cover image In the Ice King's Palace

In the Ice King's Palace

A. Orr. Tor Books, $15.95 (170pp) ISBN 978-0-312-94226-7

On the world of Amber in the land of Phar-Tracil, the Sorcerer-Prince Isme expands on his newly realized magical powers. He no sooner becomes interested in astronomy than his natural, untrained talent whisks him off on a mental flight to distant stars. The young dreamer is awakened from such self-indulgence, however, when the rapidly rising sea level floods miles of coastline. Vowing to stop the cataclysm, he journeys north with only a thief as companion to the land of Glaciers, where he finds two sorcerer kings filling the endless days of their immortal exile with blasphemous experiments that have run wild. Drawing on The Arabian Nights, Arctic adventure stories and Little Nemo in Slumberland, this second volume in Orr's World of Amber series is, like the first, a light, charming confection, but one that never quite becomes compelling or inventive enough to interest non-fantasy fans. (November 3)