Upland Outlaws

"Upland Outlaws" is the second volume of "A handful of men" which is itself the second of two marvellous fantasy quartets. (Hence this is the sixth of eight books if you take the two quartets together.) "A handful of men" is a direct sequel to Duncan's quartet "A man of his word" and began with "The Cutting Edge, which is set about 15 years after the last book of the previous quartet, "Emperor and Clown". The Upland Outlaws follows on from "The Cutting Edge". The full sequence of eight books is: A MAN OF HIS WORD 1) The Magic Casement 2) Faery Lands Forlorn 3) Perilous Seas 4) Emperor and Clown A HANDFUL OF MEN 5) The Cutting Edge 6) Upland Outlaws 7) The Stricken Field 8) The Living God Each quartet is a full and self-contained story, but in my opinion the eight books work best when read in sequence. The titles of the four volumes of "A handful of men" are taken from Masefield's poem, "Tomorrow." The lines which inspire the titles are "Oh yesterday the cutting edge drank thirstily and deep, the upland outlaws ringed us in and herded us as sheep, they drove us from the stricken field and bayed us into keep, But tomorow by the living God, we'll try the game again!" At the start of "Upland Outlaws", Emshandir V has been effectively deposed as Imperor, but hardly anyone knows it. The dwarf sorceror, Zinixio, has formed a coalition of wizards known as "The Covin" and is challenging the balance of power between the races of men and the makers of magic. When the previous Imperor died, Emshandir just managed to get himself proclaimed as the new ruler, but then had to flee his own capital as the covin took control. Now the real Emshandir is on the run with Rap while a fake Emshandir, who is Zinixio's puppet, is on the throne. The world faces a terrible disaster - can Rap and Emshandir stay free from the Covin long enough to prevent it?

I picked this up, from a local bookstore's sale rack. I did not realize that it was the second installment in a quintet, until I finished reading it. Mr. Duncan does such an excellent job of writing that the story can nearly stand alone, and in the context of the series the book gains even more depth and vision.I have since tracked down and purchased all of the novels in hardback, since I consider them an essential part of my fantasy collection. As I said in my review of the first book, this book is a shining example of the high fantasy genre, on par with, if not surpassing Tolkien.Combining lively, likable characters, a grand and tangled plot, and a vivid world this book is superb.

This is the sequel to Dave Duncan's superb novel "Cutting Edge". One of DD specialities is preventing a second or third book in a series from being stricken by the notorious "sequel - syndrom". He keeps up with the high standard he set in "The Cutting Edge". He really must have thought about the story thoroughly before he wrote it, because there are no logical flaws in it as in some other sequels (by other authors, of course). I hope all of his future books will be of the same quality as this one. If you enjoy fantasy, humour, intelligent writing and fun this is the one for you.