Down Styphon!

Lord Kalvan #8

by John F. Carr

Down Styphon! is the eighth and concluding volume of the Kalvan Saga; the story of temporally transplanted Pennsylvania State Trooper, Calvin Morrison, and his war against Styphon’s House, a nasty theocracy, started by H. Beam Piper in the novel, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. After years of war against Great King Kalvan, Styphon’s House’s control over the Five Great Kingdoms is in jeopardy. In Hos-Bletha there are two great kings and in Hos-Agrys the Prince-Regent’s rule is threatened as the Prince reaches his majority. In Hos-Harphax the Great Queen Lavena is taxing her subjects to the breaking point, while in Hos-Zygros Great King Phidestros openly despises Styphon’s House. Only in Hos-Ktemnos is there a stable regime, that openly supports Styphon’s House. Nos-Hostigos is at peace for the first time since Kalvan landed on the Aryan-Transpacific, Styphon’s House Subsector’s time-line. Local threats in the Middle Kingdoms have been neutralized and Styphon’s House is busy trying to regain their former strength in the Five Great Kingdoms. Some of the new Great Kings have no love for Styphon’s House and its quest for power over the great kings. However, the Fireseed Temple’s resources are huge, including large mercantile houses, tobacco and grain monopolies, along with the Great Banking houses. Great Queen Rylla decides that the time has come to reassert Hostigi power and return home to Hos-Hostigos. Not everyone is happy with this turn of events, but Rylla is a force of nature and asserts her will. Now it’s up to Great King Kalvan to find a way to make their return to the Princedom of Hostigos a permanent one. His first task will be to defeat and subdue the Zarthani Knights’ great fortress at Tarr-Ceros. If he’s successful there, next he will then have to beard Styphon’s archpriests in the Holy City of Balph, the very heart of their power and influence.

Genres: Alternate History

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2016

Reviews

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sista boken är närmast en lång novell. Det är en serie segertåg, som inleds med artilleriförstörelsen av denna världs Marienburg. Fortfarande underhållande, men inte revolutionerande.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen's saga is finally done. Ties up a lot of lose ends.
I've enjoyed the books in this expansion of H. Beam Piper's original Paratime novel about the Pennsylvania State Trooper who is transferred to a parallel world where gunpowder is distributed by a single religious order.
Kalvan shows one prince how to make gunpower and begins to change the history of the timeline.
After a series of wars that lead all over the East Coast and Great Lakes finally coming to a conclusion in Down Styphon!.
It's not the best book in the series, but at least most of the questions are answered.

[Thom Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting end to the Kalvan saga....but

I do believe Carr did justice to the Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen tale. This last novel kept you interested in this particular time line. I kept wanting Kalvan to introduce breech loading but I'm spoiled by the 1632 Ring of Fire novels. Naval warfare in schooners is a false note, especially using Greek fire and rifled cannon, but hey, I'm picky. The last novel completely left us guessing about the paratimers, so I suspect there is another series somewhere.

[John Fessenden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very predictable, no plot twists as in previous series. I know John wanted to finish it up as he is getting older and give the fans the ending they wanted. And he delivered. But it comes across as a paint by numbers done by a master...just a bit disappointing.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

From start to end, the book feels like a rush-to-finish. And it does. Almost. The Paratime story-line does not make an appearance in this book, and so is left unresolved.

There is a faint sense of relief that the series has finished.

[Sebastian Andrew Benjamin]

Excellent!

The whole Kalvan series is marvelous from start to finish. A must-read, over and over. I'm looking forward to reading more Paratime books.

[John Dye · Rating 3 out of 5]

He finally ended it.

First, I think that Carr was definitely following what his fans were saying: there is a lot more Kalvan and a lot less everything else that distracted from the other books: fewer incredibly elaborate 'switched princes' plots, NO Paratime nonsense which was undeveloped and needed its own story, and Phidestros sitting on his ass (still winning, mind you...but sitting on his ass and gaining billions for doing nothing)

Things ended a bit too quickly as well. One could see the rails of the author.

It's a far better Kalvan read than some of the other books. But Styphon is Down and the Heroes live happily ever after.

Except Phidestros is still boss and Kalvan is the guy whose ass Phidestros kicked. You can try to forget that but the author will remind every 50 pages or so.

Yes that got tedious. If one is borrowing an entire world, it would serve the author better to focus on THOSE characters. So props for a major course correction by Carr...but it was a bit too late.

He bit off more than he could chew, changed focus of the story from Vance's original, and gave us a Marty Stu which was eyerollingly distracting.