A Matter of Honor

Rating:
Summary: In Dreams, He Wielded a Two-Edged Sword ~ Now He's Awake...
Review: A Matter of Honor is the sequel to A Two-Edged Sword and continues the adventures of Steve Wilkinson. Steve's spirit was forced out of the alternate reality, Quarin, back into his body on Earth. He tries to convince himself that the whole experience was just a dream, but then he sees a picture of one of the Dread Lords, Belevairn, in a supermarket tabloid. So Steve drops out of college and sets out to discover what Belevairn is up to. His trip takes him all across the country and then into South America. Steve finds out that the Morvir (the bad guys in Quarin) are coming to Earth and becoming mercenaries to become trained with our technologically advanced weapons. The Dread Lords use our places of Power to transport between their world and Earth. These places of power include an ancient Mayan temple, a Pueblo kiva, and others. But, in order to do this, there have to be many, many blood sacrifices - so they use the drug trade in Nicaragua. They raze whole villages and take only women and children as camp servants/slaves. All of them end up being sacrificed on the top of the temple. As bad as this is, Steve knows that it will be worse if the Morvir can make it back to Quarin with their tanks and guns - Quarin will be utterly destroyed. It is up to him to stop them...

This book has a great plot - bad guys come to earth to take our higher level of technology back to their medieval alternate reality. There are a lot of books about people from our time going to other times/realities, but this is what happens when one of the bad guys follows you home. The characters were very interesting and Martin gave the reader the opportunity to see the events from several different angles: from Steve, the Dreamer & hero; from Dick, a tabloid reporter who will do anything for a story; from Belevairn, an undead warrior with powerful magic; from Maria, a South American woman captured in a raid by the Morvir; from Garth, a Morvir lieutenant, and many more. All of the characters were well developed and the reader instantly feels a kinship with them. All have hopes and dreams, fears and failures, and triumphs - both good and bad.

Although this book was not as good as A Two-Edged Sword, I still thought that it was excellent. Martin keeps things very fast paced and I sat down and read the book in less than a day. I am looking forwarding to reading A Call to Arms, the last book in the trilogy and seeing how the drama plays out.

Rating:
Summary: In Dreams, He Wielded a Two-Edged Sword ~ Now He's Awake...
Review: A Matter of Honor is the sequel to A Two-Edged Sword and continues the adventures of Steve Wilkinson. Steve's spirit was forced out of the alternate reality, Quarin, back into his body on Earth. He tries to convince himself that the whole experience was just a dream, but then he sees a picture of one of the Dread Lords, Belevairn, in a supermarket tabloid. So Steve drops out of college and sets out to discover what Belevairn is up to. His trip takes him all across the country and then into South America. Steve finds out that the Morvir (the bad guys in Quarin) are coming to Earth and becoming mercenaries to become trained with our technologically advanced weapons. The Dread Lords use our places of Power to transport between their world and Earth. These places of power include an ancient Mayan temple, a Pueblo kiva, and others. But, in order to do this, there have to be many, many blood sacrifices - so they use the drug trade in Nicaragua. They raze whole villages and take only women and children as camp servants/slaves. All of them end up being sacrificed on the top of the temple. As bad as this is, Steve knows that it will be worse if the Morvir can make it back to Quarin with their tanks and guns - Quarin will be utterly destroyed. It is up to him to stop them...

This book has a great plot - bad guys come to earth to take our higher level of technology back to their medieval alternate reality. There are a lot of books about people from our time going to other times/realities, but this is what happens when one of the bad guys follows you home. The characters were very interesting and Martin gave the reader the opportunity to see the events from several different angles: from Steve, the Dreamer & hero; from Dick, a tabloid reporter who will do anything for a story; from Belevairn, an undead warrior with powerful magic; from Maria, a South American woman captured in a raid by the Morvir; from Garth, a Morvir lieutenant, and many more. All of the characters were well developed and the reader instantly feels a kinship with them. All have hopes and dreams, fears and failures, and triumphs - both good and bad.

Although this book was not as good as A Two-Edged Sword, I still thought that it was excellent. Martin keeps things very fast paced and I sat down and read the book in less than a day. I am looking forwarding to reading A Call to Arms, the last book in the trilogy and seeing how the drama plays out.

Rating:
Summary: A Return to Reality...but not for long
Review: Once again Mr. Martin entertains us with the misadventures of our poor protaganist, Steve. He's returned to the mundane world and tried to fit back into college life, but it's not working all that well. A photo in a trash mag shows that things aren't over just yet, and Steve is involved once again in a plot that could save or destroy Delgroth. Great book, and well worth the time and energy to read.