Glory & Greed

by August Hahn, Joe Dever (Editor)

Rise of the Agarashi: Book 1 The Telchoi. A race of survivors. Rising from the ashes of their lost civilizations, they have endured a thousand years as desert nomads. As resilient as the sands where they make their home, there is nothing they cannot endure. Nothing, perhaps, except the rising spectre of their past. Deep beneath the blistered earth, an evil stirs that has not yet satisfied its thirst for blood. When last it walked the face of the world, it brought down Avan-Telchos, the greatest city under the sun. Now, waking from its rest in the shadows, it seeks to finish what it started. Past and present are about to collide on the blood soaked dunes of the Telchoi. And if the children of the desert cannot succeed where their imperial ancestors failed, this ancient fire of evil may spread to set all of Magnamund ablaze

320 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

Badly written, poor plot, annoying characters, slack editing, inattention to detail, total lack of depth and all in a setting which fans of the Lone Wolf series will not recognise at all, and in fact possibly even contradicts Joe Dever's vision of Magnamund.

There would have been the very slim possibility that the plot could later develop into something in a later volume of this series (this mostly being a back story for further events), but the series was cancelled and I doubt there will be any more in the series. While I would like to say that the series was cancelled due to the dreadful nature of the book, I suspect that it was more due to the Lone Wolf franchise changing publisher. Either way, mission accomplished. This series has been killed, and that is a good thing.

Do not read. Do not buy it second hand. Do not read it if someone gives it to you - and above all, Lone Wolf fans, do not think that this book will enhance your appreciation of the Lone Wolf stories in ANY way, so do not waste time or money trying to track it down. Thank goodness this was a free give away when I bought something else.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine.

That said, this book was incredibly fun to read. I worried, given that it was a novel set in a gaming world, that I would be lost because of a lack of familiarity with the source material, or I would get irritated with the info dumps that this genre can be guilty of.

I should have had more faith.

I can't wait for August to write the next installment. Or, even better, write something in an original world where he wouldn't be constrained by world history written by someone else.

[Joe Geesin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, largely well written, but the story diluted by passages of history and emotion.
Two story lines with minimal connection and on different time scales, a lot needs to be tidied up.