2011;
248 pages. Full Title : The Bound Soul (Halcyon #3: A Quest for Revenge). The concluding book in the “Halcyon” trilogy.
New Author? : No. Genres : Action-Adventure; Alt History. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
The
full title sums it up rather well. Don
Lorenzo’s soul is imprisoned in an aetherium sword, and Qhora is on a mission
to recover the weapon, free the soul, and take her revenge on Aker, the
dastardly perp.
But Aker has fled Marrakesh, and is bound for Alexandria, Egypt. To catch him, Qhora needs something
fast. Like an airship. Like Taziri’s innovative Halcyon 3 airship. But how to persuade Taziri to fly them across
the African continent? Ah, that’s what
they invented money for.
What’s To Like...
Stylistically, The Bound Soul is much like the
first two books of the series – constant action, interesting characters, multiple
POV’s, a decent storyline. The Alternate
World is unchanged (although Joseph Robert Lewis places you in a different
part of it for each book) , you can read details of it here and
here.
There’s a nice blend of old friends and new people. Tycho and Philo are neat characters to
meet. The aetherium (aka “seireiken”) swords are
fascinating inventions. They cut through
anything – flesh, bone, metal, other seireiken – like it was paper; but they
are no match for a speeding bullet. Atoq
and Wayra aren’t here, but Turi, a giant “harpy eagle” (see book cover) fills in nicely.
Best of all is the Halcyon 3, which is more like an airplane than an airship,
and can transform itself into looking like a locomotive engine. Kewlness!
Although part of a trilogy, you can read TBS as a standalone novel. There’s no cussing, but the book opens with a
sex scene; which makes me wonder who the target audience is. And Don Lorenzo’s plight basically removes
him from the storyline (until the very end), which frankly takes away
the most interesting character of the bunch.
Excerpts...
They
sat down together on the old tarp on the floor and shared the rest of the
water. The girl spent every moment
staring all around her at the walls, the seats, and the controls. She even leaned down to run her fingers over
the rivets in the floor.
“You like machines? Want to be an engineer one day?” Taziri
said. “Well, keep up your mathematics
and you too could have an exciting career in flying strange people to dangerous
countries in the middle of the night.” (loc.
1504)
“I want to know about the burning
swords. I want to know about the
assassinations.”
“You want a great deal,” Khai said
calmly. His eyes closed a small
fraction. “In the east, they would call
that the path to suffering.”
“In the east, they worship cows. You’ll pardon me for thinking their ideas are
stupid.” (loc. 1653)
Kindle Details...
The Bound Soul sells for $3.99 at Amazon. Book #1
in the series, The Burning Sky sells for $0.99
and Book #2 , The Broken Sword is going for $4.99. It seems like the prices change quite a bit
on each of these, and if you're patient, you might even occasionally find
them for free.
“That’s what happens when you bring magic swords to a gun fight!” (loc. 3640)
Although
The Bound Soul finishes this trilogy, Joseph Robert Lewis has already published
two other series set in the same Alt-World; the Chimera
duology and the Europa trilogy. ANAICT, these take place slightly after the
Halcyon books. I don’t think he’s
written a prequel recounting how Don Lorenzo and Qhora met over in the New
World.
Overall,
these books are quick, fun reads. They
don’t have the depth of, say, Robert Jordan’s Wheel
of Time series. OTOH, after
600 pages here, you’ve been treated to three exciting adventures and a
completed series. 600 pages wouldn’t
even get you through one of the 14 WoT
books.
8 Stars,
both for The Bound Soul in particular
and the Halcyon series as a whole. Think of them as being “Epic Lite” (I love oxymorons), and enjoy them for the
escapist Alt-History they are.
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