NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/
August 12, 2013
Treks Galore !!
A Review of
Lee Duigon The Fugitive Prince [Book 5 of Bell Mountain Series] (Storehouse Press, 2013)
370 pp $4.99 ISBN: 978-1-891375-61-3
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
The word "Prince" is the title of Lee Duigon's lates Bell Mountain book is confusing, because it is King Ryons who is the fugitive, not a prince. But the term "fugitive" is appropriate, which all Latin buffs will realize, because it means someone who has fled, derived as it is from a Latin verb (fugere), meaning "to flee". Ryons has fled his palace to go on a trek, which is a Dutch term, meaning a slow and/or arduous journey. As I pondered this I realized most of the action in the entire Bell Mountain series consists of treks. It opens with the trek of Jack and Ellayne up Bell Mountain to ring the holy bell, followed by their trek in Book 2 to retrieve the lost book of holy writ, followed by numerous treks in the next three books consisting of actions by and against the wicked Thunder King who functions as a sort of Antichrist, attempting to thwart the godly by setting up a false temple and religion.
Frankly, I have begun to get somewhat weary of all these treks, but this is to be expected because they are written as analogies of our pilgrimage in this world, which often becomes wearisome. But there are in the Bell Mountain episodes, as there are in real life, plenty of moments of refreshing, one of the best in the current book I found to be where Jack discovers what to him is an ancient device -- which is some kind of gadget like a cell phone or iPad which shines out light and plays music, which the people in the story regard as "magic". That was a real treasure -- lots of fun. And there are all kinds of interesting characters doing all kinds of unusual stuff -- this is a very entertaining as well as thought-provoking read.
I can't say much more without giving away the story, but I can say, because I saw it posted on the author's website, that there will be more Bell Mountain books, the next one titled "The Palace", which will be followed by several more, and that the total number of books in the series is, as yet, not determined. This needs to be stressed because I read somewhere an incorrect statement (which I included in my first draft of this review) that The Palace was to be the final book. For more info you can visit the author's blog at http://www.leeduigon.com/
