The Keep

by Roger Taylor

Isolated and deep in the mountains, the Keep is a disturbing place. Why would the New Order want it, and for what? But you didn’t ask questions the way things were. You kept your head down and did as you were told. Just do your job, Josyff kept reminding himself. Yet there were strange problems with his work... and dreams... and him... and the building itself -- massive, yet, somehow, changing. And when the authoritarian Adroyan arrived at the Keep, together with his nemesis, Esyal, things become even stranger, pushing Josyff to the edge of his sanity...

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 25, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Roger Taylor was born in Heywood, Lancashire, and now lives in the Wirral. He is a chartered civil and structural engineer, a pistol, rifle and shotgun shooter, instructor/student in aikido, and an enthusiastic and loud but bone-jarringly inaccurate piano player.

He wrote four books between 1983 and 1986 and built up a handsome rejection file before the third was accepted by Headline to become the first two books of the Chronicles of Hawklan.

Reviews

[Sara Westhead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josyf is sent to survey an old castle in the mountains, an assignment from the new government, The New Order, which is slowly gathering all control to itself and eliminating freedom. When he gets there, he discovers the 3 ordinary fellows that maintain The Keep, and is also shortly joined by an assistant. However, he hasn't been given clear instructions about the task ahead and his tools haven't arrived, so he and one of the workers set out to the nearby village to find out what might be going on. On the way, they find a girl, half frozen and on the run (she belongs to a rebel alliance), and then suddenly, one of Josyf's superiors appears half way up the mountain with 2 Trekkers and his missing gear. The return to The Keep, but they realize that things - and some people - are not what they appear to be. The Keep, it would appear, is a gateway to another dimension which is bring its own war into the real world. The girl is really a warrior and defender of good, while the superior is leading an army of darkness... and it seems that Josyf is, himself, the heart of the battle.

It is an interesting story, but very long-winded... You find that you want to know what is going to happen, but are getting frustrated at how long the author is taking to get there. Way too many rambling pages - I could not wait for the last 100 or so to finally be done - only to, disappointingly, find a conclusion come up suddenly (and predictably) in the last couple of pages.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited when I say Mr Taylor had released another book as I'm a big fan of his other work. This is not related to any of his other books, and in some ways is a bit hard to follow as the enemy is from another dimension. If you enjoy a serious fantasy novel, then you should try some Roger Taylor.