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Book Review
Bowyer Does it Again
Book Review - Clifford B. Bowyer's The Changing Tides by J.D. Charles, The Logan Banner, December 16, 2005One of the best gift ideas for Christmas for people of all ages is a good book.
The world of reading is a rich one and the choices available are nearly endless. You have fiction, non fiction, fantasy, adventure, westerns, mysteries, romances, true crime, anthropology and as many varieties of books as the mind (and the publishers) can imagine.
The other day somebody asked me to recommend a good, lengthy novel for someone who enjoyed flights of fantasy, such as the famous "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien....
From the time of the publication and the initial success of Tolkein's "The Hobbit" other writers and publishers have tried to cash in on that success with a wave of books about Orcs and adventurers, but far too many just trot out cardboard characters that have little life and little to recommend them. Fortunately, however, there are several good modern fantasy authors who continue to tell traditional tales, but in new ways and use their own voice and vision to guide them.
I had a good recommendation as I had just finished "The Changing Tides" which is volume two of Clifford B. Bowyer's "Fall of the Imperium Trilogy" saga.
I had first became interested in the original volume in this new epic fantasy drama when I saw an ad for the first volume "The Impending Storm."
That book introduced readers to the world of the Imperium and a host of fascinating heroes and villains.
"The Changing Tides" continues the story of warriors and elves, dwarves and Dragons as the Seven Kingdoms come closer to an impending final conflict that will rock the foundations of Bowyer's impressive fantasy world.
In "The Changing Tides" the great hero Braksis (of the first volume) is still missing, and the evil Zoldex is marshaling his forces for the great conflict that is ahead. "The Changing Tides" has a large cast of characters, but the reader is not confused in the least, as Bowyer has them speaking and acting with different voices and personalities. One standout in "The Changing Tides" is the masterful assassin Kabillian who is something of a magical artifacts collector as well as a con-artist supreme. He winds up taking a sidekick under his wing, the grasping Crick, a non-human being who scavenges weapons from dead warriors but has a gift for survival as well as a taste for fine implements of destruction. One amusing side plot sees the duo conning some wonderful armour for Crick out of some gullible dwarves through Kabillain's chicanery and gift of gab.
Solara, the warrior woman supreme from the first volume of the Fall of the Imperium Trilogy winds up face to face with the ghosts of her past, while trying to cope with her feelings about the loss of Braksis. Various conflicts and relationships come to bear upon her as she journeys.
Bowyer's "The Changing Tides" is a good example of well done "epic fantasy." It takes you to new places and exposes you to vivid and exciting characters who perform daring deeds of swashbuckling derring do.
The book is large (around 500 pages) but it moves at a brisk pace and does not bog the reader down while continuing a tale of suspense, adventure and old fashioned fun.
Clifford B. Bowyer's "The Changing Tides" might just be the ticket for fans of swashbuckling epics and authors like Tolkien, Burroughs and others.