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Hiero #2
The Unforsaken Hiero
Per Hiero Desteen was alone, weaponless and without food or water, facing the unknown perils of the desert in this grim world, five thousand years after the holocaust known as The Death.
Sent south to spy on the evil Brotherhood of the Unclean which fought to destroy the emerging civilization of the north, he had been welcomed as the son in law of the King of D'alway. Welcomed, honored -- and betrayed! Now his wife and all he loved were lost. And the mental powers which had enabled him to defeat every previous trick of the Unclean had been burned from his mind by drugs.
North, his numbed mind told him! North, where he might find help. But without his lost powers, he could not suspect the command was a subtle, cunning lure. Somewhere ahead, a creature that should not have existed was calling him to a meeting he could not imagine.
Sent south to spy on the evil Brotherhood of the Unclean which fought to destroy the emerging civilization of the north, he had been welcomed as the son in law of the King of D'alway. Welcomed, honored -- and betrayed! Now his wife and all he loved were lost. And the mental powers which had enabled him to defeat every previous trick of the Unclean had been burned from his mind by drugs.
North, his numbed mind told him! North, where he might find help. But without his lost powers, he could not suspect the command was a subtle, cunning lure. Somewhere ahead, a creature that should not have existed was calling him to a meeting he could not imagine.
247 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
17 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
About the author
Sterling E. Lanier
46 books35 followersSterling Edmund Lanier was an American editor, science fiction author and sculptor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterlin...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterlin...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
July 4, 2024
The Unforsaken Hiero is a sequel to Hiero's Journey, but it was intended to be the second book of a trilogy which regrettably was never completed, so it's a little disappointing in that you know some of the dangling plot threads will never be tied-up. Hiero's world is the most clever and complex and compelling post-apocalyptic setting since Miller's land of Leibowitz. His characters are engaging and interesting, whether they be human, moose, or snail, and they move through a world of dangerous political and religious factions, as if the whole apocalypse thing wasn't enough to deal with. Lanier is one of the overlooked greats in the history of the sf field. He was the editor at Chilton Books who purchased Frank Herbert's Dune (after twenty other publishers had rejected it) and was soon fired because it sold poorly and was expensive to produce. He was also an accomplished author, and the fact that Hiero's story was never completed is one of tragedies of the genre.
December 10, 2018
OK bad spoiler here. This was supposed to be a trilogy but the 3rd book never got written. This really sucks because this series is AWESOME! They are listed as being books that influenced the creation of D&D but they are spot on books that are in the Gamma World game setting. Fantastic read. My highest recommendation
March 10, 2010
This is not my favorite book, but it is a sequel to my favorite book.
Look at the cover and you'll see that my boy Hiero meets a big snail in this one. Awesome.
Also, there's plenty of moose action.
The thing is, though, is there's not a third book, and this one ends on a cliffhanger, so proceed at your own risk, or be ready to write me up some fanfic some I CAN FINALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
Look at the cover and you'll see that my boy Hiero meets a big snail in this one. Awesome.
Also, there's plenty of moose action.
The thing is, though, is there's not a third book, and this one ends on a cliffhanger, so proceed at your own risk, or be ready to write me up some fanfic some I CAN FINALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
March 5, 2022
I did say with the last book that it felt like it was missing its final arc... well, here it is. And then here it feels like the second part of a trilogy, and by the looks of it, that final part never got written. That's a bummer: I rather liked the story and felt like it ended on a low note.
Plenty of dramatic potential lost, too. Several key points set up and then wasted. Hiero lost his power for a short while, but then got it all back without much of a fuss... except for the most powerful bit, setting up a climactic miraculous recovery where he could have restored it to save the day, only he never did. The enemy thought him dead - or at least depowered - which could have been used for all manner of awesome and hilarious shenanigans, only to learn about it on their own. The main villain, perfectly set up as a hated nemesis that we would want dead, just sort of got killed off-screen. And Luchare doesn't get to do much at all save off-screen, plays no part in the climax, and his and Hiero's much-awaited reunion never pans out. His reunion with his mount at least is pretty great.
And with the lack of his best mental powers, we missed out on the best psychic stuff as well. All too many people held shields, too.
