Epic fantasy in the classic mold, with action, satire, and a sense of poetry.

Great for fans of Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams.

SF/FANTASY/HORROR The Yawning Gap: The Wanderers Cycle, Book 1 C.V. Vobh | Thuban Books 401p, e-book, $4.99, ISBN 978-1-961425-00-2

Expansive but tightly focused, rife with “Destiny and Doom” but also concerned with quests and kings and a cheery band of bold adventurers, the hefty first entry in Vobh’s Wanderers Cycle offers epic fantasy in the classic sense, with a small-village hero ushered into a wider world on mission that will shape the fates of all. In a land divided by “half-seen crimson” Boundaries that have long separated regions from each other, young swordsman Cor Volucre discovers a breach in the magic separating the “Fragment” in which he was raised from another. In a cave, a mysterious and ancient entity known as an Element tasks Cor with a quest too grand for one book: “to save what of the Elements can be saved; to resurrect what can be resurrected.” If Cor fails, “this fair realm hath no future.”

The element’s instructions are vague, so Cor heads into a Fragment that’s new to him, discovering the people’s somewhat strange ways, contending with orks (“like man minus manhood”) and their pony-sized boar-like peugs, and accumulating a party of heroic companions as he discovers a kingdom ruled by the tyrannical merchant Lothar, “the First Among Equals.” Lovers of fantasy that emphasizes journeys and friendships will appreciate the banter of Cor’s companions, though Vobh doesn’t skimp on action, from ork encounters to the exciting storming of Lothar’s palace, an extended setpiece offering a chance for a gray character—Celeste, Lothar’s orator—to demonstrate heroism.

Further adventures involve a trial, the possibility of flying an airship, and the scheming of a warlock. The novel’s episodic, something like an open-world fantasy game where players must explore and gather power before taking on the big goal. The novel’s notably long, but Vobh’s brisk dialogue keeps the pages turning, as do flourishes both poetic (“a good five thousand guards, fresh from the Gurtag Jidh, are faring hither with all the haste their mangy mounts can muster”) and satiric: Lothar’s propagandistic newspaper bears the slogan “Civil Society Soon Succumbs in Silence.”

Cover: B | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: A- | Marketing copy: A