The Lion of Farside Trilogy

Anybody else ever read this one? I first read it in my Junior year of high school and I still enjoy it. It's a bit rough, and as a trilogy it's disjointed, but it's a fun read. Especially if you have a thing for red heads, like I do.

I've started a wiki page for it. Can we show it some love?

edited 10th Mar '13 10:41:59 AM by Journeyman

One of the reviews I'd read for the series mentioned the characters reacting unrealistically at parts, but I have to say, with all the magic and being able to see peoples' auras that goes on, we really can't judge that. It's entirely possible that someone who can read others' souls like a book might be able to overcome trauma and not run away when others are near.

Although I'll admit it's not the mark of a good story for these things to be up in the air.

I like how Fantasy Gun Control is handled in this story. It's not some arbitrary chemical limitation that makes no sense, it's a combination of cultural issues and the forces acting between worlds. No one in Yuulith has learned to make gunpowder, so the only guns available in the story are on Earth. The only way to get from Earth to Yuulith is through the Gates, and the forces that guide those gates strip the gunpowder out of bullets as you pass through.

It's even discussed in the third book, with Hauser asking why guns don't work, since the chemical laws in Yuulith seem to be the same as on Earth. It's Curtis who explains that the powder was stripped from his bullets. If Hauser had known that while he was in Yuulith, he might have been able to replicate the recipe for black powder, if he knew it. Even then, though, since he was a slave in Oz, he probably couldn't. The only person who listened to him was Arbel, and his focus was on healing others and preventing conflict. Dropping a bomb like gunpowder on a medieval-style world was just asking for uprisings and wars.

That's probably why the Sisterhood never succeeded in making guns. They wouldn't have wanted to bring something into the world that would have stripped away their defenses and been more reliable than their own magic.