The Shasht War: 4the Second Book of Arna

Christopher Rowley is a true modern master of fantasy. The Ancient Enemy: The First Book of Arna was a simply fantastic read, and The Shasht War: The Second Book of Arna is even more engaging, exciting, and poignant than its predecessor. This book plumbs ever deeper into the hearts of men by holding up the cruel men of Shasht as representatives of the darkness that seemingly haunts our own human society. The Ancient Enemy introduced us to a wonderful land of plenty wherein live mots, mors, brilbies, and kobs - monkey-like creatures of high intelligence and spirituality. Long ago, as the stories tell, Man the Cruel once reigned over the world, but his own self-destructive tendencies destroyed the natural order of life and led to Man's ultimate demise. The mots and mors of Arna cared for the land, celebrated the Spirit that inhabited all living things, and knew nothing of the arts of war. Then Man the Cruel returned, destroying villages, slaughtering and feeding upon thousands of Arna's citizens, and bringing unforeseeable war to the peaceful land. Thru Gillo, who only wants to hone his weaving skills and enjoy the love of the mor Nuza, steps into the role of hero, fighting valiantly to defend his people. On the other side of the conflict, Simona of Gsekk, a young noblewoman forced to endure the hardship of sailing across the world in order to help colonize a new land, comes to know, respect, and love the "animals" her people are trying to exterminate. The moving stories of Thru and Simona are vastly expanded in The Shasht War.As the book opens, spring has arrived and the armies of Man the Cruel have returned, determined not to be defeated by a race of animals the priests of the culture declare unintelligent abominations. There is actually less war here than in the first book, but Rowley's vivid description of the horrors of armed conflict take you right into the heat of battle. For the first time, Man achieves a victory over the mots, and Thru Gillo is among the fighters captured and taken back across the sea to the land of Shasht. Simona herself also wins the right to sail back home to Shasht, where she seizes the opportunity to speak openly with the emperor about the colonial war destroying the noble beings of Arna. The emperor's powers are limited, though, as the mysterious Old One and his blood-thirsty priests exert a power over Shasht that none can easily challenge. For Thru and his fellow captives, death seems imminent and unavoidable, but in Thru there beats the heart of a true hero. His time in Shasht will take him outside the pyramid of ritual sacrifice and into the interior of the strange land, where he must fight to survive. He learns much during this time, as do we, as do a number of men of Shasht. Thru finds friends who are willing to help him despite the great risks in doing so, but his best and only hope of survival lies in the person of Simona. For her part, Simona truly comes of age as a human being and as a woma

This book outlines the world of mots, mors and chooks that takes you deeper into the way the author thinks. I have been a fan of Chris Rowley for some time now, such to the point were I'd like to find out how to send him fan mail. ;)If you are sick of the ink-and-paper doggerel being spewed out of popular printing presses, you will probably enjoy Christopher Rowley's unique books...

This book takes place in the wonderful place of arna with deer and food aplenty but the humans have none of this and will kill to get it. This is a wonderful book even with the young reader I cant wait tell chris writes the third book hey rowley if your reading this PLEASE HURRY WITH THE NEXT BOOK DUDE! You have this readers concent to WRITE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like this book not because of the battle descriptions but because of the worlds that are created. The descriptions of man's world and of the Mots, Mors and others are so real that you can see them in your head. The story is interesting and keeps your attention. I was always wondering what was going to happen next. I get so tired of books that have so much detail on the wars and battles but leave the lives of the people involved in question, Christopher Rowley doesn't do that. Bravo Chris!

The first Rowley book I read was "The Ancient Enemey" The first book of Arna, which I started as detention reading freshman year. I found the first to be a rather passing read with interesting points that caught me just at the right time before I tossed the book away. I never finished it. The Shasht War, I found to be even better than the first, mainly because of the whole war time atmosphere. I find the world of Arna to be amazingly intriguing if only it could've veered from the "far future de-evolved into medieval" formula. The formula isn't really smacked in your face so it never gets in the way except at the Questioner meetings. I recommend this book as an enjoyable read with gritty combat scenes and wonderful troop movement descriptions. The only thing really lacking in this book is the level of detail and description, failing in some respects, but succeeding in others. I cannot help but comment once again on the wonderfully bad-@$$ world that Mr. Rowley has created, complete with jaw dropping fantasy societies and those weird little Chook birds.