Talisker: bk. 1 (The last clansman) - Softcover

Lau, Miller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743408934 ISBN 13: 9780743408936

Publisher: Earthlight, 2001

Synopsis

Duncan Talisker has just been released from jail in Scotland. He served fifteen years for a series of violent murders he didn't commit, but knew intimately. Then, the killing begins again. On another world, a jewel is sought and a deadly god struggles to be free. Talisker and his childhood friend, Alessandro Chaplin - who is also the policeman who arrested him fifteen years previously - will undertake journeys between the worlds which mix wonder and danger in equal measure...and may result both in their deaths and the release of a deadly evil.

About this title

Product Description:

1st edition 1st printing paperback, fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Review:

Miller Lau's first novel, the fantasy Talisker, makes some interesting uses of parallel worlds and Celtic mythology, but suffers from problems with plot and characterisation that mark it out as the work of an inexperienced writer. In modern-day Edinburgh, Duncan Talisker has just been released from jail where he has served 15 years for six murders he did not commit. Talisker is the last descendent of Malcolm McLeod, a clansman whose ghost has been recruited by the shape-shifting Sidhe in a battle against the dark God Corvus. Corvus sends a demon to commit more murders, and Inspector Alessandro Chaplin, once a school-friend, is convinced of Talisker's guilt. Their feud travels with them when they, along with the ghost Malcolm, are drawn into the magical world of Sutra, where they become involved in a struggle between the Sidhe, the human Fine and Corvus, who threatens both peoples. Travelling back and forth between the two worlds, Talisker embarks on an intertwined series of adventures, battling evil magic in Sutra and attempting to avoid the police in Edinburgh. There are many familiar plot devices in this book: a prophesy, a magic gem and vengeful gods, while Talisker is a classic suffering hero--a wronged man battling to clear his name. The world of Sutra is quite rich but Lau still has a lot to learn about plotting; the story lacks coherence and is often inconsistent in its details. Hopefully, Lau will develop more fluency in subsequent volumes because there is promise here, albeit not yet fully realised. --Elizabeth Sourbut

About this edition

• Publisher: Earthlight
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0743408934
• ISBN 13: 9780743408936
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512