All in all I was left wanting. I wished to like this as much or more than the first part - and at many points I did - but it just couldn't keep it up.
Plenty of dramatic potential lost, too. Several key points set up and then wasted. Hiero lost his power for a short while, but then got it all back without much of a fuss... except for the most powerful bit, setting up a climactic miraculous recovery where he could have restored it to save the day, only he never did. The enemy thought him dead - or at least depowered - which could have been used for all manner of awesome and hilarious shenanigans, only to learn about it on their own. The main villain, perfectly set up as a hated nemesis that we would want dead, just sort of got killed off-screen. And Luchare doesn't get to do much at all save off-screen, plays no part in the climax, and his and Hiero's much-awaited reunion never pans out. His reunion with his mount at least is pretty great.
And with the lack of his best mental powers, we missed out on the best psychic stuff as well. All too many people held shields, too.
All in all I was left wanting. I wished to like this as much or more than the first part - and at many points I did - but it just couldn't keep it up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 21, 2008
I have a hardback that collects this book and the first in the series, "Hiero's Journey." The first one is much better than the second one, but that doesn't mean the second isn't good. I also enjoyed it quite a bit, but there are not as many neat turns to it. Still, well worth a read so you can revisit the hero Hiero.
August 16, 2019
It was a long journey reading this book, but I've finally did it! I really liked adventure filled book. By no means was it boring.
September 3, 2019
Though perhaps less strikingly weird than the first book, the sequel moves at a solid, engaging clip. And don’t get me wrong, it’s still a weird tale of post-apocalyptic fantasy; it’s just that by now some of the world is already more familiar to the reader.
That the trilogy was never completed is a true loss.
That the trilogy was never completed is a true loss.
March 20, 2025
While I had hoped that in this second volume Lanier might take better advantage of the setting he had created in Hiero's Journey, I was disappointed. Unfortunately, The Unforsaken Hiero was not any great improvement. While it was more polished in a technical sense, I found it much less enjoyable. Though the plot is premised on the idea of betrayal and Hiero losing his powers, Lanier undermines these in the way he handles them, so there is rarely any compelling tension. The majority of the book was a dull slog, with a few new creatures incapable of adding enough to make it truly interesting. Note that there may be spoilers throughout this review.
The beginning shows us Hiero in his new role as prince of D'alwah, a place we are reminded is infiltrated by agents of the Unclean. Then we are hastily introduced to a few new characters, and it's fairly obvious who will end up being the betrayer. When the betrayal happens, there is no surprise, but worse than that, there is no actual sense of betrayal, since these are new characters that we know almost nothing about, and we have not spent any time with them, establishing any relationship with Hiero that could lend the betrayal any emotional weight.
Hiero is then stripped of his powers by a drug, and he overhears his captors discussing their plan to send him far away before killing him, so that there is no chance that Luchare might mentally sense his death. However, on the way, the group is apparently ambushed by raiders, an event that is not even described, as Hiero was unconscious. Hiero only survives because his body is buried underneath the carcass of the beast he had been mounted upon, and the raiders were apparently too hasty to look there even though they stripped all the other bodies of anything useful.
Thus, we are already off to a shaky start, with a betrayal that has no bite and an escape due entirely to dumb luck. Still, Hiero's predicament is severe enough to spark some interest in seeing how he might get out of it, and so these early chapters flow relatively easily. But there is more mishandling to come.
After wandering in the wilderness, surviving on his mundane skills alone, he is pulled subconsciously towards some mysterious hills, while also sensing that something is following him. It's fairly predictable that the latter will end up being a friend rather than a foe, and sure enough it is his loyal riding beast, the hopper (kangaroo) Segi, sent with his gear and a note from Luchare.
Overjoyed, he continues following the subconscious call into the hills, where he meets an ancient and huge mutant snail, who apparently called him just to have someone to talk to. The snail eats Segi, which initially enrages Hiero, but it ends up being OK, because Hiero can tell from the mind-speech the snail uses with him that the snail didn't understand why this would be wrong. The snail then expresses a desire to help Hiero, and luckily enough, it has the power to restore Hiero's mental powers. They become best friends, and Hiero continues on his journey to get back to Metz with the blessing of the snail, who can appreciate the importance of his mission even though it was too clueless to realize it shouldn't have eaten his beloved Segi.
