Customer Reviews

The Edge of the World (Terra Incognita)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've always been a fan of Anderson's work, mainly the "Dune" novels that he co-wrote with Brian Herbert, but am starting to branch out into his other titles. "The Edge Of The World" is the first book of a projected epic fantasy trilogy, and it's a fast and entertaining read. Even though it's over 700 pages long, the pacing is brisk.

Anderson always populates his worlds with interesting characters. Even minor ones are endowed with enough background details to keep them from being "walk-on extras". As always, he pulls no punches. Things happen to characters that aren't always nice, and when they do, readers become aware how involved they have gotten with the tale. He skillfully weaves the many plot threads into a coherent and engrossing story that will leave you hungry for the next installment.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a grand adventure with colorful characters!

This first book in Anderson's Terra Incognita series introduces two nations with competing religions beginning an extended conflict after each blames the other for the destruction of their joint holy city. While the religions are clearly fictional, one of the two nations bears a passing resemblance to medieval Europe while the other more closely resembles Arabic/Muslim cultures - though despite this resemblance neither culture are really portrayed as "good guys" or "bad guys". In fact the leaders of both nations are decent people forced to enter a war against their wishes due to pressure from their people, and both sides in the war commit atrocities. The story is told from the perspective of several characters, including the leaders of the two nations, as well as a sailor, his wife (who is captured by the other side early on), and an insane fanatic priest.

I don't think Anderson is really a great writer, but he is a good storyteller. He does a good job of keeping the story moving at a good pace, and provides characters on both sides of the conflict that the reader can relate to. He also does a good job of portraying how religious fanaticism leads to a series of atrocities that magnify the conflict. While I wouldn't consider this to be a masterpiece or anything like that, it's good enough that I plan on reading further books in the series.

The Edge of the World (Terra Incognita)

Whether you are already familiar with, and a fan of Kevin J. Anderson's other works (as I am) such as his critically acclaimed Saga of the Seven Suns series, or his collaborative forays into the legendary Dune Universe with Brian Herbert (the son of Frank Herbert), or new to his creative endeavors, you will be pleasantly surprised by Mr. Anderson's adept return into the fantasy realm.

Humans have a natural inclination to explore the world around them, to push at the boundaries of the known world, to boldly go out to the edge of the map, sometimes for wealth, sometimes for power, and sometimes just to know what is out there. It's this passion to push back the blank spaces on the maps that drove explorers like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, and Lewis & Clark to undertake their journeys at great personal risk, to go to The Edge of the World, and hopefully return.

The Edge of the World is the first of a three book saga that offers a complex blend of exploration, clashing cultures and religions, fanaticism, ill-fated love, and of course sea monsters. As always the author's clear and concise writing style keeps you flipping page after page, as the story unfolds a t a rapid pace, sweeping you away through the various currents of the many characters lives as we watch them try to cope with a quickly changing, turbulent environment that sets the stage for the next installment, The Map of All things (due out in the summer of 2010).

Though it is a book in the Fantasy genre, it has only a small taste of magic, no wizards and warlocks, no Orcs and Goblins, no magical creatures like unicorns. It is much closer to a historical novel, but set in a different world from our own. It is largely influenced by the Crusades and the Prester John legends from our own middle ages.

The story focuses on two nations, who both share the same common legends about how their lands were settled by Aiden and Urec , the two sons of Ondun who is creator of the world.

Over time, each of these nations developed into two completely different cultures with two completely different religions paying homage to Aiden and Urec, but shared the city of Ishalem that sits on the isthmus separating the two kingdoms. The two nations coexist in relative peace until a fire burns the holy city to the ground.

It's this incident that sets the stage for a religious war, and a desperate search to find the fabled land if Terravitae that lays somewhere across the sea, beyond the edge of the known world.

The Edge of the World will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rarely do I read a novel that moves me the way "The Edge of the World" did.

This story kidnapped my imagination, brutalized my senses in a whirlwind of chaos and discovery and left my mind curled up on the carpet begging for more.

This book blends the horrors of battle with the terrors of religious fanaticism.

Revealing how simple misunderstandings can spark international war, Kevin J. Anderson has delivered part one of a trilogy that is sure to raise the question, "Are we absolutely sure ours is the `one true way?'"

