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Thunderscape #1
The Sentinel
In the once-peaceful world of Thunderscape, human survivors place their hopes on mechamagic, a powerful combination of future technology, past science, and magic, but several evil beings attempt to exploit the technology. Original.
- GenresFantasy
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Dixie Lee McKeone
19 books12 followersAfter spending thirteen years working as a civil engineer and surveyor, Dixie Lee McKeone (who has also published two romance novels under the pseudonym Jane Lovelace and Science Fiction as Lee McKeone) began writing romance, mystery, and science-fiction novels.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 25, 2023
"A journey is only shortened by taking the first step"
This was a pure nostalgia read. I read this so many times as a kid and found a copy on ebay. Its so bad but its exactly how I remember it, and that makes it great.
Its not a difficult read at all, its based on a video game I've never played but it reads exactly like a Final Fantasy game plays out.
Theres themes of agency and revenge, its a very linear story with some surprising depth.
Its a basic fantasy quest, gather friends find a magical item, defeat the boss vibes, but theres a twist at the end that leaves some very philosophical questions unanswered about the human soul.
This was a pure nostalgia read. I read this so many times as a kid and found a copy on ebay. Its so bad but its exactly how I remember it, and that makes it great.
Its not a difficult read at all, its based on a video game I've never played but it reads exactly like a Final Fantasy game plays out.
Theres themes of agency and revenge, its a very linear story with some surprising depth.
Its a basic fantasy quest, gather friends find a magical item, defeat the boss vibes, but theres a twist at the end that leaves some very philosophical questions unanswered about the human soul.
March 30, 2013
The World of Aden has a curious history. It seemed to have no presence before the SSI video game series in 1995, and then in the same near period, a book trilogy, roleplaying game setting, and involvement with the "Fantasy Adventures" collectable card game (which near as I can figure sank without a trace).
Which is all irrelevant background for the book, whose immediate appeal to me is a delightfully cheesy cover resembling publicity art for some Masters of the Universe ripoff: a motley collection of characters dramatically posing against a dramatic landscape (for what, a photograph?)
That said, it's about what I expected, or a little better than that. The characters are not particularly compelling, nor is the plot, which seems to exist just as a framework for motivating the characters into interesting situations and places and to drape the protagonist with potential obligations and duties. It's a tour of this corner of Aden ending pretty much where it began, with the characters headed off to bigger adventures because of possibilities opened up by events, and with a set of immediate and long-term problems to address.
The intriguing element of the setting is the Darkfall, an apocalyptic event that occurred within living memory and is an ongoing concern: a monster-invasion of unknown cause, which may or may not have a central intelligence behind it. Its entire nature is left as extremely nebulous , but is itself never thought of as being a goal of some Epic Quest(tm). The characters are more concerned with the mundane political and power struggles between the remaining nation-states. The ravening "nocturnals", the effect of Darkfall, are dealt with as a fact of existence.
In fact the whole presence of the Epic Plot Device of the book--the badly-named "power cluster"--and the quest to obtain it has the effects that you don't see in epic fantasy: organizations and political factions wish to influence its owner, layer him with a debt of gratitude for their assistance, or appeal to his conscience or sense of duty. Or they simply plan to steal the artifact.
Which is all irrelevant background for the book, whose immediate appeal to me is a delightfully cheesy cover resembling publicity art for some Masters of the Universe ripoff: a motley collection of characters dramatically posing against a dramatic landscape (for what, a photograph?)
That said, it's about what I expected, or a little better than that. The characters are not particularly compelling, nor is the plot, which seems to exist just as a framework for motivating the characters into interesting situations and places and to drape the protagonist with potential obligations and duties. It's a tour of this corner of Aden ending pretty much where it began, with the characters headed off to bigger adventures because of possibilities opened up by events, and with a set of immediate and long-term problems to address.
The intriguing element of the setting is the Darkfall, an apocalyptic event that occurred within living memory and is an ongoing concern: a monster-invasion of unknown cause, which may or may not have a central intelligence behind it. Its entire nature is left as extremely nebulous , but is itself never thought of as being a goal of some Epic Quest(tm). The characters are more concerned with the mundane political and power struggles between the remaining nation-states. The ravening "nocturnals", the effect of Darkfall, are dealt with as a fact of existence.
In fact the whole presence of the Epic Plot Device of the book--the badly-named "power cluster"--and the quest to obtain it has the effects that you don't see in epic fantasy: organizations and political factions wish to influence its owner, layer him with a debt of gratitude for their assistance, or appeal to his conscience or sense of duty. Or they simply plan to steal the artifact.
April 2, 2015
Apparently the first book of a series, even though I've never seen any other books.
A former noble deserts his post on a sorcerous train, to kill the tyrant of his city. He meets up with a bunch of others adventurers, and they go on a quest for a crystal.
Lots of world building, which is vaguely interesting, and some interesting creatures make this worth reading.
A former noble deserts his post on a sorcerous train, to kill the tyrant of his city. He meets up with a bunch of others adventurers, and they go on a quest for a crystal.
Lots of world building, which is vaguely interesting, and some interesting creatures make this worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews