Customer Reviews

Talon and Fang (Outlanders #25)

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Talon and Fang could be one of the best in the whole series so far. It has one of the most original plots of them all of the ones I've read. Along with the action it has lots of heartbreak too. I can't wait for the next one in this two parter.

Wow! I was hoping for something a little special when I started reading "Talon and Fang" but I wasn't quite expecting the wild ride that this novel contained. One of the things I've always enjoyed about Outlanders is how the series can be unpredictable and this book really surprises the reader.

Most of it takes place over 25 years in the future and things are a lot different and not very good different either. Kane's life has been for the most part filled with tragedy and that in turn has made him bitter and unstable. He has a plan to change his present in the past but for it to work he has to convince his most deadly enemy to help him. Longtime readers probably can guess who this is.

The author introduces a great new female character, Tanvirah, who is seductive, beautiful and deadly. And there is also Sam, the Imperator and he's a much more subtle, much more dangerous adversary than he has been before. He more or less conquered the world 20 years before, now he wants to conquer time and space and his plan is such that actually might able to do it!

There are so many high points to cover in this novel: a great villain, heightened motivation, heart-breaking revelations, sharp characterizations, super-fast-paced plot, and varied action sequences...sword fights, Manta and Dragonfly aerial duels, SPIDES, kung-fu fighting-- add all them together and you have one of the best, if not THE best Outlanders novels yet published. I'm dying for the follow-up of Heart of the World, Sea of Plague.

This book is a must-read for any fan..and I really like the cover too!

If you are tired of the hum-drum watered down mess that the "Deathlands" serise has become well then my friends this is the book for you.

Set in the future with nost of the Cerburus warriors dead or aged this book provides a freash spin on things.

Kane (old now) wants to find some way to get back and warn his old friends of all that will take place in order to do so he has to walk into the very belly of the beast. Lets just hope he hasn't lost his edge.

My Impression-Great book, how one central point is resolved is very inventive!! Well worth the money.

F'get Donald Rumsfeld. Mark Ellis is the master of shock and awe, once more flexing his mental muscles and stretching the post-apocalyptic world first invented by Jack Adrian and expanded by Lawrence James. From the in the grit world of the Deathlands, Ellis has expanded to a universe where time and space can be the plaything of a mad god, and our only hope is...

well... that would be telling.

This was a disorienting novel, and I kept waiting for the "intro" to be over and reality to snap back to normal time, but the whole book is the wholly satisfying and intricate construction of a world nearly 30 years after the Imperator Wars, a world full of sadness and amazement. There are glimpses of what the Cerberus exiles can do to make the Baronies and the Outlands into, and the sad outcomes of a world gone mad.

Old enemies and a new enemy arrives, and I have to say, the old enemies were treats to meet, and the new enemy is wow.

And as always, Kane proves himself bad, bad man- physically, mentally and verbally, even at age 60. I love it when Kane cuts loose. At his age, he's a man who can outplan...

well that would be telling.

Just read this book, darm it. Woo!

It's when you come across books like Talon & Fang that you know your money spent on a series is well-spent!! I loved this book! I think it is quite possibly the best in the whole series.

Talon and Fang is a great, great book. A little heavy compared to the previous novel in the series but only because it's a complex plot; which resolves a number of story lines from the past few years.

Regardless, it's a fantastic Outlanders adventure with the fate of human free will hanging the balance. Although most of the story is set nearly 30 years in the future, it still features the classic Outlanders characters and situations and manages to expand on them.

As with any good adventure, there has to be a causal effect to make the story play out and here in lies the imaginative plot. It's a very important book in the series, maybe the most important to date.

So much goes on in this book--new characters, new concepts, and tragedies so heart-wrenching that I had trouble getting through some sections.

If there was any question about Kane and Grant being fundamentally good men, true heroes of the classic breed, Talon and Fang answers that once and for all. Kane's choice at the end and the results of it brought tears to my eyes.

To summarize: Twenty-seven years in the future, a physically and emotionally scarred Kane tries to prevent the Imperator and his "adaptive Earth" from coming to pass by manipulating temporal fault lines ( which I do not pretend to understand) by retrieving an old enemy from "zero time".

