Dusk

by Tim Lebbon

Bantam Spectra, 386 pp, $12.00

Dusk is the first book of a projected series by an author who has twice been a finalist for the World Fantasy award as well as having won two of the British Fantasy award.

It is the year of the Black 2208. Magic has been dead for 3oo years, a result of the Cataclysmic war. Since the warped mages have been gone, society has regressed to more primitive times. But now strange things are happening. Magic is about to be reborn.

Kosar the thief has watched his village destroyed, and he and the one other survivor flee the raging red monks who would prevent any taint of magic from returning. Rafe Baburn is the key, but to what door no-one knows. They join forces with A’meer , a Shantasi warrior, whose people have chosen to safeguard The Return of Magic. A’meer recognizes Rafe as the Awaited One. She and Kosar join with a witch and a librarian to protect the boy and take him to safety. But the dark forces are closing in on them, including the very mages who waged the Cataclysmic War.

Lebbon has written a striking new fantasy where redemption and hope come from the strangest places and even stranger forms. The characters are real, his word building is full-fleshed, and his sense of irony unmatched. Not only would I recommend you purchase it, but I smell a whiff of multiple awards. I can’t wait till 2007 when the sequel is due. - Pam Allan