Quicksilver Rising
By Stan Nicholls 

     If you are a fan of David Gemmell's books and are looking for the next sword & sorcery yarn, then you have found it. This is the first part of a new trilogy featuring a world run on magic, where the quality of the spells people can afford determine their place in society. It is a harsh society too, ruled over by a mad prince who thinks he can outpace death by living in a moving palace and where two warring empires fight over conquered lands. Reeth Caldason is a wanderer and a member of the hated Qalochian tribe, fierce warriors whose land has been taken from them. Now he is under a spell that subjects him to berserker rages and is looking for a cure. When he falls in with young sorcerer's apprentice Kutch he is soon on the road to the capital city to look for a secret sect of unlicensed magicians who might be able to help him. Instead, he finds the resistance movement and there the unlikely pair's adventures really begin in earnest.

     This is the sort of book that is easy to read and which is as replete with entertainment as the lands it describes are full of magic. The story rolls merrily along, introducing engaging characters and constantly bringing new plot strands to the reader's attention. Reading it is rather like settling back in a first class carriage and watching an ever-changing landscape rolling past. It is undemanding but very entertaining; possibly what real escapist fantasy ought to be about. I did feel that it could do with a character that wasn't a cliché - we have the moody itinerant warrior, eager young sorcerer's apprentice, wily politician, mad prince and golden-hearted tart to name a few and somebody mould-breaking might have made a nice inclusion. However, I am perhaps nit picking over what it is a most enjoyable tale and I will certainly be reading the second volume. This is a generous slice of never boring, plenty of action and honest-to-goodness fantasy.