Perilous Seas

A Man of His Word #3

by Dave Duncan

The epic fantasy adventure of Queen Inos continues as she is pursued by powerful warlocks, all the while convinced her beloved servant, Rap, is dead.   Still stuck in the desert land of Zark—and mourning Rap—Queen Inos has conflicted feelings about Sultan Azak’s proposal. Her heart lies with her beloved kingdom of Krasnegar and her duty to its people. But when she and Azak make a desperate escape, Inos is shocked by an image of Rap and knows that he must be alive—somewhere . . .   On the island of Durthing, Rap’s gift of farsight has made him too valuable to be truly free—until the evil Nordland raider Kalkor captures him after a bloody slaughter. Testing his magical wits against Kalkor, Rap searches for a chance to escape and restore Inos to her rightful throne.   “If it’s traditional fantasy adventure with a bit of nudge-nudge wink-wink you’re after, Dave Duncan is your go-to guy. ” —SFReviews.net “Duncan takes all the trusted fantasy ingredients, meticulously prepares them and brings them together with skill and relish. . . . The series bears resemblance to Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy.” —Fantasy Book Review “Duncan’s unique concept of goblins, fauns, and imps adds a new twist to this imaginative fantasy adventure. Recommended.” —Library Journal

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Magic, High Fantasy, Romance

394 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 1991

About the author

Originally from Scotland, Dave Duncan lived all his adult life in Western Canada, having enjoyed a long career as a petroleum geologist before taking up writing. Since discovering that imaginary worlds were more satisfying than the real one, he published more than 60 novels, mostly in the fantasy genre, but also young adult, science fiction, and historical.

He wrote at times under the pseudonym Sarah B. Franklin (but only for literary purposes) and Ken Hood (which is short for "D'ye Ken Whodunit?")

His most successful works were fantasy series: The Seventh Sword, A Man of His Word and its sequel, A Handful of Men, and seven books about The King’s Blades. His books have been translated into 15 languages, and of late have been appearing in audiobook format as well.

He and Janet were married in 1959. He is survived by her, one son and two daughters, as well as four grandchildren.

He was both a founding and honorary lifetime member of SFCanada, and a member of the CSFFA Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uggh.

Skimmed most of it. This could have been 1/2 the length.

This author does not know the first thing about romance. The hero and heroine have been separated since book two only only see each other again at the very end of this one. I wont go into details, but the romance sucks.

The hero Rap is mostly abused and tortured throughout the past two books while the heroine is useless.

I hate the heroine. Not only does she have the stupidest name "insoloan" but she is stupid beyond belief.

Ouside of this, the writing is so repetittive and long winded I wanted to scream.

The characters just wander around accomplishing nothing until the end, (which is an unhappy cliffhanger) where Rap fails in stopping Inos's wedding and gets himself captured and tortured.

This series has been a miserable read and yes I am reading the last book to see if there is any hope of it ending well, but I will be so glad when I'm done with it.

Safety- unknown of H & h remained virgins (but this is not a real romance read anyway). Abuse, violence and torture.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by.
Masefield, Sea-Fever

The stableboy and the princess, Rap and Inosolan, are still journeying towards each other in this third episode of the Man of His Word epic, with no signs yet of the finish line. I complained in the second book about this time spent in preparation, in building a strong political argument around two young heroes who didn't ask to live in 'interesting times', as the Chinese call these periods of upheaval that can topple empires. Perilous Seas was a much easier and much more interesting literary journey for me. I believe I caught the sea fever of Masefield's poems, so that I find it easier to hear the call of adventure, the magical attraction of discovering new countries and new people in Pandemia:

The splendour falls on castle walls,
And snowy summits old in story ...
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Tennyson, The Princess

Rap is forced back onto a ship, very much against his will, at the mercy of a ruthless jottnar with claims to the throne of Krasnegar. It is about time he levels up and takes charge of his fate, like one of my RPG heroes in gaming. I liked how Duncan handles the magic system of powerful words that give the recipients their special abilities, enhancing their native talents. With a second word of power, gained in a terrible conflict with a dragon, Rap is better equipped to play a larger role on the chessboard dominated by the four Pandemian warlocks who each controls four such words. I expect in the next volume, Rap will gain even more power.

