-
Reviews
for THE DARK LORD -
Publisher's
Weekly (June 2002)
(Contains
spoilers!) -
In
the fourth volume of his Oath of Empire series, Harlan (Shadow of
Ararat) brings his exquistely detailed, multifacted saga of an
alternative seventh-century Roman Empire to a satisfying close.
Familiarity with the three previous installments, however, is
essential to understanding the motivations of some characters,
Mohammed in particular. While the author relegates some important
individuals from the earlier books to bit roles in this
movie-like chronicle, he develops others more fully, though with
somewhat confusing attributes and rationales. Galen, Emperor of
Rome, continues to hold the fate of the Empire in the balance,
alternately aided and frustrated by his sorcerer brother Maxian.
The resurrected Gaius Julius (Caesar) and the Duchess Anastasia
intrigue against one another and the brothers, playing out the
traditional Roman grasp for power. All oppose the evil Persian
sorcerer Dahak, lord of the seven serpents, who can count as his
allies the King of Kings, the Palmyran queens and the raised
dead. The conflict comes to a head first in Alexandria, where
Aurelian, the middle brother, faces especially bloody fighting,
dust and suffering. On Aurelian's death, the action moves to
Sicilia, where Maxian, now Emperor, finally understands the true
nature of his enemy. Rip-roaring battle scenes offset the
sometimes slow pace necessary to keep all of the complexities of
the story on track. This is opulent historical fantasy on a grand
scale.
Reviews
for THE GATE OF FIRE Amazon.com (August 1999) by Nona
Vero.
This is the second volume of Harlan's fantasy
sequence "The Other Empire", which began last year with
Shadow of Ararat. As it appears that these are the beginning of a
series rather than the first two books of a trilogy, the overall
work will be vast. The setting is an alternate Rome, where the
Western Empire never fell, and where a recognizably Roman society
survived into the seventh century AD. Here magic is common and
institutionalized, particularly in Roman legions composed of
magicians. The basic conflict in the first book was between the
two halves of the Roman Empire on one side and the Persians on the
other, but now the stage is opening out, other peoples are drawn
into the conflict, and Rome in both East and West is under threat.
When
I reviewed the first volume I said that the pace of the story
suffered through the detailed description and building up of the
background. I feel this is also true - perhaps even more so - of
the second volume. The amount of research that Harlan has done is
impressive, and the world of his imagination is vividly authentic.
Scene by scene it works, yet I felt that for most of the book the
thrust of the story was swamped by the detail. I found it hard to
tell where it was going, and in many cases the motivations of the
characters were obscure. Only in the final section did the threads
come together in a compelling sequence.
Stylistically
the book is uneven. I was irritated by Harlan's habit of beginning
a sentence with 'Too,' (in the sense of 'also'), and that he
doesn't seem to know that the word 'magi' is plural. This may seem
like nitpicking, but it's enough to jerk this reader at least out
of engagement with the story. Another point I would question is
his use of Latin words in the dialogue of characters who are,
presumably, speaking Latin throughout; again, it breaks the
illusion of reality.
There
is much to admire in this book, and I want to know where he will
take the story next, particularly as many of his characters
suffered 'cliff-hanger' endings. However, I feel that it could be
much better if Harlan were more selective, so that readers don't
lose sight of the basic thread of his plot. Prospective readers
should begin with the first volume; there's too much complexity to
pick up the story part way through. ~ Cherith Baldry, Vortex
(UK) September 2000.
Persia
has been conquered, but all is not well with the world. THE GATE
OF FIRE follows THE SHADOW OF ARARAT in Thomas Harlan's Oath of
Empire series. Galen, Roman Emperor of the West, returns home in
triumph. His youngest brother, Maxian, continues his efforts to
overcome the curse/blessing that preserves Rome at the cost of
progress--only to learn that this curse is fully embedded in the
body of Galen. His efforts to help Rome have led him to kill
innocent people, betray his friends, and raise the dead. Finally,
he must confront what he has become--and decide if he is worse
than what he is fighting. Dahak, the great Persian wizard, works
to raise the Persian Empire from the destruction into which Rome
has thrust it. A new force, led by Mohammed, rejects both empires
and marches on the Eastern Roman Empire.
Thomas
Harlan has created a compelling and complex world. Multiple
strands, in the Eastern Empire, Persia, Arabia, and Rome itself
interweave and separate. Harlan's characters are complex and
flawed. Dahak is certainly evil, but is he more evil than Maxian?
