Chimera
The Well of Echoes Vol 4
Ian Irving
Penguin
Trade paperback, R150
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson, 9 March 2005
The Scrutator, Xervish Flydd, and all his allies except one had been
defeated and were now held prisoner by the brutal Chief Scrutator, Ghorr. But
the free man, Nish, had problems of his own; he was trapped on the roof of a
burning building, hunted by his enemies, and his own power was nowhere near
that of his enemies.
Of course he does manage to escape, rescue his friends (although not
before Flydd had been castrated) and get to temporary safety, mostly by
good luck rather than good judgement.
This is the first in a series of obstacles that the friends manage to
somewhat miraculously to overcome and it does make the book more readable than
the previous one - each story can be read separately, although it really is a
necessity to have read the previous book to fully understand what is going on.
This book is number four in a quartet so I would have expected it to end
there but it does not.
It states: The End of The Well of Echoes:
Nish's tale continues in The Song of the Tears.
I was not happy with that. The book reminded me of the old Saturday
morning matinees at the cinema, where each week the hero was left hanging in
a "dangerous" situation. I have grown up since then and frankly this book is
just not worth it.
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