Tuesday 19 August 2014

Book Review - The City Beyond The Sands - By Michael K. Rose

On an Earth that is not Earth people and societies from our history have been kidnapped and thrown together for reasons unknown. It could be natural, it could be by design, the only thing Will Kelly knows for sure is that he wants to find a way home to 2014 and the son he left behind.

In this action packed novel there is friendship, sword fights, horses, camels, sea chases, ape men, neanderthals, bat creatures, a mysterious city, desert, mongols, savage tribesman and more.

As the author states it is written in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard, although the style is much more modern and reader friendly. In a way it reminds me of the black and white chapter plays I used to see during the holidays, with excitement and peril at every turn. It is full of ideas and a constant movement through a detailed patchwork world where the protagonists constantly encounter new people, cultures and strange creatures.

The story is written as a series of short sharp chapters that keep you reading and in a way it is the story itself is the main character of the book, fleshing out a world that is surprising, exotic and, above all, deadly. The novel ends on a cliffhanger, and I for one, am very interested in finding out what happens next...