In this way, the second main plot hook of the story has been completely resolved by a run of the mill deus ex machina less than halfway through. The snail plays no further role, and is just inserted as a way to get Hiero's powers back, and to awe us a little with a new amazing mutant. It is suggested that perhaps Hiero hasn't quite recovered the full extent of the powers he had before, but this has no significance for the remainder of the story. In fact, there is so much mind shielding used in this book that the mental battles which featured so prominently in the first volume are largely absent anyway.
From then on the story becomes increasingly boring, as Hiero simply marches back to Metz with little in the way of true narrative opposition. The cat-people are introduced as a mysterious threat, but he befriends them so easily it is quite anti-climactic. It would have been far more interesting if he had fought with them more and struggled to earn their trust, but as with all the other allies he finds, a little mind-speech is all it ever takes for them to understand that he's a good guy and to make them want to help him. The cat-people send him off with four of their kind, and they are such powerful fighters that they help him easily overcome any challenges in the way.
This brings me to a more general problem that runs throughout this book, and that I have come to recognize as a symptom of amateurish writing: constant assertions of how competent everyone is. It is somewhat better with the cat-people, who are at least shown in action enough to justify the claims, but other characters are merely declared to be the best at various things in a way that is supposed to engage the reader's admiration, without illustrating that skill in any meaningful way. Although I often feel the "show, don't tell" rule is overemphasized by people giving writing advice (after all, if you're using words, then in a way, you're always telling), Lanier's writing is a good example of an actual violation of the spirit of this rule.
Hiero's old friend Maluin's battle prowess is mentioned constantly while rarely actually seeing him in action. Later, a new priest, Sagenay, is introduced, and Hiero must immediately sense what a great leader he is going to be, and Demero gushes that he can draw as many as twelve of the Forty Symbols at once (double what most others can achieve). Hiero is astounded, and so are we supposed to be, yet this character never even uses the Forty Symbols in the story! So what's the point? I don't want to just hear about a character's impressive abilities, I want to see them.
Even when a supposed weak point is mentioned, it is often contradicted in the action, sometimes intentionally, I think, sometimes not. For example, we are given the impression that Sagenay's strengths are primarily mental and that he might not be such a good fighter, but in the final battle, it turns out he's a crack shot with a bow. I believe that was intentional, as Lanier clearly wants us to be impressed with him. (His mental powers, by the way are not used in the battle at all, which make this all the more ridiculous). Another example is that the cat-people are described as not having good noses at all, yet later they are able to sense that they are near water because it smells clean to them. I think that was just a gaffe due to Lanier not really wanting to short them in any competency. He just enjoyed making all his characters super-powered too much.
From the time he allies with the cat-people until the end, the story becomes more and more tedious, because it amounts to nothing more than Hiero racking up predictable victories. The end battle, in which he is made a general, contains more cringey writing where Hiero begins noticing how much everyone else admires him and is treating him like a savior. He even meets two officers of higher rank, and is nervous that they might resent him being put in command of them, but no, they just smile reassuringly and tell him how great and competent he is. Some internal strife in the Abbey ranks could have added a great deal of interest to the plot, but Lanier prefers to just constantly remind us of how wonderful his protagonist is.
The final battle is excruciatingly boring, with an attempt to describe tactical movements that fails to make any of it very interesting. Again, everyone is great at everything they do, so we never have to worry about the outcome. I was very tempted by this point to just give up and not even finish the book, but since I only had about thirty pages to go, I powered through. The good guys pretty much dominate the Unclean forces with no setbacks. Then we come to what is perhaps the most bizarre narrative choice by Lanier, in which he again undermines the architecture of his own plot.
Since the first volume, Hiero's Journey, the main antagonist was established as S'duna, the leader of the Blue Circle of the Unclean, and we are reminded of that several times in this volume, especially near the end, when Hiero is anticipating S'duna's appearance in the final battle. So, what happens in the end? Does S'duna loose some horrible new weapon of the Unclean to wreak havoc, prompting Hiero to strain all his abilities to find a way to counteract it? Is there a dramatic final showdown in which these arch-enemies pit all their resources against each other?
