cover image The Seer King

The Seer King

Chris Bunch. Aspect, $13.99 (528pp) ISBN 978-0-446-67282-5

With The Seer King, bestselling fantasy writer Bunch (coauthor with Allan Cole of the Anteros Trilogy) begins an entertaining new saga, tracing the bloody rise to power of the once great (now dead) wizard king Laish Tenedos. The engrossing tale of how a little-known seer with radical ideas comes to rule the troubled empire of Numantia is told through the eyes of likable Damastes a Cimabue, a courageous yet self-deprecating soldier. Damastes meets Tenedos on a treacherous assignment in the lawless border lands; he stays with him through all the deadly battles, deft political jockeying and spectacular spells that follow. Characterization is not Bunch's strong point; a trite expression ""of a puppy who's done something wrong and expects to be whipped"" is attributed with tiresome regularity to one of Damastes's lovers. Other characters whom one would like to know better are barely introduced, including the two ultimate villains. And glaringly modern dialogue (""Well, it's stupid and it's fucked!"") occasionally intrudes on what is otherwise an atmosphere of epic and otherworldly past. But Bunch knows how to mold heroes, how to keep the pace fast and how to create exciting scenes of battlefield mayhem and convincing webs of political intrigue. (Feb.)