Wanderers and Islanders - Legends of the Land : Book One by Steve Cockayne

Wanderers and Islanders is the first novel by a new British fantasy writer Steve Cockayne. It is also the first book in the Legends of the Land saga. It is three separate stories told together which start to meld and blur together. In a village, Rusty Brown is growing up as a loner, until he meets a strange girl, Laurel. She tells him a secret that haunts him and lures him to the depths of the stinking expanse of the Undertown in the City. In the City Leonardo Pegasus, personal counsellor of Magic to the King, tinkers with plans for a Multiple Empathy Engine. This enables the user to see the whole world without going anywhere. And in a secluded house, Victor Lazarus is watched by an invisible presence as he organises the house's repair. This is an original fantasy, the three threads are fresh, strange and different. Tales of magic and mystery; past and future. Having finished this book, I wanted to go back and check the clues - were there three separate well written stories which intertwine, or just one told from three different directions? In the end I decided not to re-read it, because Cockayne's next book The Iron Chain is due out in February 2003. I'll re-read it then. Marvellous!

Publisher: Orbit Date: 2002 Pages: 278 Price: £9.99 Format: Trade Paperback  ISBN: 1 84149 120 9 Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Review Date: April 2002