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Poisoner #2
Master of Fiends
Relates the further adventures of twelve-year-old Jarral and three friends with strong psychic talents as they battle demons to rescue a wizard imprisoned in the faraway palace of the Unnamed Enemy
160 pages, Hardcover
First published November 26, 1987
3 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Arthur Hill
81 books33 followersDouglas Arthur Hill (6 April 1935 – 21 June 2007) was a Canadian science fiction author, editor and reviewer. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of a railroad engineer, and was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. An avid science fiction reader from an early age, he studied English at the University of Saskatchewan (where he earned an Honours B.A. in 1957) and at the University of Toronto. He married fellow writer and U. of S. alumna Gail Robinson in 1958; they moved to Britain in 1959, where he worked as a freelance writer and editor for Aldus Books. In 1967–1968 he served as Assistant Editor of the controversial New Worlds science fiction magazine under Michael Moorcock.
A lifetime leftist, he served from 1971 to 1984 as the Literary Editor of the socialist weekly Tribune (a position once held by George Orwell), where he regularly reviewed science fiction despite the continued refusal of the literary world to take it seriously. Before starting to write fiction in 1978, he wrote many books on history, science and folklore. Using the pseudonym Martin Hillman, he also worked as an editor of several anthologies, among them Window on the Future (1966), The Shape of Sex to Come (1978), Out of Time (1984), and Hidden Turnings (1988). He is probably best known for The Last Legionary quartet of novels, supposedly produced as the result of a challenge by a publisher to Hill's complaints about the lack of good science fiction for younger readers.
Hill and his wife had one child, a son. They were divorced in 1978. He lived in Wood Green, London, and died in London after being struck by a bus at a zebra crossing. His death occurred one day after he completed his last trilogy, Demon Stalkers.
A lifetime leftist, he served from 1971 to 1984 as the Literary Editor of the socialist weekly Tribune (a position once held by George Orwell), where he regularly reviewed science fiction despite the continued refusal of the literary world to take it seriously. Before starting to write fiction in 1978, he wrote many books on history, science and folklore. Using the pseudonym Martin Hillman, he also worked as an editor of several anthologies, among them Window on the Future (1966), The Shape of Sex to Come (1978), Out of Time (1984), and Hidden Turnings (1988). He is probably best known for The Last Legionary quartet of novels, supposedly produced as the result of a challenge by a publisher to Hill's complaints about the lack of good science fiction for younger readers.
Hill and his wife had one child, a son. They were divorced in 1978. He lived in Wood Green, London, and died in London after being struck by a bus at a zebra crossing. His death occurred one day after he completed his last trilogy, Demon Stalkers.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 30, 2007
I really loved the Douglas Hill children's books as a kid. They all had oppressed or abnormal children becoming heroes and world savers. They never had a easy time, and there was much angst. I went through a spree of reacquiring some of the books recently, mostly as comfort reading, and it's been an interesting experience, revisiting them with adult eyes.
The main thing that leaps out is the rampant overuse of italics to emphasise things that don't really need it. Take out all the italics and the story emphasis still falls the way he wants it mostly -- and sometimes I just didn't agree with what he was emphasising, and wanted to push my own, often more angsty interpretation.
Master of Fiends is the second book in a set I always felt was waiting for a third to complete it. Re-reading only confirms my opinion because while the adventure was completed, the emotional journeys were all left dangling, quite explicitly so.
It's not an uncommon thing in books, but I do wonder how well it will stand the vagaries of time. This set? Possibly not well.
The main thing that leaps out is the rampant overuse of italics to emphasise things that don't really need it. Take out all the italics and the story emphasis still falls the way he wants it mostly -- and sometimes I just didn't agree with what he was emphasising, and wanted to push my own, often more angsty interpretation.
Master of Fiends is the second book in a set I always felt was waiting for a third to complete it. Re-reading only confirms my opinion because while the adventure was completed, the emotional journeys were all left dangling, quite explicitly so.
