Deathstalker Return

Rating:
Summary: Simon R. Green's best work yet!!!
Review: Against overwhelming odds, Lewis Deathstalker is determined to find out the truth about his famous ancestor, Owen Deathstalker, who disappeared over two hundred years ago. Because Owen is the only one who can save humanity from the Terror he predicted... which has finally arrived....
"A fun, twisty romp with surprises around every corner."
-Publishers Weekly
--------This book was....I can't even form words for its magnificence. A fitting part in the 7-book series(that is, if you don't include Shadows of the Empire, which was sort of a prequel to the whole series....), and shall stand out above all others. My thanks go out to Simon R. Green, for making a legendary series which will be forever remembered in sci-fi/fantasy history.

Rating:
Summary: Simon R Green, still the best
Review: I've read every single Simon R Green book that he has published here in the States... twice. And I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. He has yet to disappoint me in any of his books.
In Return, Simon throws us a couple of days into the mix after the ending of Legacy with Lewis (he throws you 2 months ahead with Finn). The story is essentially split into two parts: What Lewis is doing, and what Finn and Douglas are doing. Or, more of what Finn is doing to Douglas.

This book will keep Simon R Green fans happy. It has tons of inventive ways of killing someone, like always. It also has some wonderful politics. Although, it comes off like there isn't anything Finn can't pull off. He really makes you hate Finn in this book, and he really makes you pity Douglas.

And, the ending to this book was (for me) unexpected, and brilliant. I loved it. I cannot wait until Deathstalker Coda comes out next January... the next 12 months will seem like an eternity.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Simon Green's Deathtalker series gets better with every book. It is never predictable, never boring, and always action packed. It is a fun series and there is no other one like it. I only wish more people would pick this up and read it so Simon never stops writing Deathstalker novels. The universe they take place in is like no other universe in any other books.

It might seem as though I am overhyping this book and this series, and I might be, but I feel like I can't say enough how much I have enjoyed this series.

This latest installment explains things from earlier books that weren't answered (things I had forgotten I once asked because so much is going on) and opens new questions as well (including a major one at the end). The twist at the end I never saw coming. Anyways, if you liked and have read the rest of the series, BUY THIS, it only gets better.

Rating:
Summary: excellence
Review: The second Empire was bright and good, with human, AI, esper and alien living together in harmony. On the empire?s capital world, King Douglas appointed Lewis Deathstalker as the King?s Champion much to the dismay of Finn Durandal who expected the appointment. Finn managed to trump up charges against Lewis and become the King?s Champion but Deathstalker escaped along with Douglas?s fianc?e.

They escape in a stolen spaceship along with a con artist thief, a sociopathic gladiator and Saturday the replitoid. These five outlaws must find a way to stop Finn?s growing reign of terror as he consolidates his power. Their final destination after a series of adventures is the world of Haden where Lewis must travel to the center of the Madness Maze in the hopes of bringing his illustrious ancestor Owen Deathstalker back from the dead. Only he can stop Finn and the terror, a phenomenon that is destroying all inhabited worlds.

Fans of the various Star Wars and Star Trek novels are going to love Simon R. Green?s epic science fiction series. There is plenty of action and adventure but basically DEATHSTALKER RETURN is a story about people, men and women who rise to the occasion and become heroes vs. those who take advantage of a situation and become villains. The story is told from both points of views so readers understand what is going on in the minds and hearts of the characters at all times. There is going to be another book in the series because there is one very big question that must be answered and the author cleverly sets it up with the last sentence of the last page.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Epic science fiction tale
Review: The second Empire was bright and good, with human, AI, esper and alien living together in harmony. On the empire's capital world, King Douglas appointed Lewis Deathstalker as the King's Champion much to the dismay of Finn Durandal who expected the appointment. Finn managed to trump up charges against Lewis and become the King's Champion but Deathstalker escaped along with Douglas's fiancée.

They escape in a stolen spaceship along with a con artist thief, a sociopathic gladiator and Saturday the replitoid. These five outlaws must find a way to stop Finn's growing reign of terror as he consolidates his power. Their final destination after a series of adventures is the world of Haden where Lewis must travel to the center of the Madness Maze in the hopes of bringing his illustrious ancestor Owen Deathstalker back from the dead. Only he can stop Finn and the terror, a phenomenon that is destroying all inhabited worlds.