Nope. In fact, S'duna's demise happens entirely off camera. Gorm arrives with an army of bears when the battle is over and they roll S'duna's severed head down in front of Hiero. That's it.
I absolutely cannot comprehend what Lanier was thinking with this ending, and why an editor or someone else didn't steer him away from it. It's laughable how much of a let down it is and how much it contradicts the expectations Lanier wrote into his own story. It comes off almost as if he was just too eager to wrap everything up and couldn't bother himself to try to think up an interesting way to depict S'duna's demise. Considering that the ending is clearly set up for a third volume to follow, it would have made much more sense to simply leave S'duna alive, keeping the tension going into the next book, rather than kill him in this way.
While the freshness and novelty of the setting and the characters were able to make Hiero's Jouney entertaining despite it's flaws, in The Unforsaken Hiero the novelty has largely worn off, and even though Lanier's writing is a little less rough, and the plot a little less simplistic, it's ultimately not a very good story. It's tiresome to constantly read assertions of how awesome the characters are, and boring when you then know that they'll easily overcome all challenges they face. Ultimately, I felt the book was a waste of time and I regret reading it. I should have listened to my instincts and quit earlier.
The beginning shows us Hiero in his new role as prince of D'alwah, a place we are reminded is infiltrated by agents of the Unclean. Then we are hastily introduced to a few new characters, and it's fairly obvious who will end up being the betrayer. When the betrayal happens, there is no surprise, but worse than that, there is no actual sense of betrayal, since these are new characters that we know almost nothing about, and we have not spent any time with them, establishing any relationship with Hiero that could lend the betrayal any emotional weight.
Hiero is then stripped of his powers by a drug, and he overhears his captors discussing their plan to send him far away before killing him, so that there is no chance that Luchare might mentally sense his death. However, on the way, the group is apparently ambushed by raiders, an event that is not even described, as Hiero was unconscious. Hiero only survives because his body is buried underneath the carcass of the beast he had been mounted upon, and the raiders were apparently too hasty to look there even though they stripped all the other bodies of anything useful.
Thus, we are already off to a shaky start, with a betrayal that has no bite and an escape due entirely to dumb luck. Still, Hiero's predicament is severe enough to spark some interest in seeing how he might get out of it, and so these early chapters flow relatively easily. But there is more mishandling to come.
After wandering in the wilderness, surviving on his mundane skills alone, he is pulled subconsciously towards some mysterious hills, while also sensing that something is following him. It's fairly predictable that the latter will end up being a friend rather than a foe, and sure enough it is his loyal riding beast, the hopper (kangaroo) Segi, sent with his gear and a note from Luchare.
Overjoyed, he continues following the subconscious call into the hills, where he meets an ancient and huge mutant snail, who apparently called him just to have someone to talk to. The snail eats Segi, which initially enrages Hiero, but it ends up being OK, because Hiero can tell from the mind-speech the snail uses with him that the snail didn't understand why this would be wrong. The snail then expresses a desire to help Hiero, and luckily enough, it has the power to restore Hiero's mental powers. They become best friends, and Hiero continues on his journey to get back to Metz with the blessing of the snail, who can appreciate the importance of his mission even though it was too clueless to realize it shouldn't have eaten his beloved Segi.
In this way, the second main plot hook of the story has been completely resolved by a run of the mill deus ex machina less than halfway through. The snail plays no further role, and is just inserted as a way to get Hiero's powers back, and to awe us a little with a new amazing mutant. It is suggested that perhaps Hiero hasn't quite recovered the full extent of the powers he had before, but this has no significance for the remainder of the story. In fact, there is so much mind shielding used in this book that the mental battles which featured so prominently in the first volume are largely absent anyway.
From then on the story becomes increasingly boring, as Hiero simply marches back to Metz with little in the way of true narrative opposition. The cat-people are introduced as a mysterious threat, but he befriends them so easily it is quite anti-climactic. It would have been far more interesting if he had fought with them more and struggled to earn their trust, but as with all the other allies he finds, a little mind-speech is all it ever takes for them to understand that he's a good guy and to make them want to help him. The cat-people send him off with four of their kind, and they are such powerful fighters that they help him easily overcome any challenges in the way.