A mage, knowing but three words, can perform only magic, not full sorcery. Sorcery is permanent, magic only temporary. It varies - people are more easily influenced than inanimate objects. [...] Even warlocks are very careful around the Gods, friend Rap. Gods rarely manifest so close an interest in human affairs, but when They do, then sorcery is nothing! The power of the Gods is unlimited.

This heavy use of magic in the plot construction is one of the strong elements of the series, together with the likable characters and the straightforward, often humorous prose style. A minor complaint is the still ambiguous role played by the Gods, who only put in a brief appearance in the first book, issuing an obscure 'gnomic utterance' (see Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to FantasyLand) about trusting in the power of love. I was also expecting Inosolan to be less passive, and manifest some special abilities to match those of Rap, but I guess I have to wait for the final installment. Right now she is very decorative and more than a little grumpy at not getting her wishes fulfilled, coming back at the end of this first book to the desert palace she was sent to at the end of the first novel:

She was as beautiful as a poet's dream of maidenhood. Her expression of suicidal sulks would have shamed a six-year-old being sent to bed without supper.

All in all, an excellent continuation of the adventure of Rap and Inosolan, the two young lovers who don't even recognize they are crazy about each other yet, and who are still travelling towards a reunion that promises to be cataclysmic. In fact, this third novel ends in a huge cliffhanger that turned all my expectations on their head. Inos gets married to the Sultan Azak and rejects Rap's rescuing attempts, sending him to be tortured to within an inch of his life in the sultan's dungeons. I had to jump immediately into the fourth and last book to see how the two youngsters can extricate themselves from a tricky situation.

As the prophecy says, I too must trust in the power of love, and I'm hoping the author likes his characters enough to offer them a chance at happiness. After all, in one of his easter-eggs Dave Duncan has chosen this fragment of Shakespeare's verse:

Oh mistress mine! where are you roaming?
Oh stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth knows.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3rd book of a quartet and my least favorite thus far. Older fantasy (written in 1991), that is not a book for fans of the fantasy out there these days. There are no humans in this story, but there are so many races it becomes hard to remember their characteristics. Much more literary and a slow paced series that could have you throwing it back.

Rap and Isoloan are still on the journey towards each other. Although I have loved Duncan's writing thus far-this romance-ugh! That aspect of the story can drive you mad by itself. I found myself skimming a bit, and with doing that I doubt I missed anything important. Books 2 and 3 might have combined into one and made the series tighter, in my opinion.

I will read the final book, in the the near future. I fear if I wait any longer it will grow dust bunnies on my shelf and worst yet, I will forget the prior events.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

“They say that happiness is pretending you always wanted what you’re getting.”

An engaging epic fantasy with overtones of romance. Duncan inches his way toward a resolution, but not in this third volume of a four-part series. Could easily have been combined with Faery Lands Forlorn.

Such power was obscene, perverting its user as much as his victim.

Luck is a major element in the resolution of crises, as it is in many novels, but that role is explicit and part of the underlying magic of this Middle Earth/Arabian Nights-analog universe. Many typographical errors (perhaps OCR misreading) mar the electronic text.

This whole monstrous disaster had a horribly Rappian sort of feel to it.

[Stephen Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we move closer to the climax, the pace of the series picks up. Scenes are handled more deftly, though the focus on Rap continues to be better than the focus on Inos. Largely because Rap is doing things and achieving something, whereas Inos is largely ineffective and frequently wrong.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was a fast read. The best book so far, a lot happens, it's funny and I completely forgot the highly dramatic ending. What a ride! It was good that I waited so long with the re-read because I got to experience it all over again, as if reading it for the first time.

