Rating: 
Summary: Ahoy, matey, a worthy effort, but on the plank for ye now
Review: A fun novel, recommended to me by Bob Gore, who knew that I liked pirates (especially as seen in Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides). Bob said that Chase the Morning wasn't as good, and he was right, but it was still worth reading, and worth examining to discover why it isn't as good.First off, the story. Steve's a hollow young urban professional in some modern European city in which the residents speak English, visit pubs, drive nifty sports cars fast, and engage in shipping and receiving. Steve decides to chase a whim one night and finds himself rescuing a dimunitive fellow from the intent of three dark fiends. No fantasy involved however. The dimunitive fellow is just a short guy, and the fiends are simple muggers. Wrong. These people were using swords. Steve tries to shrug off the incident, although it is the most exciting thing that has happened to him in quite a long time. And he can't quite forget it, and finds himself again down by the shipyard. In no time, he finds himself involved completely, as he again saves the short guy's life, watches some kind of voodoo creature escape from a bail of hay, and then has his secretary abducted by the fiends (the "wolves"). It's not On Stranger Tides or A.A. Attanasio's Wyvern. There is a real sense of two different worlds colliding in Chase the Morning, rather than some alternate world (On Stranger Tides) or some new world that strangely resembles our own, but is consistent within itself (Wyvern). Chase the Morning is a fantasy novel in which someone from the real world finds fantastical things happening to them. This can be okay, except most readers are so familiar with the genre (which ranges from C.S. Lewis' "Narnia," to Stephen R. Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant"), that the new author should know what's been done. Rohan seems somewhat attune to the genre, but I think it's obvious that he missed the Donaldson books in particular, and that his work suffers from it. In fact, trying to compare Chase the Morning with Lord Foul's Bain better brings out the problems with Rohan's book than trying to compare it with Powers, in which the only things really shared there is an idea of a milieu. That's because Steve is supposed to be an anti-hero, like Donaldson's Thomas Covenant. It's tough to write a story in which your main protagonist is an anti-hero, because a reader's first inclination is to identify with the protagonist of the story, especially in a field like fantasy, where the hero is often a thinly veiled wish fulfillment character of the reader (see Orson Scott Card's widely successful "Ender" books for the clearest recent example of the same). Covenant works because he is an intensely unlikeable character; he is often so intensely unliked that readers can't make it through the first part of Lord Foul's Bain because they can't, and don't want to try to, understand Covenant. Donaldson overcomes the problem by allowing minor characters to become personifications of the reader: the mother of the girl he rapes in the third chapter (and who knows of his atrocity) takes Covenant to the lords not because of what he could mean to "the Land" but because she hopes that they will be able to punish him (which she is unable to do because of his "power") or because she hopes that something good can become of his evil deed (that the lords can use him to save the Land). This is complex stuff for a fantasy novel. Rohan's Steve, on the other hand, is a likable character. Oh, sure, he's described as hollow, but I think most readers wouldn't necessarily find that a damning description. Steve's unlikable traits are always described (told) to the reader; when the action gets going, Steve's always doing the heroic thing (shown). The reader translates this as Steve's the hero, so when the plot rolls around to using the fact that Steve's a dweeb who is worthless as a human, the reader's inclination is to say, "What?" So Chase the Morning is a flawed book. Rohan is someone with potential, though, because he realized that without the anti-hero idea, his novel was just another rehash of the same ol' dropping the modern character in the fantasy world. That is, Rohan is at least trying to go beyond formula, and while he fails, one should applaud the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantasy and adventure on the High Seas.
Review: Chase the Morning, by Michael Scott Rohan Steve is a Import/Export executive in a nameless British city. His impulsiveness, curiosity, and good turn to a stranger lead him to learn of a greater and more magical world just around the corner from our own. Our world, the Core is the center point of a seemingly limitless sea of lands of magic and adventure. Voodoo, strange magic, demigods, and sea adventure a la Horatio Hornblower are the order of the day, as Steve, at first unwillingly, learns more about this strange secret outer world on its magical high seas. Hollow inside, Steve grows and learns what it is to be a man and take responsibility through his adventures with his odd, new companions. Certainly, the book at its main is the trope of "modern man thrown into a fantasy world" but the intersection of those worlds, their dependence on each other, and the vividness of the descriptions (especially the battle scenes) make the novel work. I know now why my friend Scott seeks out novels from this British author, even though they can prove difficult and expensive to obtain here in the states. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy and adventure on the High Seas.