The overall story is set in a distant time on a world that is still largely undiscovered. It contains ships, giant sea serpents, love, war, adventure, mystery and just a little magic in all the right places. It actually feels like a dark mirror image of our own society's past, when people were banished for trying to prove there was so much more to the world we thought we knew. A time when religious fanatics ruled the masses... OK maybe we are still suffering from that.

There's also a music tie-in CD recorded under the name of "Roswell Six" by some of todays most talented prog-rockers that is scheduled for simultaneous release.

With the recent release of "Enemies and Allies", as well as "The Winds of Dune", (with Brian Herbert), to be released in August of this year, Anderson has proven two things: he can still come up with great stories to fascinate the mind, and that he has no intention of slowing down any time soon.

"The Edge of the World" is a must read for any lover of fantasy or discovery.

Normally epic fantasy/voyage stories aren't my thing. I have a hard time getting into long books with a lot of characters and multiple story lines, but a friend recommended this book so I decided to read it. The beginning was a little slow for me, because there was a lot of politics and religion setting the story up, but once it got going it was hard to put it down. I was emotionally invested in the characters and had to take breaks when I was reading it because I was worried about them. I think the author did an amazing job making both groups/races of people sympathetic. As you're reading you care about all of the people, especially the leaders of both the countries and you sympathize because they don't even want to go to war, but escalations brought on by mob mentality on both sides forces them into it. It's hard to know who you want to win, because for the most part, there are no real villains. I really liked that about it--there was no evil super villain out to take over the world. It was definitely a different kind of fantasy though. It was very low on magic--so much in fact that I wondered if the magic was real or just tradition/superstition among the people, but it turns out that it is real. I wasn't sure I would like the story, but after reading it I am interested enough in the characters and their lives that I definitely plan on reading the next in the series.

I don't mind fantasy (or sf) that's clearly been written as an analogue of some Terran situation or event, but I do mind fantasy that doesn't seem to have much magic in it, and that's the primary weakness of this very long (627pp) novel, which covers some 13 years in the history of two rival realms, Tierra and Uraba, which might best be described as "neighbors separated by a common religion:" both worship the creator-god Ondun, whose two seafaring sons, Aiden and Urec, they credit as having founded their respective nations. Over the centuries they have diverged in doctrine and form until, like most monotheistic religions (rarities in fantasy), each is not only convinced that its way is right but that the other side is heretical and worthy only to be destroyed. An accidental fire which destroys the holy-to-both city of Ishalem only exacerbates the situation and sets the stage for a slowly escalating state of war, even though neither of the two kings really wants to fight the other. The only real magic that surfaces in the entire epic is the use of sympathetic models to keep track of whether a ship at sea still exists or not. A large cast of characters (at least a dozen major ones) who provide the viewpoint for the various chapters is another problem, since it breaks up the momentum and makes it difficult to develop any real sympathy for anyone involved. No doubt author Anderson's motives were excellent (an interview with him at the end of the book explains something of his aims and inspiration), but I think he might have found a better way of bringing them to paper.

I purchased this book along with the accompanying music CD as a set. I made it through about 5 chapters of the book and never felt intrigued enough to keep reading. I love the concept created by the author, but for some reason found myself bored and drifting. It has been suggested that I didn't delve far enough into the book and this may be true. However, I feel that if a book doesn't grab your interest in the first few pages, you might as well move on to something else. On too many occasions, I've trudged on through a book that didn't interest me in the hopes that it would get better, only to reach the end and feel my time was wasted. In my opinion, a good author will craft the beginning pages to grab their reader and make them want to keep reading, it just didn't happen for me here. That's one great thing I love about the Amazon Kindle, it allows you to sample a chapter of most books for free before buying. I would suggest any Kindle readers do just that before making an impulse purchase.

Kevin J Anderson is well known in SF circles for his "Saga of Seven Suns" SF series, and more visibly, for his extensions of the Dune universe written by Frank Herbert's son Brian.

Here, in The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson tries something new--a fantasy novel. As it so happens this is the first novel of Anderson's I have read, and so I came into reading this novel unaware of first-hand knowledge of his writing styles and choices.

The Edge of the World is billed as the first of the "Terra Incognita" series, and is set in a very low magic (lower than even, say, George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones world) universe. The level of technology, aside from gunpowder, is pre-Renaissance, early Age of Exploration.

