Reviews

In a well-conceived fantasy of high adventure and deep mystical lore, brilliant inventor and businessman Stephen Fisher finds himself a focal point in the struggle between order and chaos as, once again, he is drawn to the Spiral universe of inconstant time and space that he first encountered in Chase the Morning. After he is inveigled by the evil necromancer Le Stryge into stealing the Spear of the Sangraal (Holy Grail) of Heilenburg, a primeval source of the world's goodness, Fisher and his companions, Jyp the Pilot and Katjka, a Warden of the forces of order, invade the castle of Baron Lutz von Amerningen, Fisher's mysterious partner, to find evidence of his dealings with the chaos-allied Brocken. Attempting to return the Spear and pursued, then aided, by Alison Laidlaw, a European Commission investigator-turned-Knight of the Grail, Fisher and his companions fight and flee through a tumultuous Europe of the near future, as well as of other dangerous eras, while pursued by the monstrous Night Children, evolved in the Spiral from nightmares of our own times. Throughout, Rohan creates a vivid fantasy, drawing on some of the most powerful of ancient myths as well as the most enduring of modern ones. (Aug.)