Debora Elizabeth Hill, Sandra Brandenburg The Land of the Wand

The Land of the Wand

Debora Elizabeth Hill, Sandra Brandenburg

Lost Myths Ink, Feb 2006

ISBN: 1929374437

In an import store at Chicago's Illinois Center mall, four seemingly normal Sapiens are drawn to a wand on display. They cannot resist its lure though the quartet (Swedish heavy metal rock star Marshall Storm of the group Stockholm, fantasy author Evan Stone, architect Valaura Bennet, and Burger World server Lillian Curtis) appears to have nothing in common. That is until the wand transports them into a strange place like nothing any of them have ever seen before.

They meet the "Daemona" people with hooves who are under assault by a stunningly gorgeous winged race Anjeles who want to eradicate the species. The Daemona consider the foursome as their saviors with pacifist Marshal as the champion and the remaining peace-loving trio his helpers. Hoping to prevent ethnic cleansing, the transported earthlings struggle to understand their hosts led by four sibling rival monarchs (Nicholas, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, and Lucifer) battling one another as much as the adversary and the Anjeles whose King Yahoo rules in Paradiso. Give peace a chance seems unlikely in a realm where holy war is the norm.

This is a terrific allegorical fantasy that grips readers once the four humans are introduced (cleverly done in separate prologues to open the tale) and never slows down until the final Stockholm Concert. The story line is action-packed but intelligently uses tiny spins such as names of monarchs and species to provide a "truth" somewhat differing from religions back home. Readers will believe that the four heroes left the Midwest for another dimension as they seem genuine throughout making their Gulliver like travels seem authentic. This one sitting saga is worth the journey.

Harriet Klausner