The Scrolls of the Ancients: Volume III of the Chronicles of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Volume 3) [Hardcover]

Robert Newcomb (Author)

Book Description

Series: Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Volume 3 | Publication Date: June 15, 2004

With The Fifth Sorceress and The Gates of Dawn, the two previous volumes of the masterful epic The Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Robert Newcomb surged to the forefront of fantasy, proving himself the peer of Goodkind, Jordan, and Martin. Now, in The Scrolls of the Ancients, he takes his spellbinding saga of magic and adventure to harrowing new heights as Prince Tristan and his twin sister, Shailiha, face an ancient evil that threatens to bring death—or a corruption worse than death—to all that lives. . . .

THE SCROLLS OF THE ANCIENTS
Volume III of The Chronicles of Blood and Stone

Tristan and Shailiha are the Chosen Ones, prophesied to unite the opposing magics of the dark Vagaries and the benevolent Vigors. With the destruction of the Gates of Dawn, it seems that the wounded kingdom of Eutracia will at last have the chance to heal—and the Chosen Ones, under the tutelage of wizards Wigg and Faegan, can fulfill their rightful destiny.

Alas, such is not to be. For there is another who unknowingly possesses magic in his blood—great magic that, in the wrong hands, could unleash unspeakable evil. To find this unsuspecting soul, the Chosen Ones and their allies embark on a dangerous quest that will lead from the mysterious Chambers of Penitence to the sacred Isle of Sanctuary. A quest that will change everything Tristan and Shailiha think they know about themselves and their purpose.

But they are not the only ones searching. Krassus, a devoted servant of the Vagaries, has dispatched ships of demonic slavers to scour the coasts of Eutracia, capturing men and women and bringing them in chains across the monster-filled Sea of Whispers to the impregnable island fortress of the Citadel, where evil dreams take the form of living nightmares.

Aided by Tyranny, a pirate as fierce as she is beautiful, Tristan and Shailiha struggle to destroy the wicked demonslaver fleet. Meanwhile, the ill-fated pawn of magic is being held by Krassus at the Citadel. It is there that Krassus seeks to awaken the magic in his blood, imbuing him with dark enchantments from the mystic Scrolls of the Ancients—and transforming him into a weapon of evil such as the world has never known . . . and will not long survive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Too much exposition and characters less developed than in earlier installments mar the fast-paced final volume in Newcomb's Chronicles of Blood and Stone fantasy trilogy, set in the strife-torn realm of Eutracia. In the first book, The Fifth Sorceress (2002), Prince Tristan was forced to kill his own parents to save them from torture. In the second, The Gates of Dawn (2003), he had to battle his son, Nicholas, who had died and then been brought back to life devoted to evil. Here, just when Tristan was running out of family to feud with, Newcomb introduces his long-lost half-brother Wulfgar, a decent sort who's turned into an evil master of the Vagaries, who represent the dark side of magic. In the end, Tristan and his sister Shailiha fail to fulfill a major prophecy, a lack of resolution that will strike many readers as a poor way to conclude a series that started out with so much promise.
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About the Author

Robert Newcomb is the author of The Fifth Sorceress and The Gates of Dawn, the first two volumes in The Chronicles of Blood and Stone. He traveled widely in his youth as a member of the American Institute for Foreign Study, studying at the University of Southampton, England, and aboard a university-sponsored ship in the Mediterranean Sea. After graduating from Colgate University with a B.A. in economics and a minor in art history, he enjoyed a successful career in business. He lives in Florida with his wife, a neuropsychologist and novelist. Visit the author’s Web site at www.robertnewcomb.com.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (June 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345448960
• ISBN-13: 978-0345448965
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,607,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't be fooled - Newcomb is awful, October 6, 2005

By 

Locke (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scrolls of the Ancients: Volume III of the Chronicles of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Volume 3) (Hardcover)

The man simply can't write. Fifth Sorceress had a lot of potential, but its been all downhill from there. Objectively, here are the problems with this series:

1) It's extremely formulaic. In each of the first 3 books, the villain comes back from "but I thought they were dead/out of the way." In the first book, it's Failee, the head of the sorceress' coven, who was banished hundreds of years earlier. In the second book, it's Nicholas, Tristan's stillborn son, revived from the dead and turned into a master of evil magic. In the third book it's Wulfgar, Tristan's half brother who was thought out of the way.

2) Tristan kills family: In the first book, he's forced to kill his dad. In the second, he has to fight his revived son. He was out of family for the third, so Newcomb falls back on hackneyed soap-opera techniques, and poof, a long-lost half brother. Don't be surprised if someone gets amnesia in the latest book, or Tristan's evil twin schemes to take over JR's business.

