"Fine fantasy"
He is a slothful thief who does not care that he is
homeless, smells like a pig and has a beer belly so huge
that it bounces. Ballas has no friends and kills without
mercy. In a tavern he steals the purse of a store mason
but is caught and beaten almost to death. A priest takes
him into his home and when he is well asks him to perform
an errand at the museum. Ballas spots an artifact consisting of a big blue stone
surrounded by red ones that brighten up a room when a
light is put under it. He steals it hoping to sell it to
a collector. Instead the church, which rules the kingdom
of Druine, wants him dead. The chief hunter is from a
magical race of mages long thought gone. Ballas leaves
dead bodies in his wake and forces reluctant allies to
help him find the mystical city of Belthiran over the
unexplored Garsbracks Mountains because he knows he can
never return to Druine. This is not the typical fantasy novel because Ballas is an
antagonist with very few redeeming qualities. Those he
does have he does his best to sublimate preferring to
treat other people as if they were things to be discarded
when he has no use for them. Readers can't helped but be
drawn to this character in spite of themselves because of
a fascination with such a nasty soul or because he has the
raw potential to do good deeds in spite of himself. Ian
Graham has plenty of talent and the courage to write a
book that is totally different than any recent work in the
fantasy genre. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted March 15, 2004
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