Customer Reviews

The Reaver Road

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

 

 

An author who I feel is not really given the exposure he deserves in Europe, his books are near impossible to buy in the High Street Bookshops. A publisher somewhere is missing out on a very big pot of gold here. To get hold of his books you will either have to order them from Amazon UK/Europe or even from Amazon US for his early works, but believe me it's worth it! Duncan is truly one of the top modern day fantasy authors offering a smart alternative to the moody, darker side of the genre which seems to be the way most authors are going these days. Reaver Road is the first of his Omar books and sadly Omar only appears again in Hunters' Haunt; This is a typical Duncan read filled with sharp wit, a twisted plot and the expected surprise ending of Omar a teller of tall tales who seems to bring out the `big fish that got away' story from everyone he meets. Another romping good read from an author who I am lucky enough to have nearly a complete collection from. I am unashamedly a huge fan of his books and have yet to read one that is less than top quality.
If you call yourself a fantasy fan and are yet to sample his books, what's a matter with you? For beginners with Duncan I would recommend the Great Game series, the Seventh Sword series or the A Man of His Word series. Beware, once you start his books you won't be getting much sleep.

Not a lot of action but very well written. A treatise on the art of storytelling, and human behavior. Laugh out loud funny, lovable characters. It's Dave Duncan, you know it's good.

An excellent novel, another fine piece of work from Mr. Duncan. A well written book with believable characters.

Another great book by Duncan. I heartily recommend it, quite funny with an interesting storyline. The dialogue between the two main characters is worth buying the book for.

What I remember most about this novel on first thought is that from the first pages a well developed and consistent religion dominates the novel. The gods, their names, their histories, their interactions with the world, and the impact of their actually existing is found in the flagstones the novel is built on, and the characters are able to walk around on these metaphorical flagstones with great confidence.

After religion, I found the comedy of the novel, often based in light cynicism, to help lead me down through the pages toward the more important parts of the novel. Then, the heroic style drama comes to the fore, with the main character and the main supporting character getting into a lot of fairly serious trouble. The problems facing them mount and mount, I was afraid the story would literally cop-out at the end, but surprisingly, it doesn't and provides for a satisfactory conclusion (something sorely missed in many stories).

Although there is another novel based on the viewpoint character, The Hunter's Haunt, it has nothing to do with The Reaver Road, which is a self-contained novel.

Far superior to what I've read of the seemingly endless series work that Duncan has done, here he gives a laudable contribution to the lighthearted subgenre of fantasy (in the style of Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, and Robert E. Vardeman). Thus, there are many amusing tongue-in-cheek adventures. Thoroughly entertaining protagonists and settings make for a worthy diversion over two or three evenings. A curious feature of the story, that I couldn't help but notice, however, is that the two protagonists apparently are naked throughout fully half of the book!!! 8.5hrs