The first book is a bit of a slow start, which is a common criticism. And I also felt some slow parts in the second one, particularly with Inos' story-line. But none of that in the third one, just a wild ride form beginning to end. And now on to the last one! I still remember how it ends (I hope!) but I have no recollection of how we get there, so it continues to be exciting.

[Sean Atwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best entry in this series so far, "Perilous Seas" upped the ante in every possible way. There was more adventure, nail-biting moments of suspense, magic and intrigue than the first two books combined. The story really began to gel in this book, and the end game is beginning to take shape. The two main characters, Rap and Inos, have also grown a great deal. Inos in particular showed a lot of growth. I struggled with her character at times in the first two books, but I think she finally came into her own and was much more likable in this book. That being said, Rap was still the more complex and interesting of the two. His Hero's journey is pure fantasy gold. I'm so glad I satared reading this series and I can't wait to start the fourth and final book.

[Kyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually wound up purchasing it on Kindle despite already owning a physical copy because I couldn't find the physical copy and needed to read it.

I will never forgive Rap for what he does to Jalon in this book. Really. I can accept what he does to the others, even if I like all of them except maybe Darad better than him, but Jalon? No.

I understand that having falling in love with you being used to punish someone is intrinsically unpleasant. Also that Ishist is Lith'Rian's votary and obviously kind of has to go with what he's given. All of this having been said, why is he given such a pass for all of the happiness he finds in his relationship with Athal'Rian? Why is he portrayed as one of the only decent sorcerers with no significant moral qualms about this? I'm not saying that he's not a better person than Lith'Rian - he obviously is. And he's likeable - he may have his moral flaws but that hardly causes me to turn against him. But he's hardly a paragon of virtue either.

I know full well that Dave Duncan disapproves of my liking Lith'Rian so much because my brother actually has corresponded with him about this. I guess part of my answer to the question of what my thing with him is is Quip'Rian, which isn't entirely fair because that whole escapade is really Ishist's idea. But there's more to it than that. Lith'Rian is obviously a cruel person. He obviously doesn't really care that much about other people. But I can't help but admire his pragmatism, even so. He's no Navis, or even a Citan, but he fits into that general category of the figure who realizes what the protagonist's destiny is going to be and, without clarifying it to the protagonist, decides it's his job to facilitate it. He knows perfectly well what's most probably going to happen to Rap, and he decides that he wants to be on the good side of anyone who's going to be that powerful. (To be fair, Bright Water also fits into this category. Notably not Zinixo, at any rate). He genuinely does his best to help Rap onto his destiny, and I can't say it bothers me that much that in the end Rap doesn't want that destiny because, well, by the end of A Handful of Men it's pretty well established that Rap is dumb anyway. There's a moment in Emperor and Clown when he is kind to Emshandar and Rap more or less admits it's genuine. In The Living God we find that after Ishist served out his term of service he was allowed to go home and just keep on living his life, because he'd done a good job. All in all, Rap doesn't like him, but I'm disinclined to fully trust Rap's judgement of people - I think his standards are too high for the world he finds himself in - and I think that Lith'Rian is someone who, given his culture and his abilities, does much better than anyone would have any reason to expect. Duncan must have something of a soft spot for him too given his continued hold on power.

[M.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dave Duncan’s 1991 novel “Perilous Seas” is the third book in his four-part A Man of His Word Series and improves on both of its predecessors to deliver a fast-paced and largely entertaining story that has a stronger sense of forward momentum, albeit one that can still feel superficial and a tad formulaic.

(This review is part of my “Nostalgia” series, where I infrequently revisit a small collection of fantasy novels in my possession—most of which I inherited when I was younger—to determine if they hold up decades later and are worth keeping.)

