Star Ascendant

Star Shadow #1

by Louise Cooper

Benetan, captain of the Chaos riders, serves his masters, the magi of the Star Peninsula, who captured him years before. When the cruel Vordegh is elected First Magus and makes clear his obseessive campaign to stamp out the heretics of Order, Benetan is faced with a choice. Will his loyalty lie with the gods of Chaos, or with his beloved Iselia?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

414 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Louise Cooper was born in Hertfordshire in 1952. She began writing stories when she was at school to entertain her friends. She hated school so much, in fact—spending most lessons clandestinely writing stories—that she persuaded her parents to let her abandon her education at the age of fifteen and has never regretted it.

She continued to write and her first full-length novel was published when she was only twenty years old. She moved to London in 1975 and worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer in 1977. Since then she has become a prolific writer of fantasy, renowned for her bestselling Time Master trilogy. She has published more than eighty fantasy and supernatural novels, both for adults and children. She also wrote occasional short stories for anthologies, and has co-written a comedy play that was produced for her local school.

Louise Cooper lived in Cornwall with her husband, Cas Sandall, and their black cat, Simba. She gained a great deal of writing inspiration from the coast and scenery, and her other interests included music, folklore, cooking, gardening and "messing about on the beach." Just to make sure she keeps busy, she was also treasurer of her local Lifeboat station.

Louise passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. She was a wonderful and talented lady and will be greatly missed.

Reviews

[Balefire398 · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pity. This had a lot of potential, story wise. But it was too dark and had too much sexual material. Not my read.

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This, along with Moonset and Eclipse, form Cooper's 'Star Shadow' trilogy, a prequel to her 'Time Master' trilogy, which is one of my old favorites...
Heavily influenced by Michael Moorcock (in my opinion.. but as a matter of fact, Moorcock had this to say: "Never has the battle of Order and Chaos been better recorded than in Louise Cooper's fantasies ... One of our finest writers of epic fantasy"), these stories chronicle the conflict between the powers of Order and Chaos, and the human pawns caught on either side...

I still think the Time Master trilogy is the best, but these were quite enjoyable. These three cover the decline and fall of Chaos on earth, due to disorganized and megalomaniac human leaders and the disinterested non-interference of their gods, the Chaos lords. The cruelty and insanity of the leaders of Chaos spawns a pro-Order peasant rebellion, but the individuals caught on both sides are neither wholly good nor evil, though each tends to be convinced that those on the other side are evil's purest essence...

Lots of complicated relationships and shifting allegiances... Cooper tries to show us multiple facets of each point of view, but I still suspect that her personal sympathies lie with Chaos!