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Across the Face of the World (Mass Market Paperback)

by Russell Kirkpatrick (Author)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Price:	CDN$ 9.50 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Orbit (Jan 1 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316003417
ISBN-13: 978-0316003414
Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.4 x 4.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 386 g

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #282,045 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From a tiny snowbound village, five men and women are about to embark on a journey that will change their lives -and the destiny of their world.

For two thousand years, since he was cast out from Dona Mihst, the fabled Undying Man has been plotting his revenge on the Most High. The Destroyer's plans of vengeance are nearing fruition-and he will allow nothing to stand in his way.

But one man has escaped from the Destroyer's prison, and even though the Lords of Fear ride in pursuit, he will bring word to his people. It will be up to his sons, Hal and Leith, together with a small group of villagers, to warn their world of the coming war.

About the Author

Russell Kirkpatrick's love of literature and a chance encounter with fantasy novels as a teenager opened up a vast number of possibilities to him. The idea that he could marry storytelling and mapmaking (his other passion) into one project grabbed him and wouldn't let go. He lives in New Zealand with his wife and two children. Find out more about Russell Kirkpatrick at www.russellkirkpatrick.com.

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3.0 out of 5 stars From Grandeur to Swampland, Dec 27 2007

By	Mark Gerdes "Mark Gerdes" (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Across The Face Of The World (Paperback)

Halfway through this novel I was forming the opinion that this author was the true heir to Tolkien. By the end of the book I was struggling to pay attention.

The novel starts as a formulaic Tolkienesque fantasy with the unsure small male who ends up as the focus of a party of questing adventurers. It's been done a thousand times. The difference here being that this author has not done it poorly. Over the years authors have tried to freshen up the tired old model by adding pancake makeup in the form of complex systems of magic, cumbersome religions, place names with too many vowels and apostrophes, and fantastical creatures. Kirkpatrick has avoided all of these temptations and refreshed the model by stripping off the old layers of varnish taking it back to it's roots. You don't lose a thing. Reading the first half of the novel is like seeing an old '57 Chevy converted from a garish street-rod back to it's original showroom condition. Nice.

Formulaic fantasy also requires world-building and Kirkpatrick comes through on this account as well. The world he has created is simple, harsh, beautiful, and alive. He successfully avoided the fantasy trap of creating a world that is so alien that readers cannot become immersed in it. Kirkpatrick's world is a place that you can know.

A beautiful fantasy world won't be successful if it is not populated with interesting people. Some fantasy authors resort to the fantastic because humans are boring. Kirkpatrick's humans are not boring. The cultures encountered in the first half of the novel are both believable and interesting. Kirkpatrick's human Fodhram and Fenni are much more interesting than if he had thrown in Centaurs or Elves in their place. The action of the novel is interspersed with revelations of history and culture in a very interesting way.

The cast of individuals is interesting as well. From time to time the author shifts the point of view momentarily from his main character to the secondary characters at critical moments, giving the reader insight into motivations and making his party, and their opponents, much more than cardboard cutouts. The author does not overuse this technique and wields the scalpel expertly. My only complaint would be the shallowness of the female characters. Like Tolkien, Kirkpatrick seems to have difficulty developing a rich female character. I hope this will be corrected in the follow-on books.

The bad guys are almost exact duplicates of Tolkien's Sauron and his eastern allies...only more vicious. However, where Tolkien did not care to delve into the history and motivations of his nameless and faceless hordes, Kirkpatrick lets us look behind the curtain from time to time and see what is going on in his "Mordor".

The action is very good through the first half of the novel. These travelling quests can become tedious despite the beauty of the world being travelled through. The author does not let the journey falter and our adventuring party has plenty to do besides walking. Most of these travel complications seem natural, but a few seem forced. There are too many occurrences of people showing up at the exact spot in the uninhabited wilderness at the exact moment necessary to solve problems.

This first offering is really a fantasy masterpiece.....up until the climactic battle with the main protagonists. At this point the author seems to lose his way. It appears that Kirkpatrick found himself 1000 leagues and 200 pages short after the climax and was forced to make up something to fill the space. Or perhaps Kirkpatrick had one more culture he wanted to show off and took a vacation from his plot in order to present it. Having bested Tolkien at everything else, the author felt it necessary to top him in the category of unnecessary story-line deviations ala Tom Bombadil.

The whole Widuz section should have been left on the cutting room floor. The author not only breaks up his "Fellowship", he shatters it into useless fragments. Forced to follow multiple shards the novel becomes unwieldy, even for Kirkpatrick's prodigious talents. This part of the novel is like a beautiful river that reaches it's delta and spreads out into stinky swampland. By the time the novel stumbles to its unsatisfying conclusion, you are as exhausted as the characters are and just as thankful that the journey through the swamp is over.

I sometimes think that fantasy readers continue to read fantasy in a vain hope that they can recapture those days of wonder when they first read Tolkien. Authors have tinkered with the formula for years in a futile quest to provide that for readers. Kirkpatrick actually succeeded for 300 or so pages and that makes it well worth reading.

I pressed on to the unsatisfying end solely on the hope that the next offering in the series will return the majesty of the first half of this book.

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