The main over-arching plot—that of the reunion of protagonist Rap with the exiled “Queen” Inos—finally gets interwoven into the larger, world-spanning cold war between the four most powerful magic users. Rap’s growing importance is solidified further (continuing a trend of almost painfully obvious telegraphing that Rap is set to become the most powerful warlock in the world), as is Inos’ role as a chess piece. Moreover, we begin to find out more about the magic system, its limitations as well as its opportunities, which will no doubt play a role in the concluding book.

Overall, while “Faery Lands Forlorn” felt like it was an exercise in throat-clearing and hand-waving designed to move the characters out of their inconvenient isolation in the hinterland and to set them well apart, the actual story seems to have been well begun within “Perilous Seas”

The new characters brought into the story are largely welcome introductions (including a not-quite-everyman character in Gathmor), the collection of tropes that make up the Matched Set do not detract from their story, and the foundations for a true antagonist in the Nordland raider Kalkor are set and foreshadow deeper involvement in the concluding book. Not every character works, however. The Inos storyline alternatively works well and then doesn’t work, largely due to the involvement of Sultana Rasha (who at times feels anachronistic in her language in an attempt to make her appear more salty and lower class, but which often comes across as more silly than biting) and the continued superficiality of all of the characters involved in the palace intrigue.

Overall, it is a solid entry in the fantasy series that manages to hit most of the right notes.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favourite ... I felt there was an awful lot of time wasted, and less of the breathless movement from incident to incident that enlivened the first book. (And the characterizations basically remain the same--I don't need constant action (I rather loathe it), but this is not a series that's delving deeply in to the psychology of its characters, so the endless treading water, or going and going back agains, rather palled. I felt like if the prior book and this book could have been combined, shortened to about 2 chapters longer than either individually, and it would have worked much better. Still, I'm in for the long haul. Off to the final volume!

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).

[David Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

A darker book than the first two in the series (none of which hesitate to drag the protagonist Rap through the wringer), "Perilous Seas" continues the process of lifting the curtain on the various mysteries of Duncan's world and magic system. After two and a half books in which Rap had just the first and lowest level of magical ability, Duncan finally levels him up here, to satisfying effect. Less satisfyingly, Inosolan never really gains any power of her own, despite ostensibly having a Word of Power; this relegates her largely to the role of damsel in distress, albeit a spunky one. But the book's more intimate introduction of more powerful magic users (compared to the second book in which the protagonists were largely just buffeted around) is enjoyable.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the series. It's a bit of a formula, but it's one I enjoy. The writing is wry, I like the women and the men equally. I wouldn't mind more time with these characters, but the series has closed and that's fine. Will look for other books by this author.

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series picked up in the third book. The second book was a little slow and I almost didn't want to continue the series.

[Nance Roepke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dave Duncan has written two series with many of the same characters. The first series is A Man of His Word and the second is A Handful of Men. Because the two series are contiguous and share the same characters I am just going to review them together.

The first book, Magic Casement, from the first series was one that I liked and would have rated a 4 probably. I thought of it as a well-written YA fiction. The main characters in the book are teenagers and Duncan does, in my opinion, a very good job of expressing through the characters the feelings and viewpoint of teenagers even today. So I continued to read the series and Duncan did a poorer job of expressing the characters as they got older. But the progression of their growth and their stories was pretty well done and overall I would have given the series a 3.5.

While the first series was adventurous it was also more character-driven. The second series, which takes place 15 years after the first, is less character-driven and more political. Meaning political in terms of the disputes between the different regions and races. It could have been an excellent series based on that but it really wasn't.

The series is made up of all the mythical creatures devised by our world. Well, probably not all of them but a great deal. There are goblins and Jinn and pixies and fauns and trolls and so many more, including some I had never heard of. In addition, there are different locales inhabited by the different races. For example, the Jinnq live in awhat would be the Middle East today. (If you like world building, you probably wouldn't like that. It helped me to place some of the races and locales.) For me, given all the races, and their various characteristics, and their various locales, I found it exceedingly confusing. I don't know if that's because I needed a scorecard or if it was because the author made them sort of a muddle or whether I'm just not too bright, but I had trouble keeping track of all the players. And I should say, that there were a lot more players in this series than there were in the first series. And, in the first, the characters stayed together most of the time. They might have passed through a number of different locales but they did it together. In this series the characters were in pretty much all the locales but they went separately. So the stories would jump around between characters and locales. And sometimes a couple characters would come together and then they would separate, later coming together with different characters.