And therein hangs the hook for his story. Two squabbling nations divided by different interpretations of a common origin myth find themselves, by bad luck and coincidence, drawn into a protracted religious-political conflict. In the meantime, both nations strive to explore the world beyond the continent that houses both Tierra and Uraba. There is a third, smaller, religious group that lives in both lands and tries to get along in the midst of the war. Although I am sure Anderson did not intend it, I got a Guy Gavriel Kay vibe from the parallels between his three factions and the Kindath, Asharites, and Jaddites.

The book is divided into short chapters--over 110 in a 570 page volume. Plenty of POV characters in all three groups. Readers used to large casts and whiplash changes between POV characters will be familiar with the technique. Having weaned myself on Martin and Erikson, I didn't have a problem with the structure of the book. Too, many of the plot contrivances and coincidences seemed fine, if suitably tragic to continue to simmer and increase the conflict between the two nations. Characters show up and often die quickly, again, much like Martin and Erikson.

However, I felt a couple of the twists and turns in the tale seemed like needless cruelty and not important to the overall plot. I didn't see their point and it was somewhat offputting. Also, while Anderson mostly does a good job to show that both sides in the religious-political conflict are capable of atrocity and evil, the finger does seem a bit on the scales to one side, at least to my perception.

With those concerns aside, however, the Age of Exploration is an interesting time period in Earth's history, and Anderson captures it well in his fantasy universe. He's an accomplished writer, that comes across very well.

And aside from some of the plot concerns, I was more than well satisfied with character development, growth and change. Anderson paints on a pretty big blank map (a metaphor used in the book) and I do want to see how the map fills in, especially given the discoveries made by characters from both nations in the novel.

I am intrigued enough by the novel's strengths to want to continue to read the series, and perhaps eventually try his Saga of Seven Suns novels, too.

I'd read several of Anderson's co-authored Dune prequels before picking this one up. Some aspects I liked, others not so much.

From the cover image and the first chapters, I expected an epic sea adventure a la Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader. But the sea voyage is a fairly small part of the book, ending abruptly. I don't mind that, throws a bit of a curve ball, but once that voyage ends and the main male character becomes a hermit, you are left wondering where the story is going to go.

I think my biggest beef though, is the caricatured religions of the two peoples (the Aidenists and the Urecari). Aidenists ~ Christians (esp. Catholics, of which I am one) and Urecari ~ Muslims. Sure, there are some differences, but the Aidenists have churches, relics, priests (presters == presbyters == priests), and are generally Western in culture. That's fine, even clever, giving us a touch point of understanding the religions based on real ones.

But then you've got the fanatical religious zealot who eschews all reason and just wants to "kill the heretics." Also, the religions end up being two sides of the same coin--really identical religions with just different names--which is perhaps some social commentary toward Christianity and Islam, but it's not true, so it doesn't work. Even the theology, the God Ondun created the world, then got bored with it and left to do other stuff, leaving his two sons Aiden and Urec to sail around and found nations--why then are people trying to please Ondun if he doesn't give a crap about them? In real religion, take Christianity, God loves his creation and all people, so there is a reason to want to love God.

This is capped off when they discover a new people they didn't know before, who also have a similar pair of religious systems, because (hint hint) all these people evolved from a common mythology that has developed independently over the centuries, resulting in slightly different beliefs. So, even the caricatured religion is explained away via primitive myth-origins. Well, okay.

The two main religious peoples distrust each other, go to war, atrocities on both sides, tragedy, etc. The main story arc between the man and the woman who are separated from one another has some intriguing characteristics, but with the man deciding to become a hermit for most of the book, there's not much action on his part! But the woman is a good character, thrown into impossible situations that she behaves uniquely and interestingly in, and that is the best part of the story.

I think it's worth reading. Fun, and in places I was skipping ahead to see what would happen to various characters.

The Edge of the World is a story covering years of adventure and emotion. It is a tale that explores cultures bound by religion and the people trapped in the inevitable throes of life. Anderson takes a cast of characters and melds them into the soul of the reader. These people become real, their pain, happiness, and hope become a shared experience. I could not help but be swept away with their lives as nations plunges into war and these characters lived with the after affects. It took some initial getting used to as there are a lot of characters at the start and plenty of strange, new things to familiarize with. It's a brand new world, but once you become comfortable with it and the characters, they easily take on lives of their own. A deeply moving and thoroughly engaging book, the best Kevin J. Anderson novel I have yet to read.