Review: Chase the Morning, by Michael Scott Rohan Steve is a Import/Export executive in a nameless British city. His impulsiveness, curiosity, and good turn to a stranger lead him to learn of a greater and more magical world just around the corner from our own. Our world, the Core is the center point of a seemingly limitless sea of lands of magic and adventure. Voodoo, strange magic, demigods, and sea adventure a la Horatio Hornblower are the order of the day, as Steve, at first unwillingly, learns more about this strange secret outer world on its magical high seas. Hollow inside, Steve grows and learns what it is to be a man and take responsibility through his adventures with his odd, new companions. Certainly, the book at its main is the trope of "modern man thrown into a fantasy world" but the intersection of those worlds, their dependence on each other, and the vividness of the descriptions (especially the battle scenes) make the novel work. I know now why my friend Scott seeks out novels from this British author, even though they can prove difficult and expensive to obtain here in the states. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Workout for the Imagination
Review: I enjoyed the concept of the world that exists somewhere between the edge of reality and a magical world that evokes a time from years past. The book manages to tread this line and cross it from time to time throughout the course of the book without too much trouble. Mr. Rohan's writing is a good workout for the imagination and fills the mind with vivid imagery. A good book about a man that escapes his reality for a trip in a fantasy world where he's the hero and let's you come along for the ride. Worth the extra effort to try find this one. I'm ordering the sequel myself as soon as I'm done writing this.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Workout for the Imagination
Review: I enjoyed the concept of the world that exists somewhere between the edge of reality and a magical world that evokes a time from years past. The book manages to tread this line and cross it from time to time throughout the course of the book without too much trouble. Mr. Rohan's writing is a good workout for the imagination and fills the mind with vivid imagery. A good book about a man that escapes his reality for a trip in a fantasy world where he's the hero and let's you come along for the ride. Worth the extra effort to try find this one. I'm ordering the sequel myself as soon as I'm done writing this.
Rating: 
Summary: Original contemporary fantasy
Review: I love this series, its intermingling of today's everyday man's spleen with strange alternate realities. It's a work of rare originality that leaves the reader who loves romance ad adventure whit a pang of existential angst wholly satisfied
Rating:
Summary: A transport of delight
Review: If you can get hold of this book, do. Rohan manages the difficult 'crossing of the line' between the real world and Fantasy with consumate skill. His wordsmithing is superb when it comes to crafting an 'almost visible' fantasy world. The book takes the reader into a world of tall ships and then into the blood and passion soaked heart of the 16th century Caribbean - and then into the heart of voodoo. The characters - such as Gyp the pilot and Mad Mall are vibrant. I loved it. The plot twists and shakes and allows us windows into the frailties which make us human. Yet it is a triumphal book. It's time it was reprinted.
Rating:
Summary: A transport of delight
Review: If you can get hold of this book, do. Rohan manages the difficult 'crossing of the line' between the real world and Fantasy with consumate skill. His wordsmithing is superb when it comes to crafting an 'almost visible' fantasy world. The book takes the reader into a world of tall ships and then into the blood and passion soaked heart of the 16th century Caribbean - and then into the heart of voodoo. The characters - such as Gyp the pilot and Mad Mall are vibrant. I loved it. The plot twists and shakes and allows us windows into the frailties which make us human. Yet it is a triumphal book. It's time it was reprinted.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Ride in the Fantasy World
Review: This book has to be one of the best Fantasys I have ever read. It shows you the normal world with a normal person you can relate to and then pulls you along into a Fantasy world of wonder and excitement. Steve is a guy we are all like sometimes and it makes us realize how wrapped up in our own lives we can get. But then Steve finds something to pull him out of his own comfortable world and into "reality"(in a sense) by pushing him into Fantasy, he sees who he truly is. In way we all can relate to this, we all need a little adventure in our lives. So since we won't really ever find ourselves in the Rim one day, we can read this book to take us there. Rohan does a great job in all aspects of the book. He gives great descriptions of everything without managing to bore us, the entire book is fast paced and filled with amazing adventures, humor, and even romance. It keeps you guessing and wondering while pulling you through a rollercoaster of emotions. It's a wonderful ride in the Fantasy World.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Ride in the Fantasy World
Review: This book has to be one of the best Fantasys I have ever read. It shows you the normal world with a normal person you can relate to and then pulls you along into a Fantasy world of wonder and excitement. Steve is a guy we are all like sometimes and it makes us realize how wrapped up in our own lives we can get. But then Steve finds something to pull him out of his own comfortable world and into "reality"(in a sense) by pushing him into Fantasy, he sees who he truly is. In way we all can relate to this, we all need a little adventure in our lives. So since we won't really ever find ourselves in the Rim one day, we can read this book to take us there. Rohan does a great job in all aspects of the book. He gives great descriptions of everything without managing to bore us, the entire book is fast paced and filled with amazing adventures, humor, and even romance. It keeps you guessing and wondering while pulling you through a rollercoaster of emotions. It's a wonderful ride in the Fantasy World.
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