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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Dennis[/i] [br] [i]When Even Sky Cities Fall[/i] by J. Robert King, from the anthology [i]Realms of the Arcane,[/i] is a fast-paced, standard high fantasy fare that tells about the fall of two rival Netherese enclaves – Lhaoda and Tith Tilendrothael. The people from Tith Tilendrothael thought Lhaoda was trying to attack them stealthily, hiding within the natural mask of a storm. They sent their griffon riders, led by the mage Josiah and his griffon, Peregrin, to investigate... and to fight their bold foes... only to learn the worst discovery of their centuries of existence... I understand the lack of character development comes with the fact that the story is supposed to focus on the tragic fall of the two cities. Epic events often make people insignificant. While such is the case here, how the characters dealt with the crisis, and that unexpected twist near the end, make this a very interesting read. King's choice of words is definitely noteworthy, indicative of his years of writing and editing a myriad of fantasy books. Not a single word was wasted. All evoked the nuances of every scene and dialog. The battle scenes did not merely show gore and the unnecessary loss of lives, but also helped build up a sense of great haste, of desperation, that culminated in the cities' helpless plummeting. The “closing” words by the crone not only captured what this story is about, but also what the archwizards should do to preserve everything they held dear. My only quibble is that it's too short. We could have gleaned more the lives of the characters and their homes had it been a bit longer... Other than that, this is still worthy of a few minutes of your precious time. Rating: 8/10 [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature. Check here to subscribe to this topic.