The Forgetting Moon

August 1, 2016
Durfee, an illustrator for Tolkien Enterprises and other large-scale SF and fantasy projects, opens his Five