Lord of the Isles - Softcover

Drake, David

3.53

3,085 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765354764 ISBN 13: 9780765354761

Publisher: Tor Fantasy, 2006

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In the Lord of the Isles, Drake returns to fantasy with an adventure set in an extraordinary world where the elemental forces that empower magic are rising to a thousand-year peak. Into this world, survivors from the last magical peak intrude: Tenoctris, a quiet and scholarly sorceress swept out of the past at the moment of final catastrophe as her civilization sank beneath the sea; the ghost of the greatest ruler, King Carus of the Isles; and the great magician known only as The Hooded One, who actually caused that ancient catastrophe.

In the days following an unusually severe storm in a tiny seaport town, life is disrupted. First, young Garric rescues the castaway Tenoctris; then, amazingly, a huge galley lands, bearing a court envoy searching for the lost heir to a dukedom - and finding her in Sharina, Garric's sister. Immediately after the galley departs with Sharina to seek out her destiny, another party arrives by coach, led by a merchant sorcerer eager to hire Garric. He sets out with this party, accompanied by Tenoctris and by the shepherd Cashel and his sister, Ilna, both of whom are discovered to have some magical power. Garric and Sharina, Cashel and Ilna, all travel toward romance, danger, and astonishing magic that will transform them and their world.

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Review:

David Drake made his name in genre fiction with the Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction about tough future mercenaries, launched in 1979. A versatile writer, he's also published well-received fantasies. Lord of the Isles opens a massive new saga of clashing swords and spells in an archipelago world. One thousand years beforehand, potent sorcery won a war only for it to backlash and sink the winning island. Now, with magic reaching another millennial peak of power, the world is endangered. Among the players are a king's ghost and two magicians who were present at the ancient disaster (one of them caused it), plus modern wizards, warriors, and unknowing descendants of royalty. Drake skillfully juggles multiple storylines as his engaging characters meet a wild variety of danger: rising and vanishing lands, the reanimated dead (not only human dead), out-of-control sorcery, demons, riots, traps, and other planes of reality including hell itself. The magic comes in several fascinating and often unpleasant flavors. Even likeable characters may die. This story reads well and halts at a satisfying moment of victory rather than at a nail-biting cliffhanger. It doesn't quite achieve epic scale--clearly Drake is keeping major trump cards in reserve for the coming sequels. A promising start. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

From the Back Cover:

With Lord of the Isles, David Drake returns to fantasy with a towering and complex epic of heroic adventure set in an extraordinary and colorful world where the elemental forces that empower magic are rising to a thousand-year peak.

In the days following an unusually severe storm, the inhabitants of a tiny seaport town travel toward romance, danger, and astonishing magic that will transform them and their world.

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