Niel Hancock started out from the Panhandle of Texas in 1941, and was on the ground when the Sky Riders went down outside Roswell, New Mexico. Even as a lad, that tweaked his curiosity, and then they touched off the Atom Bomb at Trinity Site, which put him on the trail of the Road to the Sacred Mountain, young as he was.
He grew up in that wilderness, always looking for clues to the Mystery, then drifted on to the University, then Europe... He was then welcomed into the ranks of the U.S. Army... in 1965. Niel was drafted, and after his basic and advanced training, was assigned to the 716th MP BN, Viet Nam in July of 1967. He served through July of 1968, and was a survivor of the Tet Offensive of that year. In the aftermath of the war, he spent time in the Virgin Islands, then California, running with the wild musicians that fueled those later years of the '60's, and finally ended up in the desert of Chihuahua.
He came off the outlaw trail there, through a small miracle of friendship and having bottomed out on alcohol and drugs, and began to do the one thing he had always wanted, which was to write yarns and tales of the things he'd seen and done.
This, the fourth and final volume in the Circle of Light series, was a fine conclusion to the saga. Broco the Dwarf emerges as the primary character in this story, and some of the other favorites take a decided back seat as the events set in motion in earlier volumes come to a conclusion. I did find Dwarf's descent into paranoia and madness somewhat tiresome. Yet again, the major plot elements take their inspiration from Tolkein, although the conclusion was refreshingly unique. I was happy to finally read the entire series approximately thirty years after the books first found their way to my shelf. I would recommend this series primarily to younger fantasy enthusiasts, and I imagine I would have rated these books more highly had I read them with a fresher mind several decades ago.
A really good series, although tedious more often than not. Wonderful use of the language to describe the world of Atlanton Earth, its peoples and characters. Mythology relies heavily on Tolkien and Lewis, sometimes annoyingly so. All in all The Circle of Light didn't suffer for it's faults and I'd recommend to readers of the genre.
now that you're into the story and it's (shape) shifting characters, this episode reads like a pageturner - because you want to know how/if they'll succeed in their quest some hard time following the different lines, as some characters switch sides fulfilling end
I'm usually very leery of any book that brags on its cover ". . . for all who love The Lord of the Rings." And with the first book or two in Hancock's Circle of Light series, I was sure my wariness was correct. But Squaring the Circle erased that. Certainly, he doesn't approach the depth that Tolkien hit, but this is some good high fantasy, especially this last installment. Lots of machinations familiar to those fantasy fans, so perhaps the ending is a little pat. Still, an enjoyable read.