The Anvil of the World
Kage Baker's first fantasy novel is the tale of Smith, of the large extended family of Smiths, of the Children of the Sun. They are a race given to blood feuds, and Smith was formerly an extremely successful assassin. Now he has wearied of his work and is trying to retire into safe obscurity in...
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Kage Baker's first fantasy novel is the tale of Smith, of the large extended family of Smiths, of the Children of the Sun. They are a race given to blood feuds, and Smith was formerly an extremely successful assassin. Now he has wearied of his work and is trying to retire into safe obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him.
To get there, he agrees to lead a caravan from the inland city of Troon to the seaside city of Salesh. The caravan is dogged by murder, magic, and the brooding image of the Master of the Mountain, a powerful demon, looking down from his mountain kingdom upon the unwary travelers passing below.
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Format: mass market paperback
ISBN:
9780765349071 (0765349078)
Publish date: 01-12-2004
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Pages no: 350
Edition language: English
Series: The Anvil of the World (#1)
I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the story was usually interesting, the characters were pretty unique, and the book made me chuckle quite a bit. On the other hand, sometimes I thought the story dragged and sometimes it crossed slightly over the line from funny into ridiculous....
Genuinely funny fantasy is hard to find (although stupid humor masquerading as fantasy is not), and this book succeeds marvelously.It reminded me quite a lot of ‘Thieves' World' – which means, I suppose, that I should say it reminded me of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar, but I guess that places me in my cu...
I’ve been disappointed with Baker’s work of late (will her Company series never get to the climax? Argh!), and the first two-thirds of this book did little to help. She created a rich, detailed, and varied world to play in, peopled with the highly-capitalist, pagan Children of the Sun (complete with...
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