Final volume of the Celtic Crusades trilogy begun with The Iron Lance (1998), in which lawyer Gordon Murray was introduced as narrator of a Scottish generational saga, with Murdo Ranulfson, son of Lord Ranulf of Dyrness, Orkney, going off on the Crusades and finding the iron lance that stabbed Christ at the Crucifixion. In The Black Rood (2000), set 40 years later, Murdo’s son Duncan came back with a piece of the True Cross. Now, in this volume, a lass named Caitríonia seeks the Rosa Mysticus, or the Sacred Cup of the Christ at the Last Supper. This leads to Gordon himself becoming the cup’s guardian, century after century. No questions that would bother Graham Greene, but those lusting for the True Path will eat it up.
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-105031-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Eos/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001
Solid and absorbing but not the tour de force the Powder Mage trilogy was.
Conclusion to McClellan’s Gods of Blood and Powder fantasy trilogy (Wrath of Empire, 2018, etc.), in which politicking assumes as much importance as magic and armies.
Dynize blood sorcerer Ka-Sedial intends to secure the three ancient monoliths known as godstones in order to make himself into a god, and he invades Fatrasta to capture two of them. Giant warrior Ben Styke, accompanied by Ka-Poel, the mute bone-eye sorcerer (and Ka-Sedial's grandaughter) whose magic can detect the stones, plans to attack Dynize and locate the third godstone. But a storm scatters Styke and Ka-Poel's ships and strands them with only 20 lancers. Worse, the stone is already under Ka-Sedial's control, forcing them to forgo brute force and attempt diplomacy. Ka-Poel's husband, Taniel, despite his near godlike powers, spends most of the book trying to catch up with them. Gen. Vlora Flint, grievously wounded and bereft of her gunpowder magic, burns for revenge yet must engage more Dynize armies and endure political interference. Ex-spy Michel Bravis and Ka-Poel's sister Ichtracia, a Privileged sorcerer, try to learn why so many Palo are mysteriously disappearing. McClellan tells an intriguing tale. Still, alert readers will wonder why the book's villain, having quickly solved his main problem, then does nothing for hundreds of pages and why many of the characters that add salt and spice to the proceedings spend too long offstage or just form wallpaper. True, the author doesn't do politics nearly as effectively as he does magic and battles, and he wrings out few surprising plot twists. His prior novels, with their hero Field Marshal Tamas, cast an unfortunately deep shadow: Tamas is one of the great fantasy heroes of recent years, and nobody here comes close.
Solid and absorbing but not the tour de force the Powder Mage trilogy was.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-40731-1
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Too long, but few readers will fail to stay its magical course. Once again, the myth of Oz proves its enduring power.
Animals talk, attack dragons prowl the skies and political unrest afflicts the land of Oz in this richly detailed sequel to Maguire’s contemporary fantasy classic Wicked (1996).
Its protagonist is Liir, the probable offspring of Elphaba Thropp, the late, mostly unlamented Wicked Witch of the West (unless Liir’s birth mother was actually Elphaba’s unfortunate sibling Nessarose; it’s complicated). We meet Liir as he lies near death in one of Oz’s outlying lands and is taken to the Mauntery of Saint Glinda, where the venerable Superior Maunt entrusts his care to beautiful gypsy girl Candle. Parallel flashbacks mix with subsequent action to describe Liir’s boyhood adventures with Dorothy Gale (even if she has murdered his mother) and her nonhuman companions, various ordeals in an embattled Oz riven with rebellion (from which the Wizard has long since fled), as Liir seeks his missing childhood friend Nor as well as Elphaba’s notorious book of spells, joins the Emerald City’s Home Guard defense force and—aloft on Elphaba’s flying broomstick—challenges the forces of both disorder and incumbency, makes peace with his past and envisions a future in which even changelings may assume their full humanity. The book works too hard to dazzle us; it’s considerably more cluttered and strained than Wicked. But, like L. Frank Baum’s magical land itself, it’s filled with wonderful things: the neurotic kvetching of the Cowardly Lion (who disappears, alas, much too soon); a brilliant subplot involving the half-human, half-elephant Princess Nastoya; a Conference of Birds; and the political ascendancy of the Scarecrow, a puppet ruler serving a cabal of bankers. Best of all is Liir’s arduous pilgrimage toward becoming what he was meant to be.
Too long, but few readers will fail to stay its magical course. Once again, the myth of Oz proves its enduring power.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-054893-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2005
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