The God Stalker Chronicles-P.C. Hodgell

The God Stalker Chronicles
P.C. Hodgell
Baen, Jan 2009, $24.00
ISBN: 9781416555766

“God Stalk”. The Three-Faced God created the Kencyrath triple people to end the spread of the Perimal Darkling. However as the evil extended its hold, The Three-Faced God abandoned its people to their dangerous fate especially after the Kencyrath leader betrayed his people. The stunned Kencyrath reacted by disavowing anything godly. A few thousands of years later, young Jame with her God marked silver eyes is exiled into the eerie wilderness to die. However, Jame survives and a decade later with little memory of before the deportation, searches for her missing twin brother Torisen. She fails at her quest, but ends up in mystical Tai-Taistigon where gods and demons co-exist. She becomes an apprentice to the Guild Master Thief Penari and meets Loogan and his god Gorgo, who she kills and brings back to life.

“Dark of the Moon”. Jame eventually leaves Tai-Taistigon to continue her quest to find her sibling, but also wants to discover who she is. Meanwhile Tori is ten years older than his twin and currently is chieftain of the Kencyrath. However his sister will soon rock his comfortable vainglorious world as she obsesses over giving him their father’s sword and ring while preparing for the coming of the Darkness

Combining these two related 1980s published superb fantasies into one collection leads to a comparative analysis of the support cast in each tale with the results being they are night and day; just like the twins. That brings freshness to both adventures even as each shares the overarching theme of coming of age escapades of a young woman seeking to understand who she is in a realm in which self seems murky at best. Readers will immensely relish the first two chronicles of Jame (the next saga is SEEKER'S MASK, not read by me) as she navigates a world she does not comprehend although P.C. Hodgell obviously does as this weird world makes for an excellent read.

Harriet Klausner