Dave Duncan (1933–2018)

‘Mother Of Lies’ is the sequel to ‘Children Of Chaos’ and the final book in this two book series. Spoilers are inevitable if you haven’t read ‘Children Of Chaos’. so do that first.
The world of Dodec is a dodecahedron with twelve flat faces. Everyone has sworn allegiance to a single god or goddess according to their desires. Mayn is the goddess of wisdom and her followers are seers. Ucr is god of prosperity, followed by merchants. There are thirteen gods in all, helpfully listed in the preface along with major characters.

Fierce warriors from the Vigaelian face of Dodec invaded the Florengian face about sixteen years ago and conquered all before them. The doge of Celebre, the richest city in Florengia, was forced to hand over his children as hostages to Stralg Hragson, bloodlord of the Heroes of Weru. They were taken back to Vigaelia and their stories are told in book one. At the end of which they have been reunited and are making their way back home with Saltaja Hragsdor, Mother of Lies, in hot pursuit.

While they were gone, many on the Florengian face joined the Heroes of Weru and learned to fight. By dedicating themselves to Weru, god of storm and battle, they gain the power to ‘battleform’ into huge, deadly animals. Then they turned on the invaders and almost defeated them, but at great cost. Most cities are devastated. Celebre is still intact but the old doge is dying and there is much contention over who will succeed him. His legitimate children are on the way from Vigaelia, but no one in Florengia knows it yet. Dantio is a seer, Orlad a warrior and daughter Fabia a powerful sorceress who, like Saltaja Hragsdor herself, is secretly allied to the death goddess Xaran. The doge’s wife Olivia has a bastard son by Stralg Hragson, the result of rape, who thinks he should be heir. Marno Cavotti, the leader who has fought for years to liberate his homeland, might have his own ideas about that and he has an army.

As in ‘Children Of Chaos’, the story is told from multiple points of view, a different character every chapter. Each chapter starts with the character’s name in block capitals starting a sentence. ‘MARNO CAVOTTI heard the warbeasts’ fury as he dived from the parapet.’ This deft technique reminds you of the varied cast and helps you follow the story. There’s a lot to be said for clarity in commercial fiction writing. The yarn moves at a ripping pace and is sufficiently intriguing to keep you turning pages.

I enjoyed the book but not quite as much as the first one, perhaps because the children of Celebre started out quite helpless there and grew stronger through their trials. Here they are already formidable. Even so, it’s a fine tale with several twists and a neat resolution. Dave Duncan’s plotting reminds me somewhat of Kevin J. Anderson but he has more likeable characters and his prose style is smoother. He departed this vale of tears before I discovered him but left over thirty books in his wake so if you like this series, as I do, there are plenty of other books available.… (mer)

All good fantasy books start with a map and a list of characters, including gods and ‘Children Of Chaos’ is a very good fantasy. The world is a dodecahedron where every individual has sworn allegiance to a single god or goddess, there being thirteen to choose from. These range across the usual attributes of wisdom, health, prosperity, war and so on. Two faces of the dodecahedron feature in this story, the Vigaelian and the Florengian, separated by frozen mountains which few have ever crossed.
In the prologue of ‘Children Of Chaos’, Stralg Hragson, bloodlord of the Heroes of Weru from the Vigaelian Face, crosses the icy mountains and slaughters all before him. The doge of Celebre, a wealthy, civilised town in Florengia, is forced to hand over his wife, three sons and a baby daughter as hostages to Stralg. The brown-skinned Florengians are helpless before these huge, blue-eyed devils, devotees of the war god Weru, who shape shift to become huge animals for battle.

Florengia defeated, it’s the children’s story next. Years pass. Lord Dantio, the eldest son, has vanished and no one knows his fate. Benard Celebre, only eight years old when taken, is now a sculptor in the city of Kosord but has some magical skills that enable him to rescue a beautiful lady from his nemesis Cutrath Horoldson, the satrap’s spoiled son. Orlando, three when captured, has no memory of his childhood and has become Orlad Orladson, keen apprentice warrior in the Werist cult that rules the world and conquered his homeland. Meanwhile, the baby is now known as Frena Wigson and believes herself to be the daughter of a rich merchant in the city of Skjar.
The Florengian hostages have all grown up and we follow them as they learn about their heritage, decide what path to pursue and cope with the many challenges of living under a ruthless tyranny. The Werists rule. The price paid for their battle prowess is that they slowly turn more bestial each time they revert back to human form. They used to be mercenaries for whichever city could pay them but, united under Stralg Hragson, to conquer and rule instead. In this they were helped by the Witnesses, seers who know what is happening nearly everywhere. They used to be neutral but were terrified into serving the Werists. There are other gods and goddesses with many followers who have different abilities, none spectacular, though. This isn’t one of those fantasies where withering blasts of energy are exchanged by glowing eyed mages in robes. It’s subtle.

‘Children Of Chaos’ doesn’t stick to one main character but shifts point of view to cover all the children. The chapters begin with the name of the point of view character centred in large type and stick to that person. Multiple point of view switches don’t aid strong reader identification and some sages say you should have one central character but this can be too limiting in a big epic fantasy.

The rich background is put over slowly in the course of events and the characters grow on you as the story progresses smoothly to a satisfying stage post. Not the end as there’s a sequel, ‘Mother Of Lies’ which I’ll be reading soon. Note that this is only a duology, downright petite for a modern fantasy epic. Dave Duncan is new to me but a well-respected author in the field, I gather, and alas has departed this veil of tears albeit, at a ripe old age. I really enjoyed this one, looked forward to the sequel and will seek out his other works in future.… (mer)

I would not consider myself a huge reader of the Fantasy genre. I do read it but it's not my main go-to. But if I had to say, Dave Duncan's The Guided Chain is definitely in my top-five Fantasy novels. I hold a serious affection for that book and I admire the world-building and magic system of the larger King's Blades series.This book (first of a new series) is a juniorization of the previous and having nothing against YA, I dived in. At least it was a fast read and I have sated my completist tendencies. Moving on...… (mer)