Subject: Review: The Face of Apollo by Fred Saberhagen

From: "Aaron M. Renn" <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Jul 1999 12:48:43 -0400

The Face of Apollo by Fred Saberhagen
	Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn

Conclusion: Worth Reading, Barely

In the movie Heathers, Veronica Sawyer's father asks, "God damn, won't
somebody tell me why I read these spy novels?" to which she replies,
"Because you're an idiot."  I feel the same way about Fred Saberhagen
books.

I read and enjoyed Saberhagen's Berserker works.  I think his Empire of
the East trilogy is a true masterpiece.  His followup Swords trilogy
wasn't nearly as good, but was still very enjoyable.  I even bought all
seven of his Lost Swords books, in spite of the Swords universe getting
old rather quickly.  But now that he's embarked on a series that could
possibly be a prequel to the Swords trilogy, I've got to say enough's
enough.  You're killing me, Fred.  Thirteen books is plenty.  We don't
need anymore.

Young Jeremy Redthorn saves the life of a woman named Sal who's fleeing
from the evil minions of Lord Kalakh.  Well, saves her temporarily.  She's
killed when a wave of attackers overruns Jeremy's village.  He promises
her that he will complete delivery of an important pouch she was taking to
the Academy far downstream.  The pouch contains a mask of the Face of
Apollo, who was killed in a battle with dread Hades.  When Jeremy puts on
the mask, it seeps into his head and suddenly the consciousness of Apollo
is inside him.

The book is your basic fantasy adventure story.  It starts off slow, but
the pace picks up towards the end.  Other than a few additional tidbits of
information about the Empire/Swords universe, there's nothing much
compelling in this book.  If I weren't such an insane and compulsive
collector, I probably wouldn't bother buying the remaining books in this
series.  But knowing myself as I do, I'm sure I'll end up picking them up.

The most interesting thing about the book is trying to figure out if it is
really set in the Empire/Swords universe.  The general setting rings true
(a fantasy world existing hundreds or thousands of years after a change
wrought by a high tech culture, a Greco-Roman pantheon, etc).  However,
there is nothing like an Ardneh cult in the book that conclusively ties it
in with the rest.  On the other hand, I didn't read anything that was
clearly inconsistent with the Empire/Swords world either.  The nature of
the gods appears to be different in this volume, but not such that
Saberhagen couldn't explain it away if he wanted to.

While The Face of Apollo is billed as volume one of a series called the
Book of the Gods, it is a standalone.  No cliffhangers await the unwary.
There is no indication of how many books this new series might contain,
but knowing Saberhagen, it will probably be a lot.

%A Saberhagen, Fred
%T The Face of Apollo
%S Book of the Gods
%I Tor
%D 1999-07 \(original publication 1998-04\)
%G ISBN 0-812-57189-4
%P 382 pp.
%0 mass market paperback, US$6.99

Reviewed on 1999-07-16

Aaron M. Renn ([email-masked]) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/