Garan the Eternal [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Garan the Eternal

First I want to thank Arthur W. Jordin for telling me about this book. If you enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy with a little alternative history thrown in, you might want to "Google" Arthur W. Jordin and go to his reviews; at the time of this review he has over 800 reviews. If you want, you can start with those he gave five stars to and go back to the lower rated books. Now on with the review:

"In our world, he was Garin, jet pilot and explorer.

In the lost land of Tav, he was Garan who would supply the link with their most ancient past.
And in a world far distant in space and time, he was Garan of Yu-Lac, who would stand alone between a planet's doom and the ones he loved.

Garan the Eternal is a web of wonders woven by a master writer. It is the story of three lives tied by a recurrent destiny--that of Kepta the Ambitious, of Thala the Divine and of Garan himself, man of three worlds".

Highly recommend for fans of Andre Norton. Let us hope that Baen republishes this one too.

Gunner June, 2008

Garan the Eternal (1972) is a collection of four fantasy tales spanning almost 30 years of the author's career.

Garin of Tuv is the story of Garin Featherstone, a wartime pilot now searching for a job. He is hired as a pilot on an antartic expedition to investigate an anomaly near the South Pole. When the three planes of the expedition reach the area, Garin's mind is possessed by a strange power which guides his airplane deep within a crater. There he discovers an old and alien race that has brought him down to fight an ancient evil.

Garan of Yu-Lac is the story of a previous incarnation of Garin who falls in love with the Emperor's daughter, Lady Thrala, and finds an enemy in Kepta of Koom. This tale is the backstory of Garin of Tuv.

Legacy From Sorn Fen is a tale of misused power and the peculiar justice found within the fens of High Hallek.

One Spell Wizard is a yarn about a Wizard's apprentice in High Hallek who learns only one spell but uses it cunningly if not quite wisely.

This collection is not the best works produced by the author, but does show some of her characteristic style and wordage. Recommended for Norton completists.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Strictly speaking, what we have here are 2 novellas about Garan and 2 unrelated short stories, rather than a novel, although the novellas are titled merely 'part 1' and 'part 2' rather than being given their original names in the table of contents. (I'll rectify that here.) The Garan novellas are set in an alternate history of our own world, but the short stories are from the Witch World series; the settings are unrelated.

The "Garin" vs. "Garan" spelling issue is not a typographical error, incidentally. The modern-day character's birth name has the 'i' spelling and pronunciation, while the people of Tav and Krand render it the other way.

"Garin of Tav", a.k.a. "People of the Crater" (1947) - Garin Featherstone's 15 minutes of fame passed years ago, after leading a daring airstrike during a long war. But down-and-out pilots still have their uses during an Antarctic exploration, seeking a crater with unusual characteristics, only seen once before from the air. While this may sound like a clone of Doyle's THE LOST WORLD, it quickly diverges from that path. The story has an intriguing start, but the "tell" to "show" ratio is a little too high once we're introduced to the world of Tav. Several "death before dishonor" scenarios pop up that seem inadequately justified. Worth reading, but the follow-up story below is more to my liking.

"Garan of Yu-Lac" (1969, 1973) - The very beginning and ending of this story involve the Garin and Thrala of the present day, as she reveals to him the tale of an age long past in which they met once before. The tale in between is the first-person narrative of that other Garan, on the long-vanished world of Krand. As the offspring of a forbidden cross-caste marriage, Garan's life has been shaped by Krand's rigid caste system; the only life open to him was that of the military, and that only by a merciful decree of the Emperor. Now, secretly, he has raised his eyes to the throne at the Emperor's right hand - Thrala, the emperor's daughter, in hopelessness. But other, darker secrets infest Krand. Two other characters seen briefly in "Garin of Tav" also appear in this past-life scenario, and their behaviour in the first story takes on added depth.

Krand reminds me of the original Buck Rogers comics in terms of technology (not that the details are allowed to become obtrusive); that's actually a point in its favour, for me. Garan's personal problem is handled with great artistry, as are the more world-threatening issues.

"One Spell Wizard" - See Norton's MOON MIRROR. A humorous Witch World story, even though the manner of storytelling is typical of the series, of an unsuccessful wizard who deliberately takes an apprentice with a speech impediment - since he wants an assistant for small-time con jobs, rather than spellcasting.

"Legacy from Sorn Fen" - Like "The Toads of Grimmerdale" (with which it appears in LORE OF THE WITCH WORLD), this tale features a man who rose from obscure beginnings to lordship in a Dale left leaderless in the wake of the Invaders' War, but Higbold and Treyvan have little in common otherwise.