Customer Reviews

Anchorwick

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A trained biologist and veterinarian, Jeffrey E. Barlough has published seventy research and review articles in his lengthy career. It was when he turned his talents to fiction in 2007 with "Bertram of Butter Cross" that he first came to the attention of the Midwest Book Review as a true word-smith craftsman of fantasy adventure at its very best. Now he has written "Anchorwick", the story of young Eugene Stanley who, newly-arrived in the ancient university town of Salthead to pursue his studies and to aid his uncle, Professor Christopher Greenshilds, who works upon a scholarly tome. Quickly Eugene becomes caught up in mystery, danger, and puzzling messages concerning the disappearance of Professor Haygarth some two years earlier. Enthusiastically recommended to the attention of both fantasy fans and mystery buffs, "Anchorwick" (scheduled by the publisher for release in October 2008) is the fifth volume in the 'New Western Lights' series of fantasy mysteries and will seize the reader's rapt attention from first page to last.

All of Barlough's work is well worth exploring, and this is a sort of prequel which makes a good introduction to the world of these books. It is also somewhat tighter in construction than some of the others. It is cerainly possible to quibble with the internal logic of the series -technology is at about an 18th-19th century level, and they have invented the phonograph, but, although they live surrounded by dangerous ice age megafauna, they have somehow failed to either discover gunpowder or even come up with the crossbow. Nevertheless, it is a unique series that stands out from the generic.