Product Description
Garth asked an oracle how he could be remembered forever.The answer sent him into a web of treachery, of ancient secrets and forbidden knowledge, and entangled him in matters far beyond his understanding, until he found himself face to face with the gods of destruction and death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Classic Fantasy Tale in a Classy Package
Lawrence Watt Evans hit a home run with his Lords of Dus.I first started reading the series while assigned overseas in the 1980s.I read these stories to my children as they grew up, and all of them went out and bought their own copies as they became young adults.

The stories trace the adventures of Gar, Prince of the Overmen, as he undertakes a quest "to be remembered until the end of time."He succeeds, and like any great story Gar succeeds in a way that is perfectly literally true, but does not resemble his initial vision in any reasonable form.

Lawence Watt-Evans effortlessly creates a group of characters that live and breath in his tales.Some modern speculative fiction has me struggling to find even a single character to identify with whereas I can usually find a half a dozen, believable, and empathetic characters in Watt-Evans' works.

His stories are engaging.The characters have real issues at stake, and they behave in realistic and believable ways.Best of all, his characters undergo realistic changes and growth throughout the stories.Gar at the end of the series would hardly recognize Gar at the beginning of the tales.

This volume also contains some wonderful commentary and previously unpublished pieces.

The price tag might seem a little steep, but consider this volume is one that you and your children will probably return to time and time again.It is one I intend on reading to my grandchildren.

Nicely done Lawrence Watt-Evans!(Yes, I did learn my lesson and will never call you Larry again!);-)

Thank you for the hardcover edition!!!
I would like to thank wildside press / and other editors for printing this omnibus hardcover edition of Lawrence Watt-Evan's Lord of Dus series.

Please print Lawrence Watt-Evans Missenchanted Sword series in hardcover to!Thank you in advance!

This is a fantastic series with one of the best swords and sorcery story lines since Howards conan stories.Pick up a copy right away!

Great Read!
I started reading this series when I was in highschool in the 80's and went to college and never got the last book. Rereading the previous books and having the final book all in one was a real treat. I had a hard time putting it down and got in trouble with my wife several nights for leaving the light on too long. If you like fantasy similar to the writings of Howard and the other Conan authors I highly recommend this complete series.

A great fantasy story
Tired of a world filled with death and decay, Garth the Overman is directed by an oracle to go south into the human lands and serve one known as the Forgotten King, where he will win fame that will endure to the end of the world. But, little does Garth dream of what his service will mean. Seeking to avoid the full effect of the Forgotten King's machinations, but pulled onward by fate, Garth will go where he never thought to go and do things that he never wanted to do.

I am a great fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans' wonderful Ethshar series, and now that I can't find any more to read, I decided to move onto his Lords of Dus series. Well, I was not disappointed! This is a great fantasy tetralogy, complete with magic, strange creatures, and lots of swordplay. In particular, I found the author's use of a non-human as the protagonist to be quite intriguing and masterfully done.

So, if you are a fan of fantasy literature, then you must get this book, which is all four books in one. You will not be disappointed!

The most underappreciated series ever
I can't say enough about LWE and this series.Just phenomenal stuff.If you are looking for something that you will be able to appreciate over and over again, this is the series you are looking for.Gar the Overman is protaganist, but not your typical one.Check it and out and read a masterpiece series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Excellent Read!
A collection of short stories from Lawrence Watt-Evans, easily one of the best fantasy writers out there.

The stories here run the gamut of Watt-Evans' work, and some are clearly better than others.Many (but not all) are fantasy-based but a few are representative of LWE's science fiction story-telling.All are pretty good.

An excellent addition to any Lawrence Watt-Evans fans' collection!Highly recommended.

Collection of shorts
Twenty stories by Lawrence Watt-Evans, written with all the wit and imagination that earned the author a Hugo for Best Short Story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Entertaining, novel read
I liked this book.I read it years ago, and recently reread it.I thought it was an enjoyable read.It is 200 pages long, and goes pretty fast, and it had novel ideas.The aliens have come to earth looking for a yellow eyed human, and they find one.The story sort of goes on a roller coaster from there.

Mildly-entertaining pot-boiler. 2.3 stars
___________________________________________
The Earth has entered a new Ice Age, destroying temperate-zone civilization. Then, ships from the Galactic Empire arrive to help! But they're crewed by dim adolescent dorks, and other things don't add up...

Has moments, but basically a pot-boiler.Well, bills must be paid...