This brings me to a more general problem that runs throughout this book, and that I have come to recognize as a symptom of amateurish writing: constant assertions of how competent everyone is. It is somewhat better with the cat-people, who are at least shown in action enough to justify the claims, but other characters are merely declared to be the best at various things in a way that is supposed to engage the reader's admiration, without illustrating that skill in any meaningful way. Although I often feel the "show, don't tell" rule is overemphasized by people giving writing advice (after all, if you're using words, then in a way, you're always telling), Lanier's writing is a good example of an actual violation of the spirit of this rule.
Hiero's old friend Maluin's battle prowess is mentioned constantly while rarely actually seeing him in action. Later, a new priest, Sagenay, is introduced, and Hiero must immediately sense what a great leader he is going to be, and Demero gushes that he can draw as many as twelve of the Forty Symbols at once (double what most others can achieve). Hiero is astounded, and so are we supposed to be, yet this character never even uses the Forty Symbols in the story! So what's the point? I don't want to just hear about a character's impressive abilities, I want to see them.
Even when a supposed weak point is mentioned, it is often contradicted in the action, sometimes intentionally, I think, sometimes not. For example, we are given the impression that Sagenay's strengths are primarily mental and that he might not be such a good fighter, but in the final battle, it turns out he's a crack shot with a bow. I believe that was intentional, as Lanier clearly wants us to be impressed with him. (His mental powers, by the way are not used in the battle at all, which make this all the more ridiculous). Another example is that the cat-people are described as not having good noses at all, yet later they are able to sense that they are near water because it smells clean to them. I think that was just a gaffe due to Lanier not really wanting to short them in any competency. He just enjoyed making all his characters super-powered too much.
From the time he allies with the cat-people until the end, the story becomes more and more tedious, because it amounts to nothing more than Hiero racking up predictable victories. The end battle, in which he is made a general, contains more cringey writing where Hiero begins noticing how much everyone else admires him and is treating him like a savior. He even meets two officers of higher rank, and is nervous that they might resent him being put in command of them, but no, they just smile reassuringly and tell him how great and competent he is. Some internal strife in the Abbey ranks could have added a great deal of interest to the plot, but Lanier prefers to just constantly remind us of how wonderful his protagonist is.
The final battle is excruciatingly boring, with an attempt to describe tactical movements that fails to make any of it very interesting. Again, everyone is great at everything they do, so we never have to worry about the outcome. I was very tempted by this point to just give up and not even finish the book, but since I only had about thirty pages to go, I powered through. The good guys pretty much dominate the Unclean forces with no setbacks. Then we come to what is perhaps the most bizarre narrative choice by Lanier, in which he again undermines the architecture of his own plot.
Since the first volume, Hiero's Journey, the main antagonist was established as S'duna, the leader of the Blue Circle of the Unclean, and we are reminded of that several times in this volume, especially near the end, when Hiero is anticipating S'duna's appearance in the final battle. So, what happens in the end? Does S'duna loose some horrible new weapon of the Unclean to wreak havoc, prompting Hiero to strain all his abilities to find a way to counteract it? Is there a dramatic final showdown in which these arch-enemies pit all their resources against each other?
Nope. In fact, S'duna's demise happens entirely off camera. Gorm arrives with an army of bears when the battle is over and they roll S'duna's severed head down in front of Hiero. That's it.
I absolutely cannot comprehend what Lanier was thinking with this ending, and why an editor or someone else didn't steer him away from it. It's laughable how much of a let down it is and how much it contradicts the expectations Lanier wrote into his own story. It comes off almost as if he was just too eager to wrap everything up and couldn't bother himself to try to think up an interesting way to depict S'duna's demise. Considering that the ending is clearly set up for a third volume to follow, it would have made much more sense to simply leave S'duna alive, keeping the tension going into the next book, rather than kill him in this way.
While the freshness and novelty of the setting and the characters were able to make Hiero's Jouney entertaining despite it's flaws, in The Unforsaken Hiero the novelty has largely worn off, and even though Lanier's writing is a little less rough, and the plot a little less simplistic, it's ultimately not a very good story. It's tiresome to constantly read assertions of how awesome the characters are, and boring when you then know that they'll easily overcome all challenges they face. Ultimately, I felt the book was a waste of time and I regret reading it. I should have listened to my instincts and quit earlier.