The Eastern Empire betrayed its client state of Palmyra, but
Mohammed and Zoë (heir-apparent to the Palmyrene throne) go
beyond normal revenge in their desire to take revenge against
it--especially when Dahak remains alive and powerful.
If
anything, THE GATE OF FIRE is even more disturbing than THE SHADOW
OF ARARAT. Before, mighty nations tore one another apart. Now,
brother is set against brother, friend against friend. Sometimes
betrayal is the only way to serve. This alternate history, in
which magic works and Christianity never took hold, will capture
the readers attention. : Three Stars. ~ Reviewed by
www.booksforabuck.com Science Fiction section.
Thomas
Harlan has constructed his ancient Rome in a magical world so real
that I could almost believe he traveled to it. Gate of Fire (hard
from TOR) is the second part (of four) of a sixth century Rome in
which the western half not only survived, but prospered because of
magic. The Shadow of Ararat (paper) told us how the Western
Emperor went to help the Eastern Emperor in his war with the
Persian Empire. Now, in the aftermath of that war, civilization
slowly returns, friends become enemies, and a sorcerer begins his
attempt at becoming ruler of the ruined Persian Empire. But most
of the book tells us of the rise of Islam, and of a prince of Rome
who is thwarted in his attempt at healing his home of an evil
spell. I like the small touches here, the living vampires and the
walking dead (risen by sorcery) such as Caesar and Alexander the
Great. I'm looking forward to the continuation of this fun tale. I
like being in the firm hands of a great storyteller. ~ Henry
Lazarus, www.sciencefiction.com July 2000.
As
Prince Maxian attempts desperate measures to free Rome from a
powerful curse, his brother Galen, emperor of the Western Roman
Empire, returns from the war with Persia to a trouble-filled city.
In the East, a merchant prince known as Mohammed answers a divine
call and gathers followers to his holy cause, while a sorcerer
traffics in dark magics in pursuit of earthly power. Harlan's
sequel to The Shadow of Ararat continues an epic tale of alternate
history set in a seventh-century setting where the twin Empires of
Rome rule the known world through might and magic. Strong
storytelling and complex characters make this historical fantasy a
good choice for most libraries. ~ Library Journal (Copyright
2000 Cahners Business Information.)
In
the sequel to The Shadow of Ararat , promising fantasist Harlan
handles his material rather like the director of an Indiana
Jones-like action movie. The scene is an alternate Rome in which a
sorcerer, Dahak, is in hiding, while Prince Maxian has resurrected
Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great for the sake of saving Rome
from both material and magical opponents. Meanwhile, rival
sorcerer Dwyrin is going down to defeat, and Palmyra's Queen Zoe
vows vengeance on Rome for destroying her homeland. And in Mecca,
the exiled Palmyran Mohammed receives a vision and a command that
will make him a potent force for good--or so he thinks. The book's
grand total is two sorcerers, three queens, three or four
prophets, three or four armies, and enough secondary characters
and entities to require a cast list, which Harlan doesn't provide.
This is, however, undeniably a page-turner, one infused with a
feel for the historical that bodes well for its successors. ~
Roland Green, Copyright © American Library Association.
All rights reserved
There's
no doubt about it: Thomas Harlan is a marvelous talespinner. In
first novel The Shadow of Ararat, he handled a large cast of
characters driven by diverse faiths, philosophies, and passions,
through action spanning two empires - at once alternate history
and a fantasy whose magic had elements of both advanced technology
and grisly horror - all this with apparent ease. Book Two of what
turns out to be ''The Oath of Empire'' series, The Gate of Fire,
displays even more authorial chutzpah, with equally good results.
Though this version of the world around 620 A.D. has never known
Christianity and worships various gods, a stern monotheism is
developing nonetheless, thanks to the man described in the book's
Dramatis Personae as ''Mohammed, A Merchant Prince of Mekkah.''
