Dark Hunter: The Chronicles of Galen Sword Book 3

Chronicles of Galen Sword #3

by Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens

There is another world. It is the birthplace of all our nightmares. Vampires, werewolves, demons, deadly creatures that have no name or form ... they are all real. Born within that world, Galen Sword was destined to be an adept warrior, heir to the Victor of the Greater Clan Pendragon. Yet as a child, his birthright and his memories were stolen from him, and he was exiled to a world without substance, without magic, without Our world. But twenty years later, a mysterious chain of events restores Galen's memory of who he is, and hints at what he might become. Now Galen will stop at nothing to find the truth-and his home. But with no powers of his own, his only tools are those of science. When Clans Tepesh and Arkady unite to destroy Galen, he must forge a dangerous alliance between the vampire, Orion, and a mysterious dark hunter with a startling secret. With them, Galen at last takes his struggle through the layer to learn the truth of his return from exile, and of an ancient monstrous enemy about to conquer both his worlds.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Hunter is the third, and unfortunately likely the last volume in the Chronicles of Galen Sword. Arguably the series by the husband and wife team of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens mashes up multiple genres. When I picked up the first book used it made me think of an updating of old fashioned pulps stories, because the incredibly wealthy Sword has his team of experts (Ko and Forsyte others come and go-avoiding spoilers here), in his investigations into the paranormal and his mystery shrouded past.

The series is more than that, and I wonder if the books had been released during today’s boom in urban fantasy if it would have done better. Reeves-Stevens in the third book appear to be tossing in the possibility that magic might be science, and that the First world is either another dimension or another world entirely. The Dark Hunter of the title is a hunter for hire. She has been retained to capture the vampire Orion.

Yes there are vampires, shape shifters, trolls, and some magic. A much grittier, form of magic than is usually presented in standard fantasy. The reason I think this would succeed if released as urban fantasy today if that if takes place in New York, and magic exists besides shotguns loaded with silver nitrate, and ultra violet lamps placed in a loft’s ceiling to handle vampire attacks. Science and magic are working side-by-side. Sword and his companions might not be the most likeable or three-dimensional people you’ll meet in a book, but they’ll provide you a good time (IMO).

More of Sword’s past is unveiled, but the writers obviously hold some stuff back, as this was planned to be a 9 book series. As the first book was published in 1990, the series has had two publishers, and the third in 2003, I think the writing pair have moved onto to more lucrative venues (as you cane see from the listing on IMDb and as the “co-writers” of William Shatner’s Star Trek book).

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd volume in what is promised to be an extended series from Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (who seem to make most of their crusts writing Star-Trek DS9 novels). This series is about Galen Sword, a powerless adept (or is he?) expelled from his 1st world Clan Pendragon into the 2nd World, our world, and his struggle to discover exactly who he is, why he was expelled from the 1st World, and how he can regain his clan (and magical powers, which everybody else but he seems to have). He's aided and abetted by a half-werewolf with the mind of a 6 year old, a Japanese-American girl who is also an engineering whiz-kid (and who hates him!) and a wheelchair-bound particle-physicist who was zapped by an enchantment and now talks with he aid of a computer (think Stephen Hawking). The pacy narrative is filled with encounters and brawls with Vampire clans, fighting Trolls, weird shape-shifters, werewolves, exotic weapons and magic crystals, and should be enough to satisfy even the most jaded appetite. this series is like none I have ever read, and I am already getting impatient waiting for the next tranche of books in the series.

[Jason Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was hoping for a conclusion.... but they've left it open for more books. May be they are hoping for a TV series.

Great story, look forward to the next book.