β Scribed by Green, Simon R.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Bestseller Green's wild conclusion to his Deathstalker saga picks up moments after the cliffhanger ending of Deathstalker Return (2004). Unjustly outlawed Lewis Deathstalker has just brought his ancestor Owen back from the dead to battle the multidimensional, planet-devouring Terror. Meanwhile, Lewis himself tries to assemble and lead a space fleet against the vile minions of usurper Emperor Finn Durandal. In addition, in chapters interrupting Owen's pursuit through time and Lewis's jaunts through space, former Emperor Douglass Campbell must pull himself together to mastermind a rebellion in Finn's capital city. This listing of major plot threads doesn't begin to suggest the full story's feverish complexity. Fortunately, when the stage gets too crowded, the author kills off a few supporting characters, not to mention millions of faceless extras. In some ways, this SF novel resembles mid-grade animeβmuch better on explosions and mortal combat than characterization; however, it does tie up the series' loose ends coherently. Moreover, even if the major characters are legends, larger and stranger than lifesize, Green's ingenuity and sarcastic prose style keep readers from getting grossed out by the bloodshed or bored by tired space opera theatrics. He knows the action is so far over the top that it almost slips into farce, but he usually manages to keep his balance, arms waving frantically, right on the edge.
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The apparent conclusion to a long-running series involves not one but two Deathstalkers. Owen Deathstalker discovers that his true love, Hazel d'Ark, is actually that great stalking menace, the Terror. So he has to enter the Madness Maze again to go back in time and prevent the experiences of two centuries ago that turned her into the Terror--a task fraught with no little difficulty, not to mention a great deal of suspense. Meanwhile, Lewis Deathstalker faces his own dilemma, and without his mentor, Owen, to help him resolve it. Emperor Finn Durandal slaughters Lewis' whole family, putting him on a vengeance-driven quest for Finn's blood. This kind of quest is never as easy as a would-be avenger thinks when he sets out, and Lewis Deathstalker's experiences prove no exception to the rule. To the very end, the saga chugs along at the same high level it maintained before, with action, characterization, and ethical dilemmas all balanced and mingled in a way to keep readers turning pages. Roland Green
Copyright Β© American Library Association. All rights reserved
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
### From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Green's wild conclusion to his Deathstalker saga picks up moments after the cliffhanger ending of *Deathstalker Return* (2004). Unjustly outlawed Lewis Deathstalker has just brought his ancestor Owen back from the dead to battle the multidimensional, planet-dev
### From Booklist When Owen Deathstalker, foppish aristocrat-about-the-galaxy and master of the martial arts who'd rather write history, is outlawed by the maximally evil empress Lionstone, it's a pretty sure bet that narrow escapes and desperate deeds will follow. They do. This first-in-a-series i
Owen Deathstalker never wanted to be head of his clan. But when his father is murdered and he himself is outlawed by the order of the Empress, Owen must face the fact that destiny has other plans for him...
The Iron Bitch-- her Imperial Majesty Lionstone XIV-- ruled the human Empire with fear. From peasants to masters of the galaxy's most powerful families, all were subject to the queen's unpredictable decrees of "outlawing" and death. Owen Deathstalker, unwilling head of his clan, sought to avoid the
### From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Green, author of the Deathstalker series (Deathstalker War, etc.), which concluded with Owen Deathstalker and his ragtag comrades defeating the evil Empress Lionstone, presents a swashbuckling sequel, in which Owen's descendant Lewis is dragged unwillingly into
### From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Green's latest overstuffed entry in his Deathstalker epic (after 2003's Deathstalker Legacy) tests our heroes to the limit as they seek the supposedly dead Owen Deathstalker, for they believe that only he can turn back the oncoming Terror, an evil and unstoppab