(Yes, that Mohammed, and we'd call the place Mecca.) Harlan
invests his unorthodox take on the founder of Islam with a
combination of human emotion (vengeful fury after the murder of
his daughter), ecstatic vision (messages from his One True God),
and what may be a form of this world's primal magic, seen gleaming
in his eyes: ''some blue-white flame that sparked and flared like
a hammer in the forge.'' Neither hero nor villain, Mohammed makes
his way through his world's tangle of politics and scheming,
religion and sorcery, intent on his purpose. The same might be
said of another character, who figured more prominently in the
first book. Maxian Atreus, brother to the leader of the Western
Roman Empire, is at once healer, scientist, and practitioner of
the darker arts - all in the service of a good cause, as he sees
it. In Ararat, he turned his skills to the making of weapons
for his brother's war with Persia. Now Maxian goes back to his
original concern, the Oath of Empire, in his view a curse which
has both preserved Rome as a place of majesty and power and kept
it from needful change. When he discusses the Oath with two
characters he has literally raised from the dead, Alexandros
(Alexander the Great) is slow to grasp the power of abstract
ideas, until Maxian cites the example of honor as something you
can't see or touch, ''But it affects you, it affects me, and
through us it affects all around us. So it is with the curse -
this idea of an Empire of Rome - all fixed in its expression at
the time of the Divine Augustus.'' This draws an indignant snort
from Gaius (Julius Caesar), who scarcely views his successor as a
divinity, or empire as anything to be shunned. Still, Maxian
persists, until he's able to describe the concept which lies at
the heart of Harlan's series and its forms of magic:
This
is the core of the power of the Oath - the Empire that should
exist lives in the minds of men, in their memories of the past and
belief of how things should be. So are these lattices of form
maintained, but then the Oath has the ability to seek out and
destroy those who would change that fabric of memory. Too, it can
exalt those who would reinforce or maintain these beliefs.... The
Oath freezes the Empire in amber, a trapped fly with a beating
heart.
The
genesis of religions, the extraordinary power of abstractions -
this is no lightweight material being dealt with. But Harlan
manages to work it all into a complex tapestry of plotlines,
filled with grand passions and spectacular events. The book's one
true villain, Persian sorcerer Dahak, can conjure up some
literally hair-raising atmospheric forces, and Maxian is no slouch
himself. Both of them manage to make the dead walk, as lightning
sizzles and thunder booms, and the author is clearly enjoying
himself amidst the mayhem. While both philosophical conflict
leading to war and splashy special effects might seem to emphasize
supposedly ''masculine'' aspects of Harlan's world, he doesn't
neglect its women. The spirit of feminism has an island sanctuary,
home to its own warriors, philosophers, and other interesting
personalities, some of whom go out into the world with plans to
change it. And we see Maxian largely through the eyes of Krista, a
slave who has become his genuinely loving companion yet also
secretly opposes some of the more drastic measures he adopts in
his quest to overcome the Oath. For all that I've discussed so
far, I've barely managed to scratch the surface of this book, and
the larger project it belongs to. Just the list of maps at the
front can conjure up vast, exotic expanses - The Persian Empire,
The Roman Empire, the cities of Petra, Constantinople, Roma Mater,
and Hierosolyma (Jerusalem), all places Harlan vividly invokes.
That last site may also give a clue to where the tale is headed.
The Shadow of Ararat centered around the lovely, sophisticated
city of Palmyra, destroyed in the course of war involving Romans,
Persians, and others. The Gate of Fire investigates many
consequences of that war - including even Mohammed's rejection of
the two empires and their faiths. And toward the end of this book,
a number of primary characters begin to turn their attention to
what we'd call the Near East, in particular Hierosolyma. What's to
come? Well, Volume Three will be The Storm of Heaven, and there
may be more to follow. But this is no standard continuing fantasy
series, endlessly recycling clichés. Thomas Harlan sinks
his teeth into some very meaty subjects, and it's a pleasure to
join him at the feast. ~ Faren Miller, Locus, May 2000
The
Gate of Fire: Book Two of the Other Empire -- the vast,
fantasy-epic sequel to Thomas Harlan's acclaimed debut, /The
Shadow of Ararat/ (1999) -- tells a series of overlapping stories
about war and sorcery. In capably lavish prose, Harlan describes
Prince Maxian's plans to use Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
(whom he has resurrected from the dead) to free Rome from a curse;
Dahak the sorcerer's plans to regain his past glory; Mecca's
lieutenant Mohammed's battle against darkness; and other related
events. But this is not a novel for newcomers; the complicated
plot, profusion of characters and imprecisely described setting --
though no problem for Harlan enthusiasts -- will likely confuse
those who haven't read the first installment. ~ Publisher's
Weekly - May 1, 2000
|