Customer Reviews

The Four Lords of the Diamond: Lilith: A Snake in the Grass / Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold / Charon: A Dragon at the Gate / Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail

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

 

 

This book is a complete series, consisting of the entire Four Lords of the Diamond Series. It contains these books: "Lilith, A Snake in the Grass;" "Cerebrus, A Wolf in the Fold;" "Charon, A Dragon at the Gate;" and "Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail."

I believe it is a book club edition, though I picked my copy at a secondhand book store. The copies of the softcover mass market paperbacks I had were too worn, and this hardcover replaced them.

Here is what the jacket says, I can't really do better:

" Consisting of four oddly different worlds, the Warden Diamond System is a natural prison. There, microscopic symbiotic organisms called Wardens invade the cells of all matter. Leaving the Diamond, for some reason, causes the Wardens to die -- and with them, their hosts, in excruciating and hideous ways. So for centuries, the Confederacy has been sending to the system its most creative, brilliant, and individualistic criminals -- minds too rare to waste by wiping or execution.
But for those imprisioned, there are hidden benefits. On each of the planets, the Wardens have unique side effects, bestowing strange powers. On the paradise Lilith, where Wardens allow nothing artifical, no technology exists, and people can manipulate matter -- and their fellow beings. The watery Cerebrus, run as a highly computerized corporation, offers its inhabitants the ability to switch minds with others, not always voluntarily. Charon, filled with vast jungles and deserts, allows humans to create illusions and make them real; while on icy and forbidding Medusa, bodies can change to adapt to any environment. Each world is ruled by a Lord -- a master criminal who rose into power by brilliance and ruthlessness.
Now, from within the Diamond, there comes a danger that threatens the very existance of the Confederacy [of worlds]. Working in allegiance with the Four Lords, a technologically superior, unnerving, elusive alien race has infiltrated the Confederacy at the highest levels.
To stop them, the confederacy calls its best agent, a Master Assassin. He will make a one-way trip to the Diamond. Or rather, his mind will. Four people stripped of their own personalities will have his mind imposed on their bodies instead.
The mission: working alone, using nothing more than their naked abilites, the surrogates must each find one of the mysterious Four Lords, kill them, and take over their link with the aliens -- knowing full well, even with a successful mission, they are trapped on the Diamond forever!"

Just typing that makes me want to re-read it, and let me tell you, it lives up to its hype. Chalker uses the literal device of layered protagonists with excellence, and these are filled with daring actions beside the Master Assassin's inner conflict of questioning his mission, now that he is stuck (not always in a male body). Buy it and read it if you can find it.

Read this book as a kid and thought it was awesome! Read it last year and it's still good, even after I grew up! Not that it's written for young teens by any means (Harry Potter this is not!). Imagine if you will the serious spacer style ala Orson Scott Card mixed with a little bit of Piers Anthony's odd pseudo sexual-fantasy undertones and you get a great tale of covert mind clone agents infiltrating a prison star system where each planet bestows upon it's prisoners powers or abilities that, while helpful and totally cool, keep them trapped within the star system. But wait! Rumor has it that the symbiotic bugger wardens arent killing off escapees like they're supposed to! DUN-DUn-Dunnnnnnnn~n! LOL So I guess that synopsis would only convince you that this is a terrible book -even for being a scifi fantasy, but it's not! It's pretty dang good! Worthy of being read! DO IT, DO IT NOW! BUY IT! Especially if it's less than 10 bucks (not sure how much its going for on amazon here, i bought it early 2010... I think)

Enjoy this good book.

I had this book years ago, from the SciFi Book Club, and I swear this was the exact same book. I even looked for my name written in it. Thanks. I missed it. :-)