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Spell of Catastrophe

English, published in 1989
103,612 words (286 pages)
No. 1 in the Dance of the Gods series

For a change, Max was not actually on the run, which is to say that he didn't think anyone in particular was after him. Of course, his perception (which happened to be wrong) did not materially change the situation. He did indeed have a pursuer, and later that night the pursuer caught up.

Excerpt

but it is a long story. Actually, it's not that long a story, but it's sort of -"

"Karlini."

"All right, all right. You noticed the castle?"

"Yeah, sure. Looks like a nice place."

"Well … it's okay."

"So, what's wrong with it? It have rats? Things?"

"It's not what it has," Karlini said, "it's what it does. It moves."

"Moves."

"Not like earthquakes, I mean, or settling ground. I mean you wake up in the morning and the whole castle's jumped somewhere else. It's been here for almost two weeks, but before that, it was bounce, bounce, bounce. Just enough time to get an idea where we are, and then, poof!, another hemisphere. Last month we spent six days somewhere around the North Pole. We almost froze. I'm just waiting for this thing to head for the open ocean."

"I assume we'll get to the real point when you tell me why you can't get rid of the place. You got a problem with the landlord?"

Karlini looked suspiciously at Max. "You sure you h

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Average Rating:

2009.06.08
GeoRW

Not a bad book but ... First half was written very good. Toward the end it has become mediocre and maybe even boring. Last third seemed like author couldn't decide weather to write in first person or in third person. The part about how to name the (first person) storyteller was especially ridiculous ;) Also the whole story itself wasn't very consistent throughout the book. The second part will hopefully be better. It has the potential.

2008.07.07
Brad Sims

Great book! It's like a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk novel but with all the technology replaced by gods and magic. Instead of jacking into the matrix, the heroes (and there are several of them) tap into spells. And were cyberpunk usually has some ominous, mysterious artificial intelligence pulling strings behind the scenes, the Brenner books have gods using the mortals as pawns.

Well written. Funny. Intriguing. Surprisingly original for such an overdone genre.

I don't know why Brenner's books haven't gotten more attention, but I'm glad they're available on Manybooks.