Book Review: Lessek's Key by Robert Scott and Jay Gordon

Well this is just mean; what I'm about to do is highly unfair, taunting, and in some circles might even be considered legitimate cause for disembowelment. I'm going to offer you a tantalizing glimpse at a book that won't be available to be purchased until November of 2006 (for those of you in Great Britain it will be released on August 17, 2006).

Two days ago the unbound proofs of Lessek's Key, book two of The Eldarn Sequence by Robert Scott and the late Jay Gordon, showed up at my door. (Jay Gordon died in November of 2005 from Lou Ghering's Disease after he and his son-in-law Robert had completed work on most of what will be the trilogy known as The Eldarn Sequence. Jay had always wanted to write a fantasy series and when he was diagnosed he and Robert began work on the project. As Jay's physical health failed Robert took over more of the manual labour, but it is still Jay's inspiration and ideas that remain the core of these books. Jay lived to see the first book The Hickory Staff published and knowing that the entire series would see the light of day)

Last fall I was lucky enough to stumble across book one of the sequence, The Hickory Staff. As everyone who has become ensnared in the adventures of Steven Taylor, Mark Jenkins, and Hannah Sorenson of Colorado — who fell through a hole in the universe to end up in Eldarn — knows, it is the work of imaginative and gifted storytellers.

In the first book they breathed new life into the old "stranger in a strange land" scenario with the ingenuity of their plot development and the believability of their characters. Taking an old idea and making it fresh again can require just as much creativity as coming up with something brand new. A major difference was that as much attention was paid to the characters of the "strange land" as those from back home. Our heroes remain as a focal point, but are in a world populated by real people whose lives are every bit as important.

Equally refreshing was the lack of advantage the people from our world had despite being from a more technologically advanced world. Far too often these types of stories become the stranger arrives just in time to use his superior knowledge to save the brave but backward people from their evil overlord. While the latter does exist in this world, evil personified has taken over the world; it's Steven, Mark, and later Hannah who all need to be rescued by the people they meet.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion, both published by Ulysses Press. He has had his work published in print and online all over the world including the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and www.Qantara.de. …

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