Fans of the various Star Wars and Star Trek novels are going to love Simon R. Green's epic science fiction series. There is plenty of action and adventure but basically DEATHSTALKER RETURN is a story about people, men and women who rise to the occasion and become heroes vs. those who take advantage of a situation and become villains. The story is told from both points of views so readers understand what is going on in the minds and hearts of the characters at all times. There is going to be another book in the series because there is one very big question that must be answered and the author cleverly sets it up with the last sentence of the last page.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: excellence
Review: this book was definitely one of the best books that Simon R. Green has written - you really begin to sympathize with all the good characters and hate the bad ones. it's really a great read - it took about 3 hours for me to finish it, i was so engrossed. the ending especially, it was the most brilliant ending i have ever read, i can't wait until the next one comes out!

Rating:
Summary: The much-anticipated return of Owen Deathstalker
Review: Two hundred years have passed since Owen Deathstalker and his companions overthrew a corrupt Empire and saved humanity from the seemingly insurmountable threat of the Recreated. Owen Deathstalker, Hazel D'Ark, Jack Random, Ruby Journey - they are just legends now, the details of their exploits removed from the historical record because the new king and queen thought that the people would be more inspired by legend than a history that revealed their human weaknesses. Thanks to Owen, the Empire did indeed enter into a Golden Age, the enemies of Humanity either defeated or incorporated as newly established allies. Now that great era of peace and interspecies cooperation is falling apart, eaten away from within by a power-hungry former enforcer of justice and threatened from without by the prophesied arrival of the Terror. Owen Deathstalker warned of the coming danger in his final message, and now everyone in the Empire looks to him to return and save the day once again, for legend decrees that he alone can defeat the apocalyptic menace of the Terror.

Owen Deathstalker's story was told over the course of five incredibly exciting novels. Deathstalker Legacy took up the story two hundred years later, introducing us to a new Deathstalker in Lewis, a noble Paragon who was named King Douglas' Champion and then branded a traitor when he ran off with the king's intended bride Jesamine Flowers. Outlawed just like his famous predecessor, Lewis eventually teamed up with a most unusual team of individuals and set off to find - he hoped - the blessed Owen Deathstalker. The new gang of heroes does not even begin to compare with the legendary heroes of the past. Lewis is yet to prove himself a true Deathstalker in my eyes; his great love Jesamine Flowers is a spoiled and shallow diva who goes on and on about the comforts she has given up for her love of Lewis; Brett Random, who claims to be descended from both Jack Random and Ruby Journey (although no one believes it but him) is an insult to the very name of Random, a sniveling con man and complainer who deals with every danger by running away from it; Rose Constantine is a bloodthirsty killer from the Arenas who keeps trying to be human - usually failing miserably at it; and Saturday is a giant reptiloid alien who comes along just to kill as many people as possible.

Then there's the traitorous, power-hungry villain, Finn Durandal. Empress Lionstone was a worthy opponent, the kind of evil dictator you could at least respect for her calculating inhumanity. Durandal is just a closet sociopath who betrayed everything he used to be as a noble Paragon in order to scheme his way to power, triggered mainly by the jealousy he felt when Lewis Deathstalker was chosen over him as King Douglas' Champion. Durandal is a great schemer, a far-thinking man who manages to exploit both friends and enemies for his own purposes, but he's really just an extremely petty man whose path to power is just ridiculously easy given all of the infamous deeds he goes about doing.

Deathstalker Return is in some ways a return trip down memory lane. Lewis Deathstalker and his ill-sorted allies retrace much of the path followed by the legendary Owen himself, stopping off on Lachrymose Christi and Shandrakor before proceeding to Haden, the home of the Madness Maze which gave Owen Deathstalker and his companions the superhuman powers that helped them become the venerated saviors of humanity. The trip to Haden isn't always that enjoyable; the constant bickering back and forth between our new heroes falls far short of recapturing the sort of give and take that made earlier Deathstalker novels so entertaining. Everything that worked so well for Simon R. Green in the past really rings hollow now. Green seemingly needs Owen Deathstalker to return just as badly as the crumbling Empire does - in Owen mode, Green's story immediately transforms itself into the captivating space opera that made me such a huge Deathstalker fan to begin with.

One thing Green never fails to deliver is a litany of shocking surprises. You have to wait a little longer than usual this time around, but Deathstalker Return has a host of monkey wrenches to throw into the inner workings of the ongoing Deathstalker saga, including a final revelation that will have fans waiting with baited breath for the next installment in this incredible series.

You don't necessarily need to read the first five volumes of the life and times of Owen Deathstalker (Deathstalker, Deathstalker Rebellion, Deathstalker War, Deathstalker Honor, and Deathstalker Destiny) in order to enjoy this novel (although you will miss out on a lot without the background those novels provide), but you will certainly want to read Deathstalker Legacy before immersing yourself in the complex plot of Deathstalker Return. There is just too much going on here for you to jump in unprepared.