The Hounds of Ash and Other Tales of Fool Wolf by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The author returns to his world of The Waterborn with a collection of short stories which
focus on the barbarian character Fool Wolf, who is possessed, or at least shares a body,
with a rather blood-thirsty goddess, Chugaachik. The collection is written in a style reminiscent of the
Weird Tales stories of Clark Ashton Smith or Robert E. Howard with a healthy dose of Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock thrown in.
The Born Queen by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Dustin Kenall
Perfection isn't always good enough. With The Born Queen, the author delivers a stellar conclusion to his
quartet The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone that nevertheless leaves the reader earthbound in an ultimately
conventional, if unconventionally well written, epic fantasy. He executes each of the key elements of the genre as
masterfully as his dessrata (fencing) champion Cazio dispatches enemies. He properly reconstructs rather than simply
incorporates uncanny linguistic and anthropological sources from this world to breathe verisimilitude into his own. He
deals, at a lethally brisk pace, hands of fate to his characters that no card-counting reader could anticipate. His
prose hustles the reader forward into the story rather than the other way around.
The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
In a world other than our own -- formerly the domain of the inhuman Skasloi, who were long ago overthrown by the human
beings they once held as slaves -- in the second millennium of an age known as Everon, fearful change is stirring. Fell
creatures out of myth and folklore stalk the countryside and terrorize the populace. The Church, keeper of the power of
the saints, secretly seeks to wake forbidden magics. William, King of Crotheny, and most of his family lie dead, betrayed
by his mad brother Robert.
Newton's Cannon by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
We begin in 1681, with a young Sir Isaac Newton discovering something called philosopher's mercury. This, possibly heaven-sent
substance, is the key to manipulating the four elements.
It allows for the transmission of vibrations into the aether, where various states and compositions of matter can then be
altered. The story then moves up to the 18th Century, where England and France are still at war.
Things are going badly for the French, and King Louis XIV demands his philosophers create a weapon of
ultimate destruction; code-named Newton's Cannon.
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The Briar King by Greg Keyes
reviewed by John Berlyne
The Empire of Crotheny has a black history, its various nations forever warring with each other. This age of bickering men follows on a
millennia or two after humans broke free of their enslavement by monstrous Skalsoi. But a great evil is awakening in the land.
In the King's forest, scenes of foul murder are discovered, bodies despoiled and desecrated. This has caused the Sefry (a kind of
indigenous, gypsy people) to leave the forest where they have foraged for generations. The King's Holter, Asper White, sets off to find
the cause of their migration. En route he rescues a young cleric, Stephen Darige, from bandits and together they begin to unravel the
signs that a dark prophecy is finally coming to pass.
The Briar King by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
It begins on the pre-history of a world other than our own. The mysterious Skasloi have been defeated by the human slaves they
have kidnapped from various lands and periods on our earth, in an uprising led by powerful mage Virginia Elizabeth Dare.
But as she stands victorious above the last Skasloi lord, he utters a warning: Virginia and her champions don't understand the
darkness of the sedos magic they have stolen to gain their power, and their use of it has doomed them.
Dark Genesis by J. Gregory Keyes
reviewed by S. Kay Elmore
Alice Kimbrell has a problem. Should she accept an oddball abstract for publication?
Everyone knows that psychic powers are ridiculous, but two unknown grad students
from Harvard seem to have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that telepathy exists.
She publishes the article and predictably, all hell breaks loose.
Newton's Cannon by J. Gregory Keyes
reviewed by S. Kay Elmore
It's 1680 and Isaac Newton has just discovered the alchemical secret of
Philosopher's Mercury. The weapons employed by the English, using the
principles of Newton's alchemy, are devastating the French army. Louis XIV
gathers the greatest philosophical and scientific minds to discover the
ultimate weapon -- Newton's Cannon.
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