Added by: JustGoodNews | Karma: 4306.26 | Fiction literature | 22 December 2010
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Fortress in the Eye of Time
Despite a few brief, shining moments, Cherryh's (Foreigner) new fantasy novel (her latest SF novel is reviewed below) proves an overwrought concoction. After a moderately interesting foray involving Mauryl, the aging wizard who conjures a "Shaping" named Tristen, the meandering of the nearly empty-headed Shaping takes center stage for far too long. Tristen sets off upon a quest knowing neither who he is nor what he seeks. Fortuitous happenings eventually bring him to Cefwyn, a prince in line to rule the land, and to Cefwyn's wizard, Emuin, himself a former student of Mauryl's. (The villains here are of two types: nebulously motivated men and erotically minded women.)
Stephen Turnbull's Japanese Castles in Korea is definitely one of these weird unknown subject matter that is worthy of Osprey's Fortress Series. In this short book, Turnbull managed to give a pretty good summary account of history of Japanese castles that were built during Hideyoshi's Korean invasion between the years 1592 to 1598. The book explained how these castles were built initially to support the invasion, support the supply lines, to control and policed the area around it and finally to support the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea after Hideyoshi's death.
War at sea: While Matthew Hervey is getting ready to re-join his regiment in England, his close friend Captain Peto is at sea preparing his mighty line-of-battle ship for war with the Turks. 1827: Captain Peto has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert, the only three-decker line-of-battle ship in His Majesty's Fleet — a wooden fortress whose formidable firepower is the equal and more of Bonaparte's grand battery at Waterloo.
While Hervey plans his escape from the Spanish, his memories turn to 1812, when as a young cornet he was part of Wellington's victorious army as it pushed its way north through Spain towards the Pyrenees. But first, the British had to storm the fortress where he is imprisoned now: Badajos - a fortress of huge strategic importance - where French resistance was at its most fierce and most bloody...
R.A. Salvatore's The Cleric Quintet tells the tale of the scholar-priest Cadderly, who is plucked from the halls of the Edificant Library to fulfill a heroic quest across the land of Faerun. Cadderly leads the combined forces of Carradoon and Shilmista against Castle Trinity, stronghold of his enemy Aballister. But another mission calls him on a journey leading into a past he hoped he would be able to forget.