December 22, 2014
Alas, The Unforsaken Hiero by Sterling E. Lanier is the second and last installment of the series that began with Hiero’s Journey. Picking up where the first novel left off, Hiero takes his new lady friend, Princess Luchare, and his Bull Morse companion, Klootz, to her home city of D’alwah where he’s feted by Luchare’s royal family.
Things are looking pretty darn good until the Unclean carry out a sinister plan that nullifies the powerful telepathic powers of their greatest enemy. Alone and wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the former United States, Hiero must rely on his rudimentary wilderness survival skills, lest he be waylaid by all manner of mutated flora and fauna. Fortunate for Hiero, a most unlikely benefactor heals many—but not all—of his mental injuries. Hiero sets off again forging new alliances along the way and setting the stage for the mother of all battles with the Unclean.
I know…I know…the storyline sounds a bit hackneyed, but like the first book in this series, it’s an excellent read. Although Mr. Lanier’s works may not rise to the snobbish literary tastes of my high school and college English teachers, to heck with ’em. I really enjoy the descriptions of post-apocalyptic North America and new sentient beings emerging from the aftermath of a long ago nuclear war. It seems the best sci-fi and fantasy books were written during the Cold War era.
Anyhow, The Unforsaken Hiero is a must read for sci-fi\fantasy aficionados. Regrettably, this particular story left off with some unresolved story elements, including the parting of Hiero and his love, Luchare, who experienced her own adventures during the story’s telling. Alas, Mr. Lanier passed away in 2007, so it’s unlikely his fans will ever know what happened beyond this tale.
Regardless, I’m glad to have had Hiero’s Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero in my modest collection of tomes, especially my autographed copy of The Unforsaken Hiero, even though it was dedicated to some dude named George McDulay. Why in the heck George allowed his personal copy of this classic novel to be sold to me on eBay, I’ll never know…
Things are looking pretty darn good until the Unclean carry out a sinister plan that nullifies the powerful telepathic powers of their greatest enemy. Alone and wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the former United States, Hiero must rely on his rudimentary wilderness survival skills, lest he be waylaid by all manner of mutated flora and fauna. Fortunate for Hiero, a most unlikely benefactor heals many—but not all—of his mental injuries. Hiero sets off again forging new alliances along the way and setting the stage for the mother of all battles with the Unclean.
I know…I know…the storyline sounds a bit hackneyed, but like the first book in this series, it’s an excellent read. Although Mr. Lanier’s works may not rise to the snobbish literary tastes of my high school and college English teachers, to heck with ’em. I really enjoy the descriptions of post-apocalyptic North America and new sentient beings emerging from the aftermath of a long ago nuclear war. It seems the best sci-fi and fantasy books were written during the Cold War era.
Anyhow, The Unforsaken Hiero is a must read for sci-fi\fantasy aficionados. Regrettably, this particular story left off with some unresolved story elements, including the parting of Hiero and his love, Luchare, who experienced her own adventures during the story’s telling. Alas, Mr. Lanier passed away in 2007, so it’s unlikely his fans will ever know what happened beyond this tale.
Regardless, I’m glad to have had Hiero’s Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero in my modest collection of tomes, especially my autographed copy of The Unforsaken Hiero, even though it was dedicated to some dude named George McDulay. Why in the heck George allowed his personal copy of this classic novel to be sold to me on eBay, I’ll never know…
September 12, 2012
Word of warning: This book ends with, well, not a cliffhanger per se but with major plot threads dangling -- it's obvious that Per Hiero Desteen's story was supposed to run on for at least one more book. Ah, well.
Again Hiero is making his way across the war-scarred ruins of what used to be North America. He visits different areas this time, including our first glimpse of a relatively large & civilized realm; and the forces that schemed from the shadows in Hiero's Journey march openly to war.
Old friends reappear (although they don't have as much time onstage as might have been preferred) and new wonders & terrors await. Again probably closer to a 3.5-3.75 than a 4, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.
Again Hiero is making his way across the war-scarred ruins of what used to be North America. He visits different areas this time, including our first glimpse of a relatively large & civilized realm; and the forces that schemed from the shadows in Hiero's Journey march openly to war.
Old friends reappear (although they don't have as much time onstage as might have been preferred) and new wonders & terrors await. Again probably closer to a 3.5-3.75 than a 4, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.