Author's comment:"I thought it would be fun to write a pot-boiler; oddly, it wasn't. Anyway, I was only twenty-seven when I wrote it; you can't expect too much. "


Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

One yellow-eyed man against the universe
My, my, what a cocky hero we've got here. For years he has lived in frozen Pennsylvania, to be picked up by aliens who rule the earth. Though our hero hasn't seen much of the world and has lived like a caveman for years, he manages to keep out of the hands of the real rulers, who are after a secret, hidden in the DNA of his yellow eyes. It is thanks to his anti-social behaviour and his rude manners that he manages to shake them off all the time. Our unsympathic hero gets help everywhere, but never a moment of gratitude, which seems to be his survival.
I didn't find this novel half as entertaining as the other reviewer, but I've read worse.

Ice ages, supernovas, genetic engineering, galactic empires.
In the 1990s, the Earth plunges into an Ice Age. Aliens come to rescue us, but really come to search for a person with golden eyes whose chromosomes contain the secret of how to blow up a star, encoded into his genes by agenetic engineer 35,000 years ago... A zillion wild ideas thrown at youmachine gun style...a wild ride for a sci-fi-fan! ... Read more

Product Description
After renting his small-town theater to an odd-looking theater troupe, Art Dunham begins to question his decision when he finds a door in the floor of the stage that was not there before. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Magic on the stage and Pirates on the shore all in one book
I enjoyed this collection of two short stories.The first story was well detailed with many theatre references. The second story was alot of fun.The characters were a bit stereotyped, but individual enough to beinteresting.The story had some nice turns in the plot.Veryentertaining. ... Read more

Product Description
Notable science fiction authors are gathered for an out-of-this-world collection! Features "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Diner" by Lawrence Watt Evans and read by Wil Wheaton; "That Only Mother" by Judith Merrill and read by Terry Farrell; "Jeffty Is Five" written and read by Harlan Ellison; "Fermi and Frost" by Frederick Pohl and read by Denise Crosby; "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke and read by Alexander Siddig; "Teangents" by Greg Bear and read by Melissa Manchester; and many others. Unabridged. October '98 publication date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Greatest Science Fiction Stories Of The 20th Century
This is a very good unabridged audio of short stories. Was sent and received within a reasonable time and was in good shape. I enjoyed it very much, thank you.

I love "why I left Harry's..." - by WATT-EVANS
I love "Why I left Harry's All Night Hamburgers" by Lawrence Watt-Evans.I also really enjoy the performance of Will Wheaton (reader).It's been a while since I could find my copy, but I used to listen to this story once a week.The Editorial Review is right about this collection being incorrectly named, this isn't representative of the "Greatest ... of the 20th Century",but I remember most being pretty good,and I just can't forget "Why I left Harry's...".It's charm, for me, is the way it brings magic and mystery into a very commonplace existence.A young guy who feels trapped by his rural/small-town life and wants out. (CAUTION: SPOILER) He discovers that the local diner, his McJob, is actually an interdimensional/interstellar travelers' rest-stop.It might be a way for him to escape his frustrating life. ... Read more

Product Description
Casper Beech is a corporate drone. One day his boss sends him in for neural imprinting but a computer glitch loads the wrong file, and Casper is programmed with something that has nothing to do with his job. Instead of learning a new software package, he learns a new way of thinking - a mindset designed by a secret government agency for use in enemy nations, and never meant to be unleashed in the United States. Lethal government agents seek to correct the error in a steadily-escalating conflict, while Casper struggles to survive and to find out just what was in the Spartacus File. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Such potential...
Well, I just purchased this book through Amazon, and after it arrived, I devoured it in one evening and the following morning(a total of about 3-4 hours).I really enjoyed how the book was going right up till the last 3 pages when, as an earlier reviewer put it, "the book jumped sixteen years to an unsatisfying end".Now, the authors did put in the ending the possibility of a sequel which, if done right, could then salvage this book, but until then, I have to give this book 3 stars, of which 1 and 1/2 of them are only because the the first 166 pages of the 169 page book were SO good.