3) Free will doesn't exist: Newcomb's system of magic has opposing forces - the good vigors, the bad vagaries. In the first book, this was fine. Then he screws himself up by making it more and more complex. See, it turns out that you are drawn to good or evil by your "blood signature", which you are born with. If your blood signature leans left you are irresistably drawn to practice the evil vagaries, if it leans to the right you are irresistably drawn to practice the good vigors. In other words, characters' actions are driven by genetics, not free will. An interesting philosophical point, but it makes for horribly dull characters. Worse, the blood signature of a character can be changed by magic, so a good character can become bad or (theoretically, it hasn't happened yet) a bad character good by manipulating their blood signature (keeps Newcomb from having to worry about messy things like character development). Wulfgar is actually a decent guy for half of this book, then "poof" the evil wizards flip his blood signature and he becomes the embodiment of evil. Yawn.

4) Forestallments: the worst part of Newcomb's magical system. Magical abilities are gained by having them granted to you through "forestallments." Like the blood signature changes, its Newcomb's no fuss, no muss, no character development way of having villains become all-powerful (or "all-powerful-except-for-the-small-flaw-the-forces-of-good-can-use-to-defeat-them-for-yea-verily-evil-shall-not-profit-in-the-end")

5) Newcomb's writing: The guy who quoted out "whump, whump, whump" had it right. to overcome all these flaws Newcomb would need to have Jordan's ability to turn a phrase, and he doesn't. He's on the Goodkind level of skill. Anyway, I'm getting faklempt just thinking about it. Talk amongst yourselves - I'll give you a topic. The goodkind level of skill is neither good nor kind to his readers. Discuss.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrendous, July 30, 2005

By 

Eric D. Moore (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scrolls of the Ancients (The Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't believe this man was allowed to publish 2 miserable sequels to the train-wreck that was The Fifth Sorceress. Every word this man is allowed to put into print is an affront to the Fantasy literary tradition. Thank goodness it's finally over.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I don't mean to be excessively negative, but..., June 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Scrolls of the Ancients: Volume III of the Chronicles of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Volume 3) (Hardcover)

'The Scroll of the Ancients' is so bad that reading it is a somewhat surreal experience. I first became acquainted with Newcomb's writing through his legendarily awful debut 'The Fifth Sorceress', which was later selected by fans at Bubonicon as the worst book ever written. I wasn't particularly interested in a repeat performance, but when a friend offered to pass on a copy of 'Scrolls' I decided to give it a shot. After all, Newcomb had nowhere to go but up, right? Wrong.

Tristan, an alleged thrity-year-old who acted like an angry stupid kid in the first book, has now advanced to acting like an angry stupid kid. I guess character development isn't Newcomb's strong suit. Tristan and Gandalf-clone Wigg take on some uttrerly ridiculous villains who have concocted an evil plan to control the cheddar cheese industry. Wait, my mistake. Their evil plan is to take over the world. I guess originality isn't Newcomb's strong suit. Also thrown into the mix is Tristan's long lost brother Wulfgar. Luckily, Newcomb avoids the good brother vs evil brother cliche. Well, actually he doesn't. Tad Williams, you might have a plagarism lawsuit here.

Anyway, Tristan merrily hacks his way through crowds of bad guys, and also spends A LOT of time agonizing about how awful it is to have to fight your own brother. Then comes a 'climactic' showdown where Newcomb once again invents an arbitrary magic trick that gives the good guys the victory. And that's it. No real story, no surprises, no humor, no attempts at suspense, no nothing.

The gaping holes in the 'plot' are too numerous to mention. Every time a new band of of all-powerful magicians wanders on stage, you'll be wondering why these people didn't show up a lot earlier. Likewise, all the characters are just too stupid to be believed. If any of them ever used basic common sense, the book would end a lot quicker.

Of course, what was most putrid about the 'The Fifth Sorceress' was Newcomb's agressive misogyny and advocation of violence against all women. So, has the guy managed to grow up since then? Nope. If anything, the treatment of women in this new book is worse than in the original.

I could continue ranting about the absurdly bad writing and non-stop plagarism. But suffice to say, there is no way that any intelligent adult could look at 'Scroll' and see a valid attempt at writing a fantasy novel. This series is an insult to George R R Martin, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Martha Wells, Stephen Donaldson, and all the other authors who have worked so hard to make fantasy respectable. I don't know where Del Rey managed to find this woman-hating, illiterate, porn-addicted, one-man freak show, but it's about time for them to toss him back.