It's not an uncommon thing in books, but I do wonder how well it will stand the vagaries of time. This set? Possibly not well.
September 8, 2007
These are very simple stories but are nostalgic for me...apparently they are out of print now but I managed to grab both of them on the net...re-read them recently and they did make me smile...obviouly they didnt have the same impact as they did when I was twelve but I still enjoyed them...
October 29, 2014
Remember how a while back I posted a review on Blade of the Poisoner? This is the sequel! Jarral and company are back, this time pressing into the heart of the Enemy's kingdom to rescue the wizard Cryl, who was kidnapped by demons at the end of the first book. They have little hope of surviving, let alone succeeding, but they are determined to give it their best. Which is a nice way of saying the ending is inevitable.
So, given that the first book was such a steaming pile, is the second one any better? Surprisingly, yes. Not by much, though. The four divert their journey to a cave found by Cryl when demons ambush them near the mountains. Cryl has put a cave in the back, which leads to an underground passageway through the mountains. It's really easy to see where the plot is going from there... they meet the shadow guy, get enslaved, befriend the noble savages (which dutifully die to repay their loyalty), kill the shadow guy, slip into the heart of the Enemy's fortress.... really, the only reason I think this one is slightly better than the last is because Jarral doesn't single-handedly take down the demons again. The plot is very easy to predict, save for exactly how the big bad demon lord goes down. That was a nice surprise.
Character is thin and relies almost completely on the reader remembering the previous book. Who the characters are, their motives, and so on are never spelled out. The villains are evil simply because they're ugly demons, and the two humans involved in the mess don't have any clear motivation either. Everyone is one-dimensional; there's no room for complexities of character. Even the names of the bad guys are laughable.
On a completely unrelated note, this book an evil crystal castle. *cackles* That was funny. I don't think I was supposed to be rooting for the crystal palace, but by golly, its destruction was the only thing that made me really sad by the end. It was the one note of real originality in the book, and although it got a lot of page time, it could have done a lot more.
Overall, I picked the book up for laughs, and I don't expect anyone else to do anything more. It's hard to get involved with the characters or their struggles---nobody, for instance, even mentioned what they liked about the guy they've risked everything to rescue. It is better than the first book, but not by enough to make it worthwhile. Not Recommended.
So, given that the first book was such a steaming pile, is the second one any better? Surprisingly, yes. Not by much, though. The four divert their journey to a cave found by Cryl when demons ambush them near the mountains. Cryl has put a cave in the back, which leads to an underground passageway through the mountains. It's really easy to see where the plot is going from there... they meet the shadow guy, get enslaved, befriend the noble savages (which dutifully die to repay their loyalty), kill the shadow guy, slip into the heart of the Enemy's fortress.... really, the only reason I think this one is slightly better than the last is because Jarral doesn't single-handedly take down the demons again. The plot is very easy to predict, save for exactly how the big bad demon lord goes down. That was a nice surprise.
Character is thin and relies almost completely on the reader remembering the previous book. Who the characters are, their motives, and so on are never spelled out. The villains are evil simply because they're ugly demons, and the two humans involved in the mess don't have any clear motivation either. Everyone is one-dimensional; there's no room for complexities of character. Even the names of the bad guys are laughable.
On a completely unrelated note, this book an evil crystal castle. *cackles* That was funny. I don't think I was supposed to be rooting for the crystal palace, but by golly, its destruction was the only thing that made me really sad by the end. It was the one note of real originality in the book, and although it got a lot of page time, it could have done a lot more.
Overall, I picked the book up for laughs, and I don't expect anyone else to do anything more. It's hard to get involved with the characters or their struggles---nobody, for instance, even mentioned what they liked about the guy they've risked everything to rescue. It is better than the first book, but not by enough to make it worthwhile. Not Recommended.
May 9, 2010
It was sufficient when I was a kid.
August 7, 2011
When I was ten, this was one of the best books ever - up there with the Black Cauldron books. I think it had a pretty depressing ending though. Will have to track it down and reread.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews