Customer Reviews

Blood Debt: Books of the Cataclysm: Two

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Williams really should have just made this a seperate series, if he wrote it at all. To put "books of the Cataclysm" on the cover almost seems like false advertising.

The first book would get five stars, this sequel has almost nothing in common. What started out as truly inspired, Lovecraftian, surreal "end of the world" story, with realities colliding, mirror twins, monsters in the dark, all cities merging, all of humanity being devoured, etc has now become one of "stone mages", "mani'kins" and "sky-lords" and more stereotypical themes that could be found in any generic fantasy novel. If I wanted to read about those things, I could taken my pick of any other fantasy series, but I don't and I was tricked into reading about them anyway because I liked the first book and I thought this series was going to completely different.

Now its thousands of years into the future, and all characters from the first one are dead, and the one surviving one changed beyond recognition. No, scratch that. The entire series is changed beyond recognition. Yod is only mentioned once, which is an insult considering how big a role he played in the first book.

The first book had mind-blowing imagery of our world turned upside down and had awesome potential. This second book should have focused more on that, but no, instead we have an overlong book with cliched situations, juvenile dialogue, new indistinguishable, unlikeable characters who bicker with one another and whose largest concerns are dealing with the local bureaucrats over a "blood tax" and getting attacked by golems. Bring back the eery, chilling composite city and the twins fleeing in a world gone mad, overshadowed by the Cthulhu-like Yod.

I want Kafkaesque and Lovecraftian, not a mediocre Final Fantasy world.

The Blood Debt is awesome! Williams' books just keep getting better. Although this could be read easily as a stand alone, do yourself a favour and go and read The Crooked Letter and then read this! Then just try and stop yourself reading the third book! Fantastic characterisation and pageturning prose set in a mystical and unpredictable world. Five stars!!!

Having read The Crooked Letter a while ago, somewhat of a surprise to find this jumping into a story with older verions of the characters from The Books of the Change. A pleasant surprise nonetheless. As the characters have aged this series is again more adult in tone and content, not deliberately designed to be young reader friendly like The
Stone Mage and the Sea, et. al.

It is still very good, and revolves around Skender's lost mother, and Sal's father, creating a homunculus, that it turns out, unsurprisingly, is carrying the minds of both Seth and Hadrian from the first book.

The setting is a desert city called Laure, where people used
charmed hang-gliders to retrieve articles from the divide for sale, and there are Change practitioners who use blood as a source. No need to blood bank ads, here!

Blood Debt (2008) is the second fantasy novel in The Cataclysm series, following The Crooked Letter. In the previous volume, Hadrian searched the three realms for his twin brother Seth. They were reunited in Sheol and made their choice. Ellis also made a choice and the twins found themselves within the Void Beneath, becoming the first Lost Minds.

A thousand years or more after the Cataclysm was suspended, most people followed either the Wardens of Air and Water or the Mages of Stone and Fire. The Wardens lived near the ocean and the Mages lived in the interior. They were separated by the Divide, a vast man-made chasm.

In this novel, Skender Van Haasteren the Tenth is a Stone Mage trainee. He is the latest in a line of respected Stone Mages. His father is an instructor and Principal of the Keep, the school for Stone Mages.

Shilly of Gooron lives in a hidden dwelling near Fundelry. She has the talent of sensing Change forces, but she cannot directly affect the Change. Yet she can borrow the talents of others to use these forces.

Sal Hrvati lives with Shilly. He is a wild talent, depending neither on air nor stone. He has direct access to the Change forces.

Tom is a Sky Warden Engineer. He has talents with both machinery and Change forces.

Chu Milang is a resident of Laure and a former miner. She damaged her wing and lost her license while attempting a dare. Now she is seeking ways to restore both.

In this story, Tom comes looking for Sal and Shilly. Sal's biological father -- Highson Sparre -- apparently had constructed a homunculus and used it in some ritual. A man had died from fear and the Homunculus left across the wilderness. Highson followed the construct.

Skender learns that his mother is lost. His father tells him that she has not contacted him through the Change for two days. Skender decides to go searching for his mother and his father tells him where to go and gives him the keys to a buggy.

Sal, Shilly and Tom ride a buggy after the warden search party that is following the Homunculus. Eventually they reach the searchers, who have been stranded in a null zone where the Change cannot reach. It appears that the Homunculus leaves a wake behind it that temporarily nullifies the Change.

Skender reaches Laure several days after his departure from the Keep. He searches the Divide near Laure and then checks the tunnels under the city. When he gets stuck in a narrow tunnel, Chu rescues him and gives him some advice.

Skender is searching on the wrong side to the Divide. The city on the other side is the most likely place to find his mother. The Aad has long been deserted by humans, but is inhabited by monsters from the Divide. They start thinking of ways to get to the other side.

Sal, Shilly and Tom join the Sky Wardens. Tom gets their vehicles moving again and the party heads toward Laure. They reach their side of the Divide before the construct arrives. The wardens spread out and conceal themselves from the Homunculus with camouflaged hides.

Chu and Skender get permission from the Magister of Laure to repair her wing. But the Magister only gives a license to Skender. That night they both fly in the wing to reconnoiter the other side of the Divide and notice the arrival of the wardens. Shilly also notices their wing in the sky.

The next day, Chu and Skender fly back over the Divide just before the Homunculus arrives. They fly into the null zone and the Change amulets on the wing lose their powers. When the wing crashes, Sal rushes out to them while Shilly sets off a flare to call for aid.

This tale reunites Sal, Shilly and Skender momentarily, but Sal soon flies off with Skender to find his mother. Shilly goes to Laure with the Sky Wardens. Later they discover that the Homunculus is not the only problem in Laure.

The story frequently mentions prior encounters between these three about five years previous. These encounters are described within the Book of the Change series, published only in Australia. Hopefully that series will eventually be reprinted in the USA.

Another book -- The Devoured Earth -- seems to be part of this series. It too has only been published in Australia. From the description, it would seem to follow the previous volume and thus might be the second book in the Cataclysm series.

For those who are as confused as I am, the Book of Changes trilogy apparently came first. Then the Crooked Letter was written as a prequel. Possibly The Devoured Earth is a second prequel.

This novel follows the Book of Change sequence. Then comes The Hanging Mountains, the sequel to this novel. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Williams fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of abrupt Changes, impulsive quests, and a bit of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

In the distant future Earth is a vastly strange different place in which magic is the energy source of choice in isolated enclaves. With this energy source comes unwelcome byproducts; living humans uneasily share the area with ghosts, golems, and other paranormal creatures that run the gamut of myths including living statues.

Separately friends Sal and Skender become concerned over their respective missing parents who apparently vanished due to some unexplained esoteric disorder. Each without consulting with the other decides on a quest to find and if need be rescue their parents from whatever void that traps them. However, neither is quite ready to learn about a dangerous homunculus pseudo human that apparently Sal's dad brought back from the Void Beneath which may lead to death and destruction of more than just their parents: a world is at risk.

This tale somewhat suffers from the middle book syndrome even though plenty of action occurs, but for practical purposes nothing is resolved. As testimony to the spellbinding writing skills of Sean Williams, fantasy readers will still enjoy the latest Book of the Cataclysm as the lead duo Sal and Skender return (see THE CROOKED LETTER) to embark on a new quest. Readers will root for the pair whose adventures are exciting, dangerous, and fun to follow as they anchor the exhilarating story line of THE BLOOD DEBT.

Harriet Klausner