Voyage of the Fox Rider

Voyage of the Fox Rider (1993) Dennis McKiernan

Dennis McKiernan is another author I appreciate for his ability to write duologies and single book fantasies. Of course as the Mithgar books all have the same setting, and contain recurring characters, I suppose that gives him the luxury of being able to continue in a known world, yet I do not believe that you need to have read any other books to appreciate this book. For the most part (excluding the very last Mithgar book) I believe that you can enter the story at any point and be comfortable.

Which is, I think, a fantastic skill, and one that I wish more fantasy authors had.

Of course, at 588 pages, Voyage of the Fox Rider is long enough that it could probably be split into two books, but it is just a single book. And that counts for a lot.

Voyage of the Fox Rider features Jinnarin, a Fox Rider and one of the elusive Hidden Ones. Jinnarin seeks the aid of Alamar the Mage in finding her mate Farrix, who has not returned from his journey to seek out strange plumes in the aurora.

For those who are familiar with the Mithgar series, this book also tells some of the history of Aravan the Elf, builder and owner of the fantastic ship Eroean, a ship unlike any other sailing the seas.

I also like the discussion between Jinnarin and Alamar about the nature of evil that continues through the story. This series tends not to look in depth at the evil characters, so it is easy to describe their actions as pure evil, so this on going discussion serves to give a little more depth to the bad characters. Not that the series requires it, but it’s a nice little addition.

I like this book. It covers an interesting point in the history of Mithgar. In the Mithgar timeline, this is the second book in the history, although it was written well into the series. The War of the Ban has not yet occurred, so the creatures of evil may still freely roam during the day, and mages are still common on Mithgar. If you were looking to start the series, this would be a fine place to start, but then the series was written so that there are plenty of places to start.
Rating: 8/10

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