Finally, the climax and finale are a total mishmash. Seems that Duncan wanted to tie everything together in a pretty little bow in a very big hurry. As a result, the bow was squished and untied in places and just ugly. So if I were rating just the second series, I would give it a 2.5 and that might be generous.

In summary, I had to give the two series an overall 3. I really couldn't give it less since I read all 8 books. But if I had to do it over again, I would read the first series but not the second.

[Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Lore, even better writing

Third book in “a man of his word” series, we follow rap and inosolan on their escapades in the sorcerous and fantastical world of pandemia. The books seem to follow this formula: book 1 Rap 70% inosolan 30%, book 2 rap 30% inosolan 70%, book 3 rap 60% inosolan 35% Kade 5%. Mr. Duncan made the right choice to focus on rap and his journey with the sorcerous gang to save inos. It’s your standard heroes journey, but with a very intriguing magic system. We learned a bit of this in the second book, but we finally learn more interesting magic lore. Definitely a good read overall. Not one of his better works, but Duncan shows off his mastery of world building and character development. Everything seems fleshed out and surreal, leaving you itching for another helping of a well written novel. Pick it up, it’s a fun read!

[Sean Helms · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an improvement over the previous one in this series, especially as things actually happen to advance the overall storyline.
Rap's adventures continue, and they are more memorable than those of the last book, as he still seeks to find and rescue his friend Queen Inos. He finally reaches her on the far eastern end of the continent at the tail end of this book, although the ending was quite abrupt and would have been thoroughly unsatisfactory if I didn't already have the final book on hand to read!

[Robert Spellmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typically inconsistent *sigh*

Not just Dave Ducan, many authors gradually change tone, morals, or language through a series toward a coarser, cruder writing. In this book, the sexual motives were ratcheted up a few notches. The violence at the end moved to sadism.
I will read another. But I would not recommend that to my kids. Hopefully, book 4 lifts again. Duncan has great skill and I'll be optimistic

[Laura Gilfillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inos tried to make an escape, but ends up going full circle back in the clutches of Rasha in Zark once again, with Azak pushing his proposal. With some aid, and after much difficulty, Rap finally makes it to her, but too late, and he ends up imprisoned and tortured.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging in parts and stultifyingly slow in others

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangit. Binging these books like they are on Netflix... Go Team Rap! Booo Team Azak. I am not pleased where it ended... but thankful I can read the last book in the series immediately.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic installment. The scene of Rap shaving Kalkor has stuck in my head for the past 25 years or so, since I first read this, and it did not disappoint.

[Chander Govindarajan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopping half way through.

The world became a lot grittier in the last book, it worsens here and has become too dark for me to continue with this series any more.

[Susan Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pace picked up and hit its stride.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

see review of Magic Casement

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rap's story was far more interesting than Inos's.

[vg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I

[Stuart Macmartin · Rating 4 out of 5]

More adventure, more world, enter more politics.

(One chapter had a lot of editing issues, but I was able to look past that)

[Joelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: This isnt as much a review of the book as it is a report on my enjoyment of the book, and its probably more useful as a way to check on my tastes and quirks than to decide whether to read the book[return][return]It's terribly hard to write a book and I am conscious I couldn't even write something half as good as an awful book. And this book is not awful at all! [return]But this is just to say I hate to criticise someone's hard work, but when I try to write a review books I often end up thinking about where the book could have been great if only... and then it sounds harsher than it should be.[return][return]--------------------------------------------[return][return]This is the third book in a series and you really need the first two to enjoy it. As all middle books it mostly moves things along, and follows 2 separate groups as they both try to resolve their common problem - get princess Inos back to her country and her throne. [return][return]The world is rather fascinating, plenty of cultures and races to go around -many very similar to our idea of old cultures on earth, so it is easy to pick up an "image" of them. The politics are believable. There are lot of "staples", but the overall story has enough departures from cliche to be entertaining (I am quite allergic to too much cliches)[return][return]The concept of magic is simple but quite rich, based on words of power that people can learn, accumulate (with near exponential effects), share (but that dilutes them). This carries a lot of the plot and creates a lot of interesting dilemnas and situations. I think this concept of magic is a great plot device and I hope he keeps exploring it.[return][return]Still I don't like this series as much as I like some other Duncan books I read. I had them on my wishlist for a long time, that might be why I am a bit harsh with them.[return][return]First it feels a bit disjuncted to me, like a bunch of scenes not a sweeping story. I find it hard to get a mental map of what's where, because people are moved around by magic, and the passing of time is not always very clear - in some cases I read 2 chapters before realising that months and months had passed somewhere 2 chapters ago... I dont think I could tell how many days have passed since the beginning of the story or where they have been and where the characters are in respect to where they were a year ago... It doesnt help that the 2 groups of characters are not in sync in time in the flow of the story, or at least it doesnt feel that way to me. Although it could also be a failure in this reader to pick up on things in the books[return][return]Its the characters I find hard to believe and care about - many of them are far denser than I could believe. How can they not know they have a crush, how can someone like Rap really so inconsiderate of his own life. The relationships between the characters, even the secondary ones, just dont make much sense to me, and the motivations of the secondary characters and adversaries dont always make sense. Some of it gives me the same puzzlement as catching an unknown soap opera does - too many bad decisions...[return][return]Of course this makes it a change from all these books where the protagonists are so clever, perceptive and talented, and it means I still enjoy these books, because it is a welcome change - but too much of one. Although the fact that Inos manages to annoy the hell out of me means that the author has done a good enough job to pull me in a bit, no matter what I say that I find them hard to believe. [return][return]The end rather precipitates events and things are a bit surprising and break nicely with the cliches built throughout the book - very crafty of the author.[return][return]All in all an enjoyable story, and I suspect the final volume will be full of surprises (because I cannot figure out how he will wrap it up!), and nice small books which makes it easy to read. And the end is a big change of tone and pace which does make me want to continue reading

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Young Rap and Inos are still trying to gain control of their own fates - Inos to claim her rights as queen of isolated Krasnegar, Rap to find and help Inos as her loyal subject. However, sorcerors and mages are trying very hard to ensure their own control of what happens, and both the young people have to navigate treacherous waters as best they can with their own magical abilities.

Review
Happily, this book pulls away a bit from the leering of its predecessor and settles into good natured (but not safe) adventure. Rap and Inos continue their various escapades, each with quite a lot of danger and pain along the way, but always with fair confidence that we’ll see them escape. The book’s main flaw is that there is so much adventure, to the extent that it’s a little hard to keep track of the protagonists’ wandering around the world of Pandemia, or of the forces arrayed against them. In this book, Duncan stops in at many of the regions named on the map – just enough give a taste of the region and its distinct race, but not enough to really explore anything.

The book is largely a return to form from the second book in the series, but also feels fairly directionless. Rap and his cohort are engaging and interesting to follow, so that half of the book largely works. Inos’ travails are less successful, largely because so very much of this world appears to put women in a subordinate position, which I found tiring. There are strong women and men in the book, but their gender roles and characteristics tend to be somewhat exaggerated, leaving them less interesting than they could be. The magic system continues to be largely interesting, though there are notable gaps – e.g., how mages go from enhanced intellect and ability to casting spells.

A fun book, though it could have been stronger with more direction and less wandering. On the plus side, it ends in a substantial cliffhanger. I’m not generally a fan of these, but this one works well.