A lot of nasty things have happened in the last 27 years, and Kane wants to change the course of events in the past ( but he can't leave his present time) and make sure the Cosolidation War never happens.

So what happens? I'm not going to give it away! Go read it yourself! It's a thoroughly engrossing book. (sitting at the dinner table reading instead of eating and if you know me you know how unusual that is.) Excellent writing, storytelling, a plot that keeps you riveted and characters you love, despise and pity.

Mark Ellis has brought Outlanders to the point of classic series status, with characters and ideas worthy of the best of Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files and Farscape.

Talon and Fang is, without a doubt in my mind, the best novel that the author has written in the entire series.

It's what would be called a Flashpoint. To any new readers to the series, it'll be very confusing if they pick up the older novels after reading this one.

Mark has written a novel that is very emotional, tragic, but touching and out and out uproariously funny in several sections.

It begins almost thirty years into the future. The entire face of the Outlands has been changed, much to the efforts of the Cerberus exiles.

Sam has taken total control of the continent, and a good part of the world as well. The nine baronies were destroyed completely in a five year war that took place after Cobalt managed to rebuild his power base and launched an all out assault against Cerberus.

Kane, Grant, Lakesh and Bry are the only ones who managed to survive the wars. Both Kane and Grant were instrumental in the victory over the nine barons, but the cost to both men was insurmountable.

Grant lost Shizuak, and Kane lost his wife, Brigid, when they rescued him from the hands of a cult, The Nirodha, based in India. That single even left more of a scar on Kane than any of the wounds that he had suffered over the many years he spent as a Magistrate, and then an exile fighting the Barons.

He has spent over twenty years researching a means to travel back in time to fix what had happened, so that he wouldn't have to suffer as he has. Even Grant, his partner, and his best friend, turned his back on Kane, thinking that he has become totally fused out because of what happened.

Kane however, has a plan. Sindri disappeared, and was never heard from again, but Kane realized what the little man did. He managed to trap himself in Zero time, using the operation Chronos facilities on Thunder Isle, just before the reactor reached critical mass. He is critical to bring about Kane's plan to life.

As always, Kane has a number of obstacles to overcome. First and foremost is Tanvirah, the daughter of Lakesh and Erica van Sloan. She is now the Scorpio Prime of the Nirodha cult, like her mother before her. She is under Sam's orders to try and win Kane over, with any means at her disposal. Grant even tries to stop him, and the fight that ensues is one of the more entertaining scenes in the novel.

But, despite as crazy as he appears, Kane's whole scheme might actually work, and after bringing Sindri back from the Zero time he had been trapped in. Together, he and Sindri use the remaining TAV to travel to the City of High River, formerly known as Cobaltville.

Surpassing even more trials and tribulations, they reach the city only to be captured and whisked off to China where they would face Sam, the Imperator.

Here, Kane confronts the hybrid and discovers exactly who and what he is, and during the confrontation, he learns the Imperators great plans. His own plan to send Sindri back in time actually succeeds, but at the cost of his life.

Once again, this is the best novel that the author has written to date, and I am very eager to read the conclusion.

What can I say? Mark Ellis aka James Axler has outdone himself again! What a huge spin he took this series with this newest novel masterpiece. It just never seems to stop amazing me what this particular author comes up with in terms of sheer sci-fi/fantasy entertainment. Outlanders: Talon and Fang has taken this series to yet another level that is both thought provoking and pleasing to the reader.
I love the concepts of time travel and such, and Mark Ellis puts our heroes - Kane and Grant - in a situation in which the past is all the chance they have left. I won't ruin the awesome storyline for you, but suffice it to say, that with this great installment, Mr. Ellis has proven once again that he is undoubtedly one of the very best sci-fi writers out there today. If you are lucky enough to be introduced to this man's series, then you have tons of great and fun reading ahead of you.
I eagerly await, as always, the next part in this exciting and visually spectacular story arc and book series. Hollywood needs to look away - for just a moment - from the comic books and seriously consider making this series their next blockbuster movie. Even if people don't know anything about this remarkable writer and series, they would soon know as soon as they saw a trailer.
This is not only action/adventure at its best, but also character driven stories that you will soon not forget.
Thanks Mr. Ellis for being such a visionary, this reader/writer takes his hat off to you...