Paul Genesse, The Golden Cord

The Golden Cord

Paul Genesse

Five Star, Apr 2008, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594146596

Wyverns, griffins, and dragons are devastating the villages killing many people because they see humans as food. They also want to control Aeleron making it free of dwarves and humans. Humans live in hidden villages as they conceal themselves from the Wyvern-kin attacks from above and the ground assaults of the Drobin Empire army that takes them as slaves.

The hamlet of Cliffton is in the middle of Thornclaw Forest near the Void, the cloud cover that does not allow anyone to look into the Underworld. Drake Bloodstone does not do much hunting unlike the rest of the men; instead he and his canine pals stay behind to guard his people and his home from outside threats. When two Drobin warriors come to the gate, Drake lets them in and learns they are seeking their kin who settled in the nearby town of Armsted in the mine of Quarzaak. They need a guide to escort them through the forest; Drake agrees to take them although he believes they hide their true objectives and intentions because he wants them away from his village and because it is the right thing to do.

THE GOLDEN CORD is epic quest fantasy in the tradition of Tolkien as the first Iron Dragon tale is an enthralling thriller filled with monsters out of the myths devouring humanity. Because of the danger from the sky and the ground, society has been forced to remain in small agricultural packets of hunters, crop growers, and gatherers. There is plenty of action, but it is the ever dangerous Genesse world that makes this a fascinating opening gamut.

Harriet Klausner