Customer Reviews

The Flame Key (Keys to Paradise, Book I)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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"Daniel Moran" is a pseudonym of well-known fantasy author Robert E. Vardeman, and is of no relation to the Daniel Keys Moran of "Emerald Eyes," "Long Run," and "Last Dancer" fame.

I have loved the Keys to Paradise trilogy since I was in junior high, and I recently re-read the series. I should probably review each book individually, but I believe the one will suffice.

There's not much Vardeman should have done differently with these books. Our three main characters (and the later fourth) are very endearing. They're not perfect, and they're definitely not dripping with altruism (save the fourth, whom is nearly angelic), but I found myself identifying with each of them in some way. The haphazard way their group forms is how it usually happens among friends; wrong place at the right time and the like. Their adventures take them across plains, deserts, and frozen tundra, and they encounter all manner of beast and man in between, which holds your attention until the last page; and their continual pursuit by a mysterious stranger keeps you turning them faster. The only thing I'll say against the series is that parts of the third book are a touch stale, but not terribly so. My personal favourite was book two, by the way.

In closing, I highly recommend the Keys trilogy; it's fairly inexpensive here on Amazon, so even if you don't care for it (for some unforseeable reason), you won't be out a great deal of money, so... why not?!

Having been extremely taken with "The Last Dancer", I've been trying to get my hands on Moran's other books. This is an interesting story that moves along very quickly (too quickly in my opinion), but there isn't the same kind of character development here. It comes off as kind of simple in comparison. Maybe incomplete is more the word because the book is so short and leaves you with the desire to pick up the next one right away. Entertaining, but why didn't they put all three into one volume!