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Title: Beyond the Pale (The Last Rune, Book 1) by Mark Anthony ISBN: 0-553-57934-7 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 November, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.81 (43 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Love it! But it does sound awfully familiar...
Comment: I'm incredibly fond of this book and fully intend to get the 2nd one. Where I utterly detested Brook's Sword of Shannara (he couldn't write, I tell you!) I find this book well written and the storyflow engaging, so much so that I can actually ignore the less than original plotline. The only problem I had with his writing style is that I found it rather difficult to identify the characters. Besides the two main characters, whenever a character reappeared after a certain period of absence in the book I had to flip back to the front just to figure out who it was.
It's also true that some parts are terribly derivative. Melia is a Polgara clone, and that part about seals weakening just screams Robert Jordan at you. We've all seen this magic system somewhere before and the "off to save the world" theme is so prevalent it isn't even amusing anymore.
For me, the bottom line is that Mr. Anthony can tell a good story. His descriptions of castle life imparted a certain feeling of reality to that episode, the characters are fleshed out well enough to make them believable. The book isn't profound or soul-grabbing, it'll never make you ponder the cosmos or the meaning of life, but it really reads well.
Rating: 2
Summary: Extraordinary - but not in a good way
Comment: Taken one way, Beyond the Pale is an average fantasy. It's got all the hallmarks of your modern-day "epic". It runs to about 600 pages, it's the first of what will probably be a mega-volume series, and it introduces a host of characters that often, as yet, have little or no impact.
Why buy it? Well, the story features a lot of action and moves along quite swiftly. You'll not be bored reading it. As long as you don't set your sights too high - this is not literature, nor even a well thought-out story - you might well like it.
Taken another way, Beyond the Pale is exceptional. It is, simply put, the most derivative book written since Terry Brooks's Sword of Shannara. Anthony goes even further than Brooks: whereas Brooks copied blatantly from one source (Tolkien), Beyond the Pale is a veritable hotchpotch of derivations. For example, one of Anthony's protagonists (Travis) is simply a pale rendering of Donaldson's Thomas Covenant. Another character (Melia) talks exactly like David Edding's Polgara. At one point in the story, Anthony has a third character (the bard Falken) deliver a speech to a council of rulers which reads like a poor summation of Tolkien's Battle of the Pelennor Fields. At this junction, Anthony actually steals entire sentences from Tolkien (not to mention ideas). It's really quite remarkable.
I remember that, when Terry Brooks first came along, there were those who delighted in pointing out just how unoriginal he was. Anthony should send such people into a fervor. In this sense, he's really much better than Brooks...
I suspose that the bottom line is that Beyond the Pale is fun to read, whichever way you take it...
Rating: 3
Summary: While waiting for A Feast for Crows...
Comment: As most reviews have mentioned, this book is NOT very original. Since that's out of the way, I must say it was a lot of fun to read. There is a lot of action, the characters are charmingly flawed, if somewhat predictable. I really enjoyed the high drama, and rather silly plot twists...just as someone is about to say, do, or discover something important, they are interrupted by a completely bizarre event. (Action! Swordfights, fires, storms, attacks by evil creatures, translocations--that type of thing.)The lead characters are irritating in many ways, but for some reason, this made me like them! Travis is unbelievably passive, and really upset...about his PAST! Grace is an ice princess, who feels DEEPLY, and can't quite express herself. And, as mentioned in other reviews, Melia is a virtual clone of Polgara this sorceress, even calling people "dear" the way Polgara does. If you can get past these flaws, however, you will find an enjoyable read, with nice touches of humor. It's not a gourmet meal, it's more of a takeout pizza with everything on it. Sometimes, that's just the thing.
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Title: The Keep of Fire (The Last Rune, Book 2) by Mark Anthony ISBN: 0553579320 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Dark Remains (The Last Rune, Book 3) by Mark Anthony ISBN: 0553579355 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Blood of Mystery (The Last Rune, Book 4) by Mark Anthony ISBN: 0553583328 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Gates of Winter (The Last Rune, Book 5) by Mark Anthony ISBN: 0553583336 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Lair of Bones (Runelords, Book 4) by David Farland ISBN: 0765301768 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 08 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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