The River Wall

Anyone that likes science fiction and intrigue will not be able to put this series down. I have read the entire series at least four times and look forward to when I have time to read it again. I am one of the few fortunate people out there that own the entire series and I agree with the other readers, I would not sell this set.

There are only a few series-stories out there in existence that excells from the very first book to the last, the first chapter to the last, the very first page to the very last. George Lucas's infamous Star Wars series, the entirety of JMS's Babylon 5 series...and the Gandalara Cycle. To find a single one of this seven-book, out-of-print series is a treasure; to find an entire set is incomprehensible, because virtually all I have heard who had read it refuse, outright, to part with their copies. 'The River Wall', the conclusion to the series, not only brings to a climactic close the ongoing storyline and the plot-twist revelation, it delves into the very nature of sentient existence with the ease of a boat being pushed onto the water; Ms. Heydron carries the reader to the conclusion that we are more than just tool-using, verbose descendants of apes. That our nature is not defined by our DNA, or our physical shape, but that it's how we think, and what we do, that defines us as worthwhile beings. We are Human, and we are Gandalaran, too. Ms. Heydron and the late Mr. Garrett have written a series sentient beings can be proud to read.

... if only to know how things turned out (I've read Cycle 1 and "Return to Eddarta"). There have been absolutely no clues in the earlier books (at least to someone as ignorant in geography as moi) but although I relegated the connection between our world and Gandalara as only incidental it shows up again in a surprising way in this final book.Rikardon and Tanari's relationship have become less interesting now that they're on each other's side but the development of their characters doesn't stop and things are always happening from the first book to this seventh.I hope I can find the whole cycle 2 trilogy to complete my collection.