Titus Crow

With this third two-novel volume (after Titus Crow, Vol. One [Forecasts, Nov. 11, 1996] and Titus Crow, Vol. Two [Forecasts, June 9]), Lumley brings two interconnected fantasy series published as paperback originals over a decade ago to a thrill-packed conclusion. In the Moons of Borea sends Hank Silberhutte and Henri-Laurent de Marigny, both of whom have transmigrated from Earth to realms beyond space and time, on a mission to thwart the evil wind elemental Ithaqua. Elysia: The Coming of Chthulu reunites the duo with their mentor, psychic adept Titus Crow, for a final showdown with Cthulhu, the demigod who schemes eternally to overthrow the Earth. Aiding the good guys are David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer, swashbuckling rogues from the author's Hero of Dreams sword-and-sorcery saga. Both books, which take their cue from H.P. Lovecraft's dreamworld fantasies, are full-throttle quest adventures that challenge their hard-working heroes with increasingly bizarre labors before rewarding them with the love of fair heroines. Lumley shows his usual panache for pitting earthly protagonists against unearthly horrors and for inventing such outrageous life forms as a sentient cloud of interstellar gas, zombies that pilot galleons of the air and a cult of malevolent wizards frozen in blocks of ice. The over-the-top finales are as powerful as explosions in a special-effects factory and catapult Lumley's fiction into a category all its own. (Oct.)