The Griffin or the Agate

     When I was handed Thomas Harlan's The Storm of Heaven to review, I was less than thrilled. It's an alternate history -- one of my least favorite sub-genres -- and it's the third book in a series of which I haven't read the first two (The Shadow of Ararat and The Gate of Fire, respectively). I told myself I'd force my way through it by trading two chapters in The Storm of Heaven for every chapter in Dave Duncan's latest (read our review), and I'd try to be objective despite my initial misgivings. Well, I never did get around to opening Mr. Duncan's latest, and now I'm striving to be objective in the other direction. This book is good.
     The Oath of Empire series is Mr. Harlan's first, and with The Storm of Heaven he is already well past the 'promising new writer' stage. Though I came in late in the series, I never felt as though I was missing any information necessary to follow the story. The series is set in the late Roman Empire and incorporates a number of historical details with the various fantastic elements, blending them so seamlessly into an engrossing story that one is not sure where history ends and Mr. Harlan's imagination begins.
     The core storyline of the series is that one of the princes of Rome, Maxian, has discovered that Roman citizens are under a spell that binds them to the Empire - the Oath. This spell is the reason that the Romans have thus far been so successful in warfare against even those armies that outcalss them them physically and magically. As with most epics, there are a variety of underlying plots, including one woman's journey from amnesiatic foundling to gladiator to her former patron, a sorcerer's need to choose between honor and friendship, and a young emperess' coming of age as her husband lays dying.
     Mr. Harlan does occasionally get a bit overly verbose, particularly with combat scenes (of both the hand-to-hand and epic battle variety), but even this shortcoming is offset by his wonderful command of language and story-telling. The Storm of Heaven is an enthralling book, and despite its length a quick read. Recommended to anyone who enjoys epics -- plan on wanting to read the first two in the series if you start with this one.   §

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