The Devil's Looking-Glass soa-3
by Mark Chadbourn
Will Swyfte, Elizabethan England's answer to James Bond, returns in his third swashbuckling supernatural Swords of Albion adventure.
1593: The dreaded alchemist, black magician and spy Dr John Dee is missing. Terror sweeps through the court of Queen Elizabeth, for in Dee's possession is an obsidian mirror, a mysterious object of great power which legend says could set the world afire. And so the call goes out to celebrated swordsman, adventurer and rake Will Swyfte -- find Dee and his feared looking-glass and return them to London before disaster strikes. But when Will discovers the mirror may help him solve the mystery that has haunted him for years -- the fate of his lost love, Jenny -- the stakes become acutely personal.
With a frozen London under siege by supernatural powers, the sands of time are running out. Will is left with no choice but to pursue the alchemist to the devil-haunted lands of the New World -- in the very shadow of the terrifying fortress home of England's hidden enemy, the Unseelie Court. Surrounded by an army of these unearthly fiends, with only his sword and a few brave friends at his back, the realm's greatest spy must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice -- or see all he loves destroyed.
Review A plot that races like a flaming whippet on crack...darkly ingenious...hugely entertaining...streets ahead of most works in this genre SFSITE Smart, fun, at times surprisingly moving, and occasionally downright shocking...impossible to put down REALMS OF FANTASY
1593: The dreaded alchemist, black magician and spy Dr John Dee is missing. Terror sweeps through the court of Queen Elizabeth, for in Dee's possession is an obsidian mirror, a mysterious object of great power which legend says could set the world afire. And so the call goes out to celebrated swordsman, adventurer and rake Will Swyfte -- find Dee and his feared looking-glass and return them to London before disaster strikes. But when Will discovers the mirror may help him solve the mystery that has haunted him for years -- the fate of his lost love, Jenny -- the stakes become acutely personal.
With a frozen London under siege by supernatural powers, the sands of time are running out. Will is left with no choice but to pursue the alchemist to the devil-haunted lands of the New World -- in the very shadow of the terrifying fortress home of England's hidden enemy, the Unseelie Court. Surrounded by an army of these unearthly fiends, with only his sword and a few brave friends at his back, the realm's greatest spy must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice -- or see all he loves destroyed.
Review A plot that races like a flaming whippet on crack...darkly ingenious...hugely entertaining...streets ahead of most works in this genre SFSITE Smart, fun, at times surprisingly moving, and occasionally downright shocking...impossible to put down REALMS OF FANTASY