Icefalcon's Quest - Hardcover

Hambly, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 034539724X ISBN 13: 9780345397249

Publisher: Ballantine Books Inc., 1998

Synopsis

Icefalcon, a barbarian warrior, braves demons, evil spells, and armies to rescue a young prince kidnapped by a power-mad general out to rule the world

About this title

Review:

Hitherto, Hambly's books about Darwath, a world menaced variously by awakened malign sleepers and an ice age, have been classic portal fantasies, in which the emphasis was on two transplanted Californians, Gil and Rudy, learning to cope with a world of magic and swordplay. In the original Darwath trilogy, the menace was the Dark, hivemind beings with a taste for human flesh, who wreck civilisation in a matter of weeks when their brainless hominid herds die; in the singleton Mother of Winter, it was devouring fungi and the old cold mind behind them. This new book shifts emphasis to Icefalcon, the exiled plains nomad who has come to value civilisation without feeling part of it, and to the corrupt magus who kidnaps Rudy's young royal stepson for his ancestral memories. Lost in the wastes of the North is another refuge against the cold and the Dark, a Keep which has, rather literally, a mind of its own. Icefalcon has to cope with cold and the vividly evoked claustrophobia of old dark places; he has also to comprehend his rejection by his barbarian clan. This is an intelligent fantasy thriller about choices, particularly the ones you never knew you made. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

‘Hambly is a shining example of what can be done with the motifs and wonders that endear this genre to those of us who still seek a touch of magic in our reading’
Charles de Lint

‘An enviable and intricate talent’
Janny Wurts

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 034539724X
• ISBN 13: 9780345397249
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 307