Reviews

Lewis Gillies is pursuing graduate work in Celtic studies at Oxford when his rich roommate, Simon Rawnson, slips through a hole in a cairn to the land of the Tuatha de Danann. With the help of an eccentric professor, Lewis pursues Simon and finds himself playing a major role in some important Celtic myths. In retelling these myths, Lawhead ( Arthur ) allows his characters to become unspecific archetypes who therefore fail to hold the reader's interest. As he is herded from event to event, Lewis, supposedly a Celtic scholar, fails to recognize the import of these occurences. Throughout, Lawhead tells his readers what to feel rather than letting his story move them. (June)

Two Oxford graduate students stumble upon a stone cairn in Scotland and enter a magical ``Otherworld'' at once removed from and intimately connected to their own reality, becoming embroiled in an ancient battle against an evil that threatens both worlds. Lawhead, whose Pendragon Cycle ( Taliesin , LJ 8/87; Merlin , Crossway Bks., 1988; Arthur , Crossway Bks., 1989) established him as a frontrunner among contemporary Christian fantastists, demonstrates a genuine love for and understanding of Anglo-Celtic mythology in this first volume of a projected series. A worthwhile purchase for most fantasy collections.