BooksForABuck.com source for free and affordable eBooks



Search
Booksforabuck

Powered by FreeFind


Site search
Web search

    Review of CHILDREN OF CHAOS by Dave Duncan (see his website)

    Tor, June 2006

    Invaders from another face of the world have come bringing destruction with them. No merely human warriors can stand against the power of these shape-shifting, god-blessed warriors, and the entire Florengian Face seems doomed to conquest. Hostages from one of the first cities captured, Celebre, are brought to the Vigaelian Face where one dies, one becomes a god-gifted sculpture, one becomes one of the beast-warriors that oppress his people, and one becomes a young woman, apparent daughter of a wealthy merchant--but a woman with a strange interest in the underworld and the forbidden goddess of death.

    Separated and scorned by their captors, these three survivors try to create their own place in a new world. Fabia, the daughter, seeks some means of avoiding marriage with the brutal warriors. Bernard is blessed by Anziel, but falls in love with a much older woman--who is in turn married to one of the warrior-leaders. Horold is most conflicted, having been brought up hating his own people who are now in revolt from their Vigaelian conquerors. Because the conquerors made a fateful mistake--they taught attempted to create a local occupation army--an army which turned against them. Each of the hostage children becomes, in their own way, god-touched. But those gods are different, and as they grow older, the hostage-children become very different in their goals and their motivation. Horold, in particular, seeks to cut all ties between himself and his family or anyone else he labels as traitors. Yet none can escape their origin.

    Author Dave Duncan (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Duncan) creates a fascinating fantasy world. The gods are in close contact with the locals, the world is weird and the personalities of its leaders are larger than life.

    One challenge of a series is to thread the line between leaving too much unresolved and resolving everything too early. Duncan manages this balance perfectly in CHILDREN OF CHAOS. The short term goals are achieved, but a long term solution to their problems still appears to be an impossible distance away. Duncan fans will enjoy this action-packed story, and those not acquainted with this prolific author will certainly want to give him a try. I did think that Duncan managed the issue of the lost oldest child a bit casually, and would have liked to see a bit more conflict as Horold found himself in a situation where it was impossible to reconcile his beliefs with his environment, but neither kept me from enjoying this fine story.

    Three Stars

    Want to buy it? Click the button:

    Want to learn more?
    Click this link and see more reviews, similar books, and other Amazon information on CHILDREN OF CHAOS

    Rather buy it from Barnes and Noble?
    Click this link for CHILDREN OF CHAOS from Barnes and Noble.com

    Too generous? Too stingy. Or did I miss the whole point? Send your comments to publisher@booksforabuck.com. I'll publish the best letters I get so let me know if I can use your name.


    MyStarship.com Banner Exchange