Sunday, June 14, 2020

The Broken Lands - Fred Saberhagen



I'm sure I've encountered 'the magic comes back (or is revealed)' after some catastrophe many times before, but the only one I can think of at the moment is Stephen King's The Stand. Though it's not stated I would guess, going by the time this was written, the catastrophe here would have been nuclear war. So technology is lying around, sorcerers raise elementals, and agents of the evil empire of the East are enslaving the good farming folk of the West. A boy whose parents are killed is set on a course of vengeance and joins the revolution . . . and thus far it is all pedestrian and predictable. But the Eastern ruler fears the elephant, for it has been foretold to bring him down and now, to throw a SPOILER in: it doesn't have legs but treads and runs on nuclear power. I didn't enjoy this as I remembered. I think that's more to do with my mood and wanting to get onto what I remembered as the good stuff. New readers may well enjoy it a lot more because, being pretty much fantasy, it's not really gone past its use by date.

Image may contain: text that says "LALCEM THE BROKEN LANDS FRED FRED SABERHAGEN Who can control the unleashed power of sorcery and ancient lore?"

5 comments:

Fritz Freiheit said...

I'm going to guess you've read its sequel _The Black Mountains_. While I never read _The Broken Lands_, _The Black Mountains_ remains to this day a memorable novel for me, particularly the silver pool, how the main character got there, and the thing that lived in it. Are you planning on (re)reading it?

Geoffrey said...

Interesting connection between The Broken lands and Stephen King's writings... didn't King envision an evil train going across the "blasted lands" that ended up at a terminal that was infected by the plague from The Stand (but in a different universe)?

Maybe it is the bourbon typing.

Jessie Grey

Shareene said...

one of my favorite author :)
LMT Defender

Bookstooge said...

Had you read his Lost Swords series before reading this? I'd read the Sword books well before this and since this is a prequel, I think it would have destroyed the reveals in the Swords books.

Bookstooge

Dr Usp said...

The Empire of the East was a revelation to me as a youngster. It was the first time I encountered magic superseding a failed technological society. I loved the three great lords and the duel between the wizards and the demon... Zapranoth I think. So many great concepts.