Simon R. Green, Deathstalker Coda

Deathstalker Coda

Simon R. Green

Roc, Feb 2004, $23.95, 384 pp.

ISBN 045460111

When King Douglas made Lewis Deathstalker his Champion, he earned the enmity of the Paragon Finn who drove a wedge between the Emperor and his Champion. Eventually Lewis fled for his life and Finn became Emperor while Douglass hid in the Rookery, the worst part of the city; the former ruler is building up a rebel force to take Finn down.

Meanwhile, Lewis is on Haden with his girlfriend and two other allies. They enter the Madness Maze seeking to bring back to life legendary Owen Deathstalker, dead for over two centuries. Owen returns but not to fight Finn but to stop The Terror which is destroying worlds. The Terror is Owen's lover Hazel who went mad when Owen died and was transformed by the Madness Maze into a creature that destroys whole planetary systems. Owen, who is now able to defy the laws of space and time, follows her and hopes to bring her back to what she once was; Lewis gathers a space armada to deal with Finn in the air while Douglas deals with him on the land.

Two subplots, one cosmic and the other the outcome of ordinary human evil, yet both are necessary to make DEATHSTALKER CODA a superlative word of science fiction. Simon R. Green brings to a close THE DEATHSTALKER SAGA and leaves readers satisfied that they have read a book that will be considered a classic by future generations. This space opera is fantastic as the audience hopes, but will not know, whether the coda is a fine ending for the heroes and a righteous death for the villain.

Harriet Klausner