Of the several new books acquired over the Holidays, I was most eager to read this one. It was finally published in November, almost a year late, as a result of a life threatening illness by the chief author, John Carr. This side tale, set in the Paratime world of Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Aryan Transpacific, Styphon's Houie subsector), which has roughly 30 Years War level military technology, is unique in that Kalvan makes almost no appearance whatsoever in its pages, although he continues to have a strong direct and indirect influence on events.
The novel is set after the events related in the Sequel, "Kalvan Kingmaker", and immediately before those of "The Siege of Tarr-Hostigos". It chronicles the events in the Kingdom of Bletha set in motion by King Kalvan of Hos-Hostigos sending his "Chief of Intelligence", the former horse thief Duke Skanga, and a promising but somewhat hot headed Colonel from the Royal Army, Democriphon, to Hos-Bletha to uinitiate a 5th column action designed to tie up the armed forces of Hos-Bletha so that the Kingdom will not be able to send its planned contribution to join the Grand Host of Styphon, being gathered to crush Kalvan once and for all. Starting with a small band of leaders and a few companies of soldiers, the activities of Kalvan's agents range from raids to con games to Robin Hood inspired woodland outlaws, to systematically plundering the corrupt temples of Styphon and using the gold gained to fund operations. Along the way some old secrets are uncovered that further destabilize the regime of Great King Niclophon.
I don't want to give away any of the many plot tuns in the book so I'll merely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While it lacks much in the way of battles that one might want to bring to the tabletop, there is plenty of fighting. This book was blast to read, and perhaps the closest in tone and style to the original Lord Kalvan of any of the sequels. I tore through its 650+ pages in less than a week! Highly recommended.
At present The Hos Blethan Affair is available only in the beautifully produced but expensive limited edition hardcover book form; all of John's other works are now available in reasonably priced kindle/epub forms, either direct from John or via Amazon. John's site even has the 1st edition version of Great King's War (the first sequel to the original Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper) available for free download.
Down Styphon!
Peter
The novel is set after the events related in the Sequel, "Kalvan Kingmaker", and immediately before those of "The Siege of Tarr-Hostigos". It chronicles the events in the Kingdom of Bletha set in motion by King Kalvan of Hos-Hostigos sending his "Chief of Intelligence", the former horse thief Duke Skanga, and a promising but somewhat hot headed Colonel from the Royal Army, Democriphon, to Hos-Bletha to uinitiate a 5th column action designed to tie up the armed forces of Hos-Bletha so that the Kingdom will not be able to send its planned contribution to join the Grand Host of Styphon, being gathered to crush Kalvan once and for all. Starting with a small band of leaders and a few companies of soldiers, the activities of Kalvan's agents range from raids to con games to Robin Hood inspired woodland outlaws, to systematically plundering the corrupt temples of Styphon and using the gold gained to fund operations. Along the way some old secrets are uncovered that further destabilize the regime of Great King Niclophon.
I don't want to give away any of the many plot tuns in the book so I'll merely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While it lacks much in the way of battles that one might want to bring to the tabletop, there is plenty of fighting. This book was blast to read, and perhaps the closest in tone and style to the original Lord Kalvan of any of the sequels. I tore through its 650+ pages in less than a week! Highly recommended.
At present The Hos Blethan Affair is available only in the beautifully produced but expensive limited edition hardcover book form; all of John's other works are now available in reasonably priced kindle/epub forms, either direct from John or via Amazon. John's site even has the 1st edition version of Great King's War (the first sequel to the original Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper) available for free download.
Down Styphon!
Peter
Well, time for another Kalvan based battle?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this Fall, can't see it any sooner than that. Still, I'd definitely be up for it!
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ReplyDeleteI meant to say "I've enjoyed the Kalvan series very much myself!"
DeleteAgreed. I've always enjoyed "alternate history
Delete" type fiction, and Kalvan is sort of a twist on that idea.
Glad you enjoyed it. I just started reading a novel myself, Napoleon in America. Talk about alternate history.
ReplyDeleteNot the first time for the premise... is that the title, Mike?
DeleteIt is. The author is Shannon Selin.
DeleteThanks, Mike. It looks well worth a read!
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