The Fifth Sorceress

As epic fantasy sagas appear at an ever-accelerating rate, a writer has to offer something very special indeed these days to rise above the many titles issued. On the evidence of this novel, Robert Newcomb is a writer who has precisely what it takes to deliver a complex and sweepingly conceived adventure that painstakingly avoids all the cliches of the genre. A cataclysmic war has reduced to ruins the Kingdom of Eutracia. Responsible for the mayhem are four sorceresses, crazed with dreams of Imperial power. They have been banished beyond the Sea of Whispers to a fate that is unclear, but is almost certainly an agonising death. As the Kingdom regains its prosperity under the benign protection of a council of wizards, there is only one restless figure in the new idyll: Prince Tristan is a king waiting in the wings, chafing against the royal destiny that awaits him - he has other aims than a sedate kingship. His wish is granted when a primeval force begins to stir, and Tristan is obliged to fight the most terrifying enemy it is possible to conceive, risking everything he holds dear. This first entry in a highly promising new sequence weighs in at some 600-odd pages, but Newcomb's narrative skill is such that the pages turn very quickly indeed. Unlike that other Prince Tristan of legend and opera, this one is more than prepared to wage bloody war rather than perish for love like his namesake. The world created here is fastidiously realized, with much astonishing detail, and Newcomb is a name to watch. (Kirkus UK)