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Cartomancy: Book Two of The Age of Discovery
by Michael A. Stackpole
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Spectra (2006-02-28)
ISBN: 0553382381
EAN: 9780553382389
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 448 pages
Release Date: 2006-02-28
SKU: 01299
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Minor wear on cover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"Michael A. Stackpole is incapable of writing a book that isn't imaginative and intelligent."–Stephen R. Donaldson, author of The Chronicle of Thomas Covenant
New York Times bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole returns with the second book of a groundbreaking trilogy charting exciting new territory in fantasy fiction. Cartomancy follows a group of trailblazing mapmakers with the power to discover new worlds–and shape reality itself….
Under the shadow of invasion by a nameless enemy, there seems only one way to save Nalenyr from oblivion. The old heroes who once defended the land must be awakened. And accomplishing that requires a journey across the magical wasteland where they're rumored to be trapped–a wasteland rife with magic and danger.
Grandson of the Royal Cartographer, Keles Anturasi finds himself trapped in an enemy nation where his skill may well be his death sentence. His brother Jorim is an ocean away, captive in an altered realm in which he's regarded as a god. And their sister Nirati resides in a paradise that exists between life and death with her insane grandfather and an ancient sorcerer bent on the world's destruction.
Now they and their companions must struggle to survive in a world where war on earth mirrors war in heaven. What the gods themselves fear, men must brave. Heroes and mystics they may be, but can any of them survive in a world where things are seldom what they seem: a place where dreams can become reality–and reality can turn into a nightmare....
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Customer Reviews
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Cartomancy
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-08-31
the book was imaginative. It takes a few pages to get into but once you do its great.
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Fantasy done in by excess
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-11-15
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The middle volume of the Age of Discovery series continues to focus on the adventures of the three grandchildren of Qiro Anturasi, official mapmaker to the kingdom of Nalynir. Keles is now a prisoner of Pyrust in Deseiron, while his companions continue traveling through the wastelands, searching for the Sleeping Empress. Jorim is making new discoveries among the Amentzutl people in a previously undiscovered land. And Nirati has somehow recovered from her murder in volume one with no particular harm done in the new continent created by Qiro to protect her.
Even this short summary gives some hint of why this book really didn't work for me. I love fantasy, and fantasy implies magic, but the magic needs to have limits. In most really good fantasies, relatively little magic occurs. In this story, the gates are wide open. Characters die and come back to life; one human becomes a god, and then goes back to human, although he seems to still be rather like a god. One god (in the third volume) suddenly turns out to be another god in disguise, tricking the other gods - who knew gods were so easily fooled? A whole continent suddenly appears out of nowhere. Another character, who has never previously shown magical abilities, is suddenly and inexplicably able to perform magics that the most powerful sorcerers in most fantasies wouldn't dream of.
The result is that you don't feel like you're in a well-built world with a consistent magical system. It's more like a dreamscape, where anything can happen with no underlying logic or predictability. And that really killed off, for me, the epic element in a fantasy that did have some promising ideas and intriguing characters.
The trilogy is meant to be read as a single story. Readers should be aware that this volume ends not at a stopping point but in a surprise revelation (which is actually a pretty good revelation, both unexpected and logical in retrospect) that sets the stage for action in the final volume.
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A strong middle
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-11-09
Empire Strikes Back is my least favorite of the original trilogy. The Two Towers is my least favorite of the Lord of the Rings. And so on. Usually, the second book of a trilogy tends to drag. You have to further develop the characters - but you no longer have introductions, so it's more exposition. You have a plot that's not ready to climax. It - like Frodo and Samwise - just plods along.
And that's what I expected from Cartomancy. While I appreciate (and understand the need for) all of those "middles", my expectations were lower for this book, especially since I liked A Secret Atlas so much. And so it was. There was a rapid change in one of the main characters - one I'm still not sure I like. The plot continues on, and even an invasion doesn't provide quite the same thrill that I got from the climaxes of A Secret Atlas. A plateau or plain that we know we need to get through.
Until I was two thirds of the way through the book, and suddenly realized that the plateau was not flat. It was a gentle rise, that had been taking me higher and higher, so gently that I had not noticed. I found myself on the perch of a literary cliff, and Mr. Stackpole, with consummate skill, shoved me right off the prepice.
It is fair to say that I am exhibiting great restraint in taking the time to write this instead of leaping for my bookcase to get the third book in the trilogy, A New World.
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Entertaining read, interesting world!
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-07-25
This continues the three book series, and what would traditionally be the 'soft' part of a trilogy really amps up the action, plot and interesting character development from the first book. Sometimes it feels like a lot is glossed over, with interesting ideas not fully realised or detail. However it is an entertaining book and one of Stackpole's best. The world is fascinating and quite different from your standard 'fantasy'. The use and concept of magic is also interesting.
Recommended!
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broad and ambitious fantasy
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-09-02
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a broad and ambitious fantasy, dealing with the fates of continents and gods, but the fact that it is so broad keeps it from being a real page-turner for me. In the previous book, A Secret Atlas, the characters traveled to widely scattered places, so by necessity this book switches back and forth between the threads of the plot, spending a bit of time on each. For this reason, the author's writing has a tendency to summarize a character's situation and their feelings about it, rather than showing us. While the characters have the potential to be interesting, I haven't become very attached to any of them.
The author has perhaps been inspired by Chinese epics such as Three Kingdoms, with Prince Pyrust as a clever yet unscrupulous character like Cao Cao, while Prince Cyron is the truly talented indivicual fated to fail, like Liu Bei. There are a few unforseen plot twists near the end, but it seems to take a while to get there. Lots of swordfights, so if that's your thing, add a star.
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