October 25, 2018
I first read this about 30 years ago, and I've kept it ever since. After reading it again so I could compare it to Aldiss and Norton's post-apocalypse novels, I'd have to say Unforsaken Hiero holds up wonderfully.
The end is fairly abrupt, but only because Lanier was planning a third book, but never got to finish it. Still, the ending has a fantastic, large-scale battle that plays out and is described so much better than typical sci-fi battles that it really leaves you begging for more.
It really is a shame Lanier didn't write another Hiero novel--we may never know if he rescued Luchare or saved D'alwah, or just how smart Klootz the giant moose was. A really fun, interesting read.
The end is fairly abrupt, but only because Lanier was planning a third book, but never got to finish it. Still, the ending has a fantastic, large-scale battle that plays out and is described so much better than typical sci-fi battles that it really leaves you begging for more.
It really is a shame Lanier didn't write another Hiero novel--we may never know if he rescued Luchare or saved D'alwah, or just how smart Klootz the giant moose was. A really fun, interesting read.
September 30, 2008
Not as good as Hiero's Journey, and not as long. But still a really really entertaining story. Obviously it was meant to be followed by a 3rd book. I read on another website that the author has suffered a stroke and will not be writing a new installment. Not sure if he died or is just incapacitated--in either case I am sad to have to leave Hiero and his friends unfinished.
January 26, 2013
Like paper chips, bad for you, but I couldn't stop reading.
October 22, 2024
After a very slow start, The Unforsaken Hiero almost reaches the heights of the first novel, making it an enjoyable read overall. I'll depart from the consensus here and say that my main issue with it isn't that it ends on a cliffhanger - rather it's that the first third of this novel abandons most of the elements of Hiero's Journey that made it so interesting and enjoyable to read.
Spoilers below, though I'll try to be vague where possible:
Those things were what made Hiero's Journey for me, so I found the decision to remove them a little baffling; perhaps Lanier had grown bored with some (or all) of those things, or found them inconvenient to the story.
Fortunately the novel quickly picks up as soon as Hiero meets a rather surprising and inspired character, and then soon after that he meets another set of interesting characters, it's just a shame the whole gang from the first novel wasn't along for the ride.
Spoilers below, though I'll try to be vague where possible:
Those things were what made Hiero's Journey for me, so I found the decision to remove them a little baffling; perhaps Lanier had grown bored with some (or all) of those things, or found them inconvenient to the story.
Fortunately the novel quickly picks up as soon as Hiero meets a rather surprising and inspired character, and then soon after that he meets another set of interesting characters, it's just a shame the whole gang from the first novel wasn't along for the ride.
January 25, 2024
The first book was excellent and a great example of apocalyptic fantasy. This was supposed to be a trilogy but the last book never got written. This 2nd volume is thus somewhat of a cliffhanger, obviously leaving the story unfinished.
Per Hiero Desteen is a priest, exorcist, killman from what used to be Canada. This volume chronicles his journey south and to the east followed by a return to the North. He is separated from his bride who is a princess of the land called Dalwah. Basically, this is a story of the battle between good and evil. Evil is embodied by the human "unclean" and their animal servants called leemutes. This all takes place 5000 years after The Death (atomic war). Radiation has mutated much life and returned humanity to a time near to the medieval period of our past.
The first volume gave you more of a taste of the strangeness of radiation mutation while this story focuses on the political/military struggle of the future.
Per Hiero Desteen is a priest, exorcist, killman from what used to be Canada. This volume chronicles his journey south and to the east followed by a return to the North. He is separated from his bride who is a princess of the land called Dalwah. Basically, this is a story of the battle between good and evil. Evil is embodied by the human "unclean" and their animal servants called leemutes. This all takes place 5000 years after The Death (atomic war). Radiation has mutated much life and returned humanity to a time near to the medieval period of our past.
The first volume gave you more of a taste of the strangeness of radiation mutation while this story focuses on the political/military struggle of the future.
