David Drake's "Lord of the Isles" is an 'epic fantasy,' and overall is a pretty good read, although I wouldn't say it's particularly innovative - country boy get swept up in forces of the universe, fights bad guys, other people's special tendencies come out, country boy saves the day, and most of the people live happily ever after.
I did like the treatment of "evil" - which is a human term, and the multiple thousand year old wizardess takes pains to make that clear - as an elemental force, typically in balance with "good", although various wizards or whatever occasionally try to mess things up by messing with a natural ebb and flow of the dark side. Naturally, at the climax of the book (I guess this is a spoiler), the country boy is faced with the temptation of "evil" and chooses the path of light, good, and apple pie. Saves the girl and the sorceress while he's at it, too. Well done, Garric.
Let's see. Reasonably well written, managed to fit a whole story into a single book - but if Piers Anthony's calling this "One of the finest epic fantasies of the decade" as is indicated on the cover, the entire genre must be getting a little tired.
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I read it as well - it piqued my interest enough for me to buy the next couple in the series, which was a bit of a mistake. You read the best one of the bunch, buddy...
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