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_Farlander_, Col Buchanan
SO there's this secret monastery full of assassin-monks hidden way up in a mountain on an island, and they support themselves by using one of the two pure-fantasy elements in this book: they sell you a necklace, for lots of money, and if you are murdered, they promise to kill your murderer for you.
(The other pure-fantasy element is that the lighter-than-air dirigibles use sails.)
Is there an ancient monk who is still a bad-ass? Yes.
A bad-ass with a sword? Oh yes.
Do we get to see the recruitment and training of a new monk? Yes, and the ancient bad-ass monk picks him as padawan. Um, I mean, apprentice.
Is there an evil empire? Yes.
Is the evil empire run by a cult? Yes, in fact -- a religious cult which seems to be based on Christian Fundamentalist notions of Satanism, more or less.
Is there a rival of the ancient monk who is not actually bad but whose pride gets in the way of repairing their relationship? Yes.
Does the rival have a beautiful daughter for the apprentice to consider as a love interest? Why do you think I'm posing these rhetorical questions?
All that, and I found the book profoundly disappointing, due to lack of resolution and a depressing anticlimactic ending that didn't match the tone or style of the rest of the book.
SO there's this secret monastery full of assassin-monks hidden way up in a mountain on an island, and they support themselves by using one of the two pure-fantasy elements in this book: they sell you a necklace, for lots of money, and if you are murdered, they promise to kill your murderer for you.
(The other pure-fantasy element is that the lighter-than-air dirigibles use sails.)
Is there an ancient monk who is still a bad-ass? Yes.
A bad-ass with a sword? Oh yes.
Do we get to see the recruitment and training of a new monk? Yes, and the ancient bad-ass monk picks him as padawan. Um, I mean, apprentice.
Is there an evil empire? Yes.
Is the evil empire run by a cult? Yes, in fact -- a religious cult which seems to be based on Christian Fundamentalist notions of Satanism, more or less.
Is there a rival of the ancient monk who is not actually bad but whose pride gets in the way of repairing their relationship? Yes.
Does the rival have a beautiful daughter for the apprentice to consider as a love interest? Why do you think I'm posing these rhetorical questions?
All that, and I found the book profoundly disappointing, due to lack of resolution and a depressing anticlimactic ending that didn't match the tone or style of the rest of the book.