Spartacus
Spartacus File is co-authored by my favorite author Lawrence Watt-Evans and by Carl Parlagreco, a writer unknown to me.As with everything Watt-Evans writes, the story avoids cleche plot lines and takes the reader in a different and interesting direction.Start with a character who is plugged in to receive a computerized skill implant, add a computer glitch, and then go along for the ride in the rest of the story.
I have been enjoying this book, but must admit that is isn't one of Watt-Evan's best.I'm not sure if this is by chance or because it is a collaboration with another author.In any event, I think this is an enjoyable read, but also would highly recommend all other books by Watt-Evans for those who enjoy stories that break the standard molds.Here are some recommendations:The Wizard Lord: Volume One of the Annals of the Chosen (The Annals of the Chosen), THE MISENNCHANTED SWORD

Young Adult Fiction
I guess this was OK for what it was.I just didn't know it was written for young teenagers, so I was disappointed.If you want to teach your children about the evils of big government, then this may be the book for you.If you are a fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans' other books, then you are probably too old for this one.

Surprising DystopianRead
I never expected to see a serious dystopian novel from Lawrence Watt-Evans. I knew he had a dark streak, as demonstrated in his extremely troubling Brown Magician series, but he's best known for intelligent, light fantasy not for works of political vision - at least not until he teamed up with Carl Parlagreco to write The Spartacus File.

The Spartacus File is more than just a dystopian novel, it's a polemic very specifically aimed at negative trends in current American society. There's no question that the storytelling and characterization suffer because of this, but the result is a novel which has the minimalist feel of classic dystopian works like Slan, The Day After Tomorrow and The Brave Free Men, where the story to a large extent takes a second seat to the message.

The novel is sent in a near future where the United States has evolved into a single-party corporate dominated state with a strong police aparatus where people are at the mercy of their employers, under the thumb of politcial oligarchs and at the mercy of covert police units which can make dissenters and troublemakers disappear. The Constitution is still theoretically in force, but after a major economic crisis it's been suspended and superseded by the needs of the all-powerful state.

Casper Beech is a cog in this machine-like society, overworked and undervalued and totally cowed and submissive - essentially a slave to the system. Then he's called into his boss's office and told that they're upgrading the software he uses, and to keep him up to speed he's going to be sent for neural programming to learn the new software instantly. Like a good sheep he takes the treatment, something goes wrong, and he's imprinted with a much more complex skill set accidentally downloaded from a covert government project.

What follows is a fast-paced, bare-bones narrative of Casper's efforts to stay alive while the government tries to eliminate him, and his coming to terms with the programming he was given - the 'Spartacus File' of the title - and acting on its compulsion to attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. Or as he interprets the purpose of the program, to return the nation to its Constitutional roots.

The most interesting element of the novel is the distinct perspectives which different characters have on the state in which they live. The mysterious government agent Mr. Smith can't understand how an American could accept the imprinting of the file which is supposed to only work on someone who's suffered a lifetime of slavery and persecution. From his perspective America is still a free society founded on individual rights, but the reality as revealed to Casper by the Spartacus File is quite different. The weak point of the novel is the extremely abrupt conclusion. After establishing the basic situation the novel abruptly leaps forward 16 years to a very unsatisfying conclusion.

Where the novel succeeds the most is in recreating the spare style of dystopian science fiction of the previous century. It reminds me of early Heinlein and Van Vogt. The extrapolation of a troubling near future is all too believable, and the somewhat one-dimensional characters fit with the style as symbols more than unique individuals. The ending is negative and somewhat contrived, but I could live with that if it didn't end so suddenly and unsatisfyingly. I'm not going to go into details of the plot, but I started off reading avidly, unable to put the book down, at least briefly convinced that it might be a dystopian classic. But the ending left me annoyed and unfulfilled. I don't expect this kind of novel to end in glorious triumph or heroic martyrdom, but in this case the conclusion was too abrupt and contrived to be convincing or satisfying.

Nonetheless I think The Spartacus File is worth reading if only for the critique of trends in contemporary society, but there are other dystopian novels of the past generation which I would recommend more highly, particularly An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson, which has just as strong a message, but is a much more enjoyable read. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Thought-provoking book on the original Star Trek
I'm amazed that there are not more reviews of this terrific book about the original "Star Trek" TV series. Does that mean that not many people are reading BOARDING THE ENTERPRISE? Fans should definitely read this book, because it's a great anthology of perspectives about the show, mostly positive, but since it's "completely unauthorized," some negative views as well. Most of the authors are, like me, clearly fans of the original "Star Trek" and have been much influenced by it, but are willing to admit that it had its shortcomings too. These essays are very wide-ranging, from D.C. Fontana's "I Remember Star Trek" that is largely behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the show, to "What Have You Done With Spock's Brain?" by Don DeBrandt about Vulcan society and identity, to "Who Killed the Space Race?" by Adam Roberts that looks at the relationship between science fiction and real space travel, to "The Prime Question" by Eric Greene that ponders meanings behind various episodes and aspects of "Star Trek," and so on through 15 usually fascinating essays.

