Subject: Cole and Bunch: The Far Kingdoms (spoilers)

From: [email-masked]
Date: 17 Jul 1994 15:47:01 -0400

I was expecting better from Allan Cole and Chris Bunch.  Their eight-book
"Sten" series was a skilled science-fictionalization of military- and
adventure-fiction which also made some interesting points about how
societies govern themselves.  "The Far Kingdoms", by contrast, is a dull
fantasy adventure -- indifferently executed and with little redeeming depth.

Spoiled young Amalric gets permission to co-lead a small expedition
eastward (where nobody goes), in search of the (possibly mythical) Far
Kingdoms.  He and his men face assorted dangers, often surviving because
the authors pull appropriate rabbits out of the hat so that he can be
saved by forbidden magics, by ghosts, by special powers, by inept enemies
-- whatever it takes.

Nor do the assorted dangers ever cohere into one story.  Having a sinister
figure show up and say "I was behind those events, for reasons which seemed
good at the time" doesn't really do it.  Nor, for that matter, do we see
the characters grow as a result of their experiences:  They change, sometimes
for the better, but the changes seem arbitrary, and unrelated to what they
have seen or done.  It doesn't help that much of the outcome is telegraphed
by the narrator going "now that I'm old and rich and famous for my
discovery..." 

In brief, it's a sword-and-sorcery fantasy with little to distinguish it.
Individual scenes are well written, but they fail to add up to a well
written novel.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]  [email-masked]

   'T is with our judgements as our watches, none
   Go alike, yet each believes his own
		--Alexander Pope