Synopsis
In the midst of the horror of the first World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of the Flanders battlefield - bruised, babbling, and stark naked...with a remarkable story to tell.
Welcome to the second round of The Great Game - the timeless diversion of human gods, created to relieve the tedium of immortality. A ruthless contest of treachery, magic, betrayal and manipulation - a melange of created histories, abused powers and obliterated lives - it weaves through the centuries and across the dimensions, ensnaring warriors, wastrels, kings and commoners in its lethal web.
After three unaccounted years, Edward Exeter, wrongly accused murderer and fugitive from the law, has reappeared on this Earth - bearing scars and secrets from a place he calls Nextdoor. He has crossed over from a war of spears and arrows to do service in one of heavy artillery and poison gas. But powerful forces on both sides of a guarded mystical border have other plans for the young patriot. And there are ancient prophecies to be fulfilled.
For, in a very different realm of godly intrigues, Exeter is Liberator - the one who is to "bring death to Death." It is a prophecy Edward wants no part of - as, in the company of loyal comrades, he races across a bomb-ravaged Britain, fleeing murderous pursuers from two separate worlds.
Reviews
A man falls naked out of the sky onto a WWI battlefield, landing in sight of four British soldiers. Apparently near-catatonic, he's placed in a mental hospital where he is eventually recognized by an old friend who helps him escape. Edward Exeter has been playing dumb, we learn, in part because his story is so unbelievable, and in part because he's been accused of murder. Exeter has spent the last three years in an alternate universe, Nextdoor, as detailed in Past Imperative (1995); in this second novel of a trilogy, we learn that two organizations, the Service and the Chamber, have for centuries been waging interdimensional war?the Great Game?over Nextdoor and other alternate universes. Many of the worst events in our history, in fact, result from this secret war. This premise isn't particularly original, of course, but Duncan has come up with an unusual wrinkle. Magic exists, but it can be accessed only by entering an alternate universe. Thus, someone from our world can become a virtual god in Nextdoor, while a person from that universe gains powers only in our world. Exeter is destined to be Nextdoor's Liberator and to defeat Zath, the evil God of Death. Unfortunately, he doesn't want the job. Duncan writes succinctly, avoiding the verbiage that bloats so many other contemporary fantasies. And while his novel contains fewer pyrotechnics than most heroic fantasies, it features gritty, well-developed characters, several of whom change and grow believably in the course of the book. 25,000 first printing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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