Greene's "The Prime Question" was helpful to me in pointing out that the show's inconsistences in applying the Prime Directive (which advocated non-interference with alien societies) reflected a difference of opinion between two of the show's producers, Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon, and those inconsistencies actually provide an interesting debate on the pros and cons of interference. Another of my favorite essays was "Star Trek in the Real World" by Norman Spinrad, in which the famous sci-fi author argues that the alien Mr. Spock was important to our society in promoting the acceptance of other ideas and cultures. Another well-known sci-fi writer and media professor, Paul Levinson, points out in "How Star Trek Liberated Television" that the show's success in syndication was the first salvo in the struggle to liberate us from the dominance of the big three TV networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Some essays I found less enlightening, but one must remember that from infinite diversity comes infinite combinations! Notice too that this is NOT a book intended to provide a huge amount of detail about the original Trek, but rather is perspectives about the meanings and impact of the show. I have read a substantial amount about "Star Trek," especially the original series, and BOARDING THE ENTERPRISE is the most interesting book of perspectives about the show that I have read.

Boarding the Enterprise
I enjoy this book because its like a bible of the 'inside information' on the specs and technical info about the Enterprise and the Federation. I enjoy writing fan-fiction, so this is a treasure chest of info. ... Read more

Product Description
Bredon didn't mean to interfere with the Powers-but then they interfered with him! When the beings of myth and legend start fighting among themselves, mere mortals had best beware. Millennia ago, the survivors of a crash settled the planet of Denner's Wreck. Their descendents long ago forgot their own history. Centuries later, the planet was rediscovered by visitors who stayed-and came to be called The Powers. The descendants of the original settlers soon learned to treat the newcomers like gods. Then, one fine day, Bredon the Hunter found himself caught up in the affairs of the Powers­-at just the moment one of them went mad! With a new afterword by the Author. Previously published as Denner's Wreck. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Among the Powers is a great read!
Watt-Evans fans will be charmed by this story which explores the difference between magic and technology. More Sci-fi than fantasy, this story is a departure from Watt-Evans' Dragon series or Ethshar novels. Yet, Watt-Evans' simple story line and clear wit tell a powerful story about human motivations and how technology affects us.
This is a reprint of the book Denner's Wreck. On the world of Denner's Wreck, the original colonists have devolved into an agrarian society. They believe that beings called "The Powers"are gods and goddesses who created the world and keep it running properly. However, it is quickly made clear that The Powers are merely humans with advanced technology who are visiting Denner's Wreck on an extended (400 years or so) holiday.
Our main character is a hunter by the name of Bredon. He runs into a power named Geste, who is fond of jokes at other peoples expense. To make up for involving Bredon in one of his jokes. Geste offers to give Bredon anything in his power as a favor. Unable to think of anything right away, Bredon asks for time to think about it. He then chances to see a Power by the name of Lady Sunlight and desires her. Geste thinks it would be amusing to introduce them, so he takes Bredon to meet her. Geste then discovers that Lady Sunlight and several other Powers are being held prisoner by an insane Power named Thaddeus the Black. Thaddeus is attempting to take over the world and set himself up as an evil emperor. Geste and Bredon each resolve to stop Thaddeus and save the world in their own unique fashions.
This is an entertaining and fast paced story.
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

its ok...good reading ..but its not Terry Pratchett
I enjoy the book as a book...and it is quite refreashing to read about all the brilliant books by Pratchett...but I feel it sort of ...well read it yourself..its entertaing, but as I put it...Its not a Terry Pratchett production. Thanks anyway for an enteraing book.

[...]...and free.
A disappointing commentary on Discworld. Watt-Evans skips over some of the most important elements of Discworld. [...]. Watt-Evans tries too hard to emulate Pratchett, making his footnotes so ubiquitous as to be annoying, rather than the judicious use Pratchett uses. Perhaps this book is "refreshingly free of literary jargon" but it is also disappointingly free of any real substance, using brief summaries and irritating value judgments rather than real, useful commentary on Pratchett's work.

Fantastic overview with insights into the Discworld series
The Turtle Moves!: Discworld's Story is a companion book by Lawrence Watt-Evans (BenBella Books, 2008) to Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld series.I learned about puns and word play I missed, plus background.And I see that there's an upcoming Tiffany Aching book, I Shall Wear Midnight, and possibly Raising Taxes, and a number of books I wasn't aware of, including the three Science of Discworld books (stories plus science). and short stories, two of which I got to read online.(See the link to Lspace below.)The short stories include Troll Bridge (Cohen story).

