"The start of a great new fantasy"

Though only seventeen, the expectations for Kellen Tavadon, as the son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, are extraordinary. He has spent his life training in the High Magic trying to live up to what everyone anticipates he will achieve. Still his studies makes him wonder if that is all there is though Kellen is proud of his father and the other members of the sage Council of Mages as they guide the lives of the occupants of the Golden City of the Bells, Armethalieh.

While skipping his lessons, Kellen finds three forbidden books. Banned as heresy, these are the Books of Wild Magic. Unable to resist though he knows Wild Magic extracts a high personal payment from its user, Kellen begins studying his find. However, his sire learns what Kellen has done and exiles his son but after Kellen leaves, Lycaelon sends the Golems to kill him. As the teen discover a world of magic in which females even partake and centaurs and unicorns live, he also struggles to survive while wondering if the myth of evil demons is true too.

Though the first of a sword and sorcery trilogy, THE OUTSTRETCHED SHADOW may be the fantasy novel of the year. The story line is action-packed, but insures that magic seems genuine and the mythological creatures appear real so that the audience believes in Golems and unicorns, etc. Besides a tremendous opening gamut, this epic fantasy novel provides a strong conclusion (not the typical salami slice ending), but leaves enough threads to tease readers anticipating the next novel. Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory chronicle a great tale that will provide the duo much acclaim.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted October 18, 2003

Summary

Kellen Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic- memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council. Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? The three slim volumes woke Kellen to the wide world outside the City's isolating walls. Their Magic was not dead, strangled by rules and regulations. It felt like a living thing, guided by the hearts and minds of those who practiced it and benefited from it. Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City's dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild Magic-and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side. Kellen's life changes almost faster than he can understand or accept. Rescued by a unicorn, healed by a female Wild Mage who knows more about Kellen than anyone outside the City should, meeting Elven royalty and Elven warriors, and plunged into a world where the magical beings he has learned about as abstract concepts are flesh and blood creatures-Kellen both revels in and fears his new freedom. Especially once he learns about Demons. He'd always thought they were another abstract concept-a stand-in for ultimate evil. But if centaurs and dryads are real, then Demons surely are as well. And the one thing all the Mages of the City agreed on was that practicing Wild Magic corrupted a Mage. Turned him into a Demon. Would that be Kellen's fate? Deep in Obsidian Mountain, the Demons are waiting. Since their defeat in the last great War, they've been biding their time, sowing the seeds of distrust and discontent between their human and Elven enemies. Very soon now, when the Demons rise to make war, there will be no alliance between High and Wild Magic to stand against them. And all the world will belong to the Endarkened.