The Road to the Middle Islands (Wilderness of Four, No. 4) [Paperback]

Niel Hancock (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (November 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446312118
• ISBN-13: 978-0446312110
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #508,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Concluding book: Wilderness of Four, January 19, 2010

By 

Paul Brooks (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Road to the Middle Islands (Wilderness of Four, No. 4) (Paperback)

The Road To The Middle Islands is book 4 in the four book series titled Wilderness of the Four.

This is a story set in Alanton Earth - a fantasy world location similar in some respects to Tolkien's Middle Earth or the Narnia of C.S. Lewis.

Book 1 and 2 concerns the affairs of bears, elves and dwarfs being gathered at the sea for an unspecified confrontation with the forces of evil. Book 3 concerns the gathering of men to the sea rendezvous.

Our hero in book 4 is an otter named Olthan, called the Olthlinden when it was discovered that his birthright was to be the holder of Pipe of Ring parath. Yes, he too must gather at the sea with the men, bears, elves and dwarfs from Books 1,2 and 3. Just to keep the record straight the previous books featured a different magical amulet for the men, bears and elves.

I was disappointed with these books. After developing a hero-type leader in books 1 to 3 they are nowhere to be found in book 4. In fact the climatic confrontation with the Dark Queen Dorini just fizzles out. You see the author has envisioned a fantasy world where the confrontation between good and evil rises to a climax of a sort, is resolved with divine intervention and then the cycle repeats again and again over a very long time span. Certain selected characters, angelic-like, shape and tweak events so good wins, but evil is never truly eliminated.

There are 8 other books in two different set of four concerning Alanton Earth. I am not inclined to read them based upon my reading of the "The Wilderness of Four": Across The Far Mountains, The Plains of the Sea, On the Boundaries of Darkness and this book, The Road To the Middle Islands.