Well of Darkness: The Sovereign Stone Trilogy Book

Weis and Hickman's new fantasy novel, The Well of Darkness, the first in the Sovereign Stone sequence, is far darker than we are used to from these authors. Hidden among the four elements and their magic is the Void and the dark, death-orientated magic that is its own; among the court of wise King Tamaros and his pious son Helmos there sits ambitious younger son Dagnarus and his hopelessly loyal former whipping boy Gareth. As a boy of 10, Dagnarus sets his future by asking Gareth to study Void magic for him; he intends to be king, and nothing will be allowed to stand in his way--not father, not brother, not the magic-soaked paladins who control the Portals that connect the human realms with those of the proud violent elves, the sullen horse-riding dwarves and the omen-fearing sardonic orks of the sea... This is an enjoyably bleak read--Gareth, driven to the worst of evils by his admiration for his prince yet retaining sparks of conscience, and some of our sympathy, even at his most atrocious, is a memorable creation, and Helmos, a man so dominated by conscience and self-regarding honour as to be weak, is hardly less so. --Roz KaveneyRead More