The Starfollowers of Coramonde

"The Doomfarers of Coramonde" is a fast paced book that fictional people from real world events (the Vietnam War) and has those characters from that situation get transported magically into a fantasy world. So you have an APC with its crew facing a dragon and magical people. The characters are well developed and the story flows well. It sounds hokey, but in this rare case, it actually works and the book is a good read. It is rather dated now, and it also has some science fiction elements in it about parallel worlds and such, but that seems to work in the plot as well. The Starfollowers of Coramonde is the final book in the series which stars with Doomfarers of Coramonde. They are good and well written books that mix the real world with a fantasy world. They are some of the few that have done that well. If you like a blend of science fiction, fantasy, and a bit of detective mystery thrown in, you will probably like these books.

I read this and Doomfarers when they first came out during the horrid period in the 80s when fantasy was either new Conan novels or plain junk. Only Glen Cook's Black Company series kept me as entertained as these two books did. I can't recommend these two enough.

As I said about Doomfarers, this one is really a great read. It wouldn't make much sense without Doomfarers, but it develops the world nicely and provides a really good sense of completion. THe great characters from Doomfarers continue: Gil MacDonald recovers his sanity eventually, Springbuck grows up, and Yardiff Bey gets run through, but only after making a good play for the brass ring. And the supporting cast--van Duyn, the de Courtenays, Angorman, Reacher and Katya, etc. And the pace keeps up, never letting things slide. Unlike the standard fantasy cliche nowdays, the Coramonde series has but two lean and mean books, not a trilogy or the multi-volume bloat that has become all too common these days. I'd love to have seen more in the world of course but not at the expense of quality. Alas they don't write 'em much like this anymore.