The Tears of Ishtar

A by-the-numbers quest narrative, Ehart's old-school sword and sorcery yarn set in ancient Assyria simmers with action but stumbles over flat characters and clunky dialogue. For over 400 years, Ninshi has been forced to serve her master—a man-eating, shape-shifting Manthycore—by finding and defeating warriors for it to devour. Sick of enslavement, she seeks the counsel of a wise man on the banks of the Euphrates. He tells her to find the crystallized tears of the goddess Ishtar and bring them together to defeat the Manthycore. While thrilling at the outset, Ninshi's ensuing quests through Gilgamesh's Mesopotamia resemble the repetitive levels of a video game, and most of her allies and enemies seem to be mere tracings of Joseph Campbell's archetypes. (May)