It starts off a bit slow, but when he gets to the stories, it was fun remembering and learning more about my favorites and the connections between stories and characters--lots of details.He points out the changes from the first two books (parodies) and the evolution of the characters and plots.l learned the connection between XXXX and Australia; the meaning of words and names, including Tempscire, Carrot, Hex (the computer), ...

Btw, the kangaroo in The Last Continent is called Scrappy, which Watt-Evans mentions in passing.(This is not his favorite book.)I have a vague recollection that there was a TV program in Australia about a kangaroo, named Scrappy--yet another connection to Australia, along with the cave paintings, bush rangers, Mad Max references, ....

There's also a bibliography and online resoources list, including the
Lspace website: http://www.lspace.org/

I can't figure out who the audience is for this book
This book is supposed to be an in-depth look at the Discworld series of novels.The problem is that the discussion of the books and the chapters on their meaning and place in the series is so superficial that anyone who has even read the dust jackets will have understood that much.The only useful part is that it lists some of the one-shot stories that aren't published in the United States.Of course, anyone with enough interest to purchase a book on pratchett will have already found them on the internet.Save your money and just buy more Discworld books.

The Turtle Moves
This book is very hard to put down. It's very detailed and complete. It makes me want to go back and reread a number of the Discworld books as incidents were mentioned that I had forgotten. I also bought the young adult series based on his references to them.

I wish I could buy the books that were mentioned but are available only in the UK. To purchase those would result in shipping fees much higher than I am comfortable with.

I highly recommend this book to all Pratchett Discworld fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Warlockry has been rare in Ethshar . . . until The Night of Madness, when a mysterious object falls from the heavens, sending out a wave of magic in the form of a dream. All who have the dream awaken in panic. But some of them also awaken to the power or Warlockry.

Throughout the land these newly made warlocks wreak havoc; looting and rioting, petty personal revenge, and uncontrollable madness run rampant. Worse, people are hearing a mysterious, irresistible call from which they never return.

Into this chaos steps the power-hungry Lord Faran, who seeks to use his new warlock powers to overthrow the government and take possession of the throne.

Who will dare to oppose him?
... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A great book!
Young Lord Hanner is the nephew of Lord Faran, the second most powerful man in the city-state of Ethshar of the Spices, but Hanner's life is simple with few responsibilities. Then one night comes the Night of Madness. Many people throughout the city wake screaming, suddenly possessed of a great, wholly new form of magic. For some it is a dream come true, for others it is a nightmare. The Overlord fears the new warlocks, Lord Faran sees in them his path to ultimate power, and what the all-powerful Wizard's Guild thinks is everyone's concern. Through this all, Lord Hanner must find a way to protect the warlocks from the rest of the city, and protect the city from the warlocks.

I must admit that I have never read anything by Lawrence Watt-Evans before, and I am very impressed. After a few slow pages, the author suddenly turns up the intensity. I found this book completely impossible to put down. For those of you who play Dungeons and Dragons, this book is of great interest due to it's inclusion of multiple types of magic.

This is a great book.

A bit frustrating
This was a great story and well written. Watt-Evans is a favorite of mine. I've enjoyed everything I've read of his so far. This story is about a man named Hanner who, one fateful night along with hundreds of others, were mysteryously given strange and special powers. He gradually finds out about the limitations and consequences of using these powers. The plot is mainly how these "warlocks" (as the select are called) come into realizing what they are, and how they are treated by everyone else.. with fear and hostility until they prove themselves. All-in-all, a good story. But I have a huge problem with this book... and this is spoiler, I'm sorry.. The author never gives a reason as to how this Night of Madness happened, or who was responsible, or what actually happens to the "warlocks" when they are "called" to the north. I generally don't like stories to end without tying up at least MOST of the loose ends. I'm sure he's just leaving room for a second book, but he needs to give you some idea that this is going to happen. I was pretty frustrated, to say the least.

a pleasant story without much excitement
Not bad. Well written, and the author doesn't insult your intelligence with unbelievable characters and cliches. But I have to add that the story isn't very gripping, either. I was able to spend a week reading it, about an hour every night -- which indicates that a little more suspense and excitement would have been welcome, and kept me turning the pages.

The night of madness, a tale finally told!
Ok, this isn't the best novel in the series, but it also isn't the worst by far....