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August 11, 2019I purchased a paperback copy of The Unforsaken Hiero back in 1992 and finally got around to reading it. It started a bit slow in the first few chapters, but really grabbed hold of my attention after that. The adventures Hiero, the main character, goes through are amazing to read. The author, Lanier, takes the formula of "find your hero's biggest fear and throw it at them" and runs with it to great effect. I would say The Unforsaken Hiero is equal to the first book, Hiero's Journey, in terms of action and adventure. A fantastic read!
February 9, 2025
A great fun adventure story with great action sequences and really imaginative characters. While I would still say that the first book is better, this entry still maintains the charm and feel that the ‘Hiero’s Journey’ has. As to its faults, I would’ve liked more exploration of the antagonists, especially regarding the first act. I also feel the religious aspect of Hiero’s character is glossed over in favour of a more traditional soldier/ranger type. Nonetheless, any story with a telepathic moose and bear in it still gets a high score from me.
June 1, 2020
Als Fortsetzung von “Hieros Reise” ein Muss für die, die “Hieros Reise” gut fanden.
Das Buch enthält nicht so viele kreative Ideen wie der erste Teil, bringt aber die Erzählung zu einem einigermaßen befriedigenden Abschluss (trotz eines kleinen Cliffhangers). Leider verkümmert ein separater Handlungsstrang und wird nicht wirklich mehr mit der Haupterzählung zusammen geführt.
Nicht so schön: Das Lesevergnügen wird häufiger beeinträchtigt durch die teils sehr gruselige Übersetzung.
Das Buch enthält nicht so viele kreative Ideen wie der erste Teil, bringt aber die Erzählung zu einem einigermaßen befriedigenden Abschluss (trotz eines kleinen Cliffhangers). Leider verkümmert ein separater Handlungsstrang und wird nicht wirklich mehr mit der Haupterzählung zusammen geführt.
Nicht so schön: Das Lesevergnügen wird häufiger beeinträchtigt durch die teils sehr gruselige Übersetzung.
July 16, 2025
Nice, progressing story - only I didn't like, that the author seemed to explain everything twice. Hm. Fells like he is talking to a stupid child.
Another (stupid) thing: Persons/Animals/Mutants are not described as they "are", but as they are perceived by ... hm. and here we struggle: by the author? Or by whom?
Please might anybody tell my, which colour an "evil yellow" or a "vile green" is?
Maybe 4 stars is a little bit too much...
Another (stupid) thing: Persons/Animals/Mutants are not described as they "are", but as they are perceived by ... hm. and here we struggle: by the author? Or by whom?
Please might anybody tell my, which colour an "evil yellow" or a "vile green" is?
Maybe 4 stars is a little bit too much...
August 11, 2025
Ok so I didn’t actually know this was a part two but I really enjoyed. Very obviously meant to be another book. Sadly that doesn’t happen. It kind of feels like your reading a dnd campaign. The details don’t feel overly fleshed out and a lot happy very quickly and abruptly and big jumps happen. I think it makes the book feel a bit disconnected. Overall a good story but I think it’s more interesting to just play a dnd campaign
June 26, 2023
I read this years ago in high school. It was a sequel to Hiero's Journey. It was the 2nd book of what was supposed to be a Trilogy, but the author never wrote the third book and so this book ends with the story arc unfinished which is why I only give it 3 stars.
January 6, 2025
I enjoyed reading this book again just as much as I enjoyed reading it in my youth. The only fault is that it is #2 in a trilogy but #3 has never been written to my knowledge so the story remains unfinished. I enjoyed the characters and action in this future post apocalyptic world.
March 16, 2018
This story is a good as his first. Both are such wonderful books, and well worth finding a copy
December 27, 2020
Quite imaginative, sometimes very predictable and straightforward. I have enjoyed the creative descriptions of re-imagined primitive cdeatures.
July 19, 2021
The incomplete store
This is a good read but the story is not finished. The author may have not lived long enough to write the next book.
This is a good read but the story is not finished. The author may have not lived long enough to write the next book.
October 18, 2022
Hilarious and quirky, just like the first. Only downside is the series ends here without resolution.
October 13, 2023
The sequel to the first book - which was equally excellent. Wished there were more to this series.
October 15, 2024
Not as good as the first book
May 29, 2025
Lean, mean adventure and fighting story. Terrific heroes and villains.
July 7, 2025
A great sequel, hiero faces new challenges and meets new friends to help him along the way.
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