order are not good; Keridil is motivated as much by jealousy and lust as he is by his duty as the High Initiate. The agents of Chaos are not evil; although their motives don't become clear un

This book is the first in the 'Time master' trilogy, that takes place after (although having been written before) the 'Star shadow' trilogy (only the first book 'Star Ascendant' was published in the US, the others are 'Eclipse' and 'Moonset'). In this books the gods of the order rule. Our hero is Tarod, a very interesting character, who becomes a very powerful mage at the service of Order. But, Tarod has dreams, very unsettling ones and starts having behaviours that are not acceptable at the eyes of the council. This book introduces us to the characters and the plot, and as the first book in the series gives us a unique insight into the war between chaos and order, and the role that Tarod will play in it.

if you've read the other reviews, this won't be much different, i'm afraid. Read these books, they are brilliant. i first came across them via a friend whose copies are now very battered due to the amount of times they have been read. The characters are well rounded, particularly the female ones: not your standard fantasy females, these actually have depth. Tarod still rates high on my favourite characters list; he is impressive, interesting and believable. The story is a nice play on the usual Good Vs Evil line and i promise you will read these books more than once.In short, BUY THEM!

When I first stumbled across the Time Master Series I had reached a point where I was sick of fantasy. All the heroes were alike--supermen of virtue--and essentially undynamic. Tarod, the "hero" of this series was different, the most interesting character that I had read about in years. He got murderously angry, he caused havoc, he didn't follow the rules--he was sinister. For once, here was a series that didn't just fight a war or go on some long journey in order to protect the status quo. In these books the characters are real enough so that you cannot truly pick out the good guys--everyone is a mixture of good and evil, everyone is human (sort of).