NoM is a tale that anyone who has read any of the other Ethshar novels has been waiting to get their hands on.It is the tale of what happens on the night Warlockery is iontorduced into the world.As such, it is kind of rigid in what it can and cannot do.It COULD show how people reacted when they first became warlocks, how rulers and wizards worried over the new magic, and show how the Council of Warlocks came into being complete with how all their laws and rules came about.It simply could NOT tell us what caused warlockery to occur, since earlier novels (which take place much later after the night of madness)left the whole event shrouded in mystery.LWE couldn't reveal what caused the event or why it happened, but he did reveal some tantalizing clues, which if you gather tidbits from other novels in the series gives you a better (if somewhat lacking) idea of what is going on.

In usual LWE fasion the protagonist makes out by not being greedy or power hungry, so there is no surprises there.Read it, it is still a high quality book.

Magic without the fizz
This is one of those play-by-the-rules fantasies, except for a single unexplained night of madness when ordinary citizens of Ethshar woke up from a nightmare and discovered that they could fly, or perform other assorted magicks.

The characters are pretty pedestrian, even granting that some of them can fly.A few gained the ability to lift heavy objects (except for the plot) by thinking about them.The hero, Hanner becomes one of the `lifters.'He is also a self-described palace parasite, a humorless young man, but nevertheless willing to take charge and do something productive during the night of madness.Hanner tries to figure out why some people were turned into warlocks on that night, and why others simply disappeared, but he approaches the mystery with the well-meaning plod of a Watson whose Holmes went over the falls at Reichenbach.

The mystery never is solved, so I'm assuming there is going to be a sequel to this fantasy.

The magic in "Night of Madness" is interesting, but it lacks the inspired fizz produced by, say a Neil Gaiman, a John Bellairs, or a Patricia McKillip.In one of wittiest scenes, a flying telephone lands in the sorceress Ithinia's backyard, and her gargoyles try to frighten it away:

"Old Rocky and Glitter were the two creatures still guarding it [the phone].Ithinia glanced at Old Rocky's niche, on the south-west corner of the house.

"'Did you see where it came from?'

"'No, mistress.It came down out of the sun while we were meditating.'

"'You were sleeping, not meditating,' Ithinia said.`I've told you not to try to fool me. Stone should sleep---it's nothing to hide."

"'Yes, Mistress," the gargoyle said, abashed.'

"'It called my name?Did it say anything else?'

"'It said it needed to speak with you.'"

Ha ha ha.Clunk.

Most of the dialogue comes in the form of big, chunky explanatory text, in order to elucidate the rules of Ethsharian magic, what a sorcerer may or may not do, what a witch may or may not do, etc. etc.By their very nature, sequels suffer from a degree of explanatory text, but this rules-bound fantasy takes it to an extreme.If you've already read one of the prequels to "Night of Madness" you'll be able to skip through whole pages of this book.

In fact, you might want to give the entire book a pass. ... Read more

Product Description
Humans crash-landed on this planet 1000 years ago finding peace and happiness until centuries later a holiday expedition of immortal beings sought them out..... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A light, well-done, entertaining short novel, by Lawrence Watt-Evans
________________________________________
This is a light, well-done, entertaining short novel that reads like a
cross between a good Andre Norton and the Lord of Light Zelazny. The
setup is familiar: hi-tech immortal humans (the Powers) are lording it
over lo-tech tribesmen. Here, the immortal Powers are, well, really,
*really* powerful (see Zelazny), but bored, so a few of them went
looking for a lost colony as a lark. They found the colonists, liked
their world, and some of them found out they liked being Gods. But
mostly they relaxed into a nice, slow, 400-year vacation. Until one of
the oldest, meanest, weirdest immortals decides he'd really like to rule
a galactic empire...

Fortunately the old weirdo is pretty dumb, and is brought to heel by a
plucky tribesman and a sneaky immortal. One could quibble with some of
the story logic, but that seems pointless in a book that so nicely
accomplishes its goal of entertaining the reader for a few hours.
Anyway, if you like Norton & Zelazny, you should look for Denner's Wreck.
Recommended.

I read this based on a *very* enthusiastic review from Steve Parker [G00GLE]:

[quote] I don't know exactly *why* I like it so much...it's an excellent
story, great characters, very well told, but there are other books
done similarly well that I don't love so much. I like the theme, but
there've been other with the same theme. I dunno.

I'm giving it an A+, with the caveat that I realize not everyone will
be as affected by _Denner's Wreck_ as I am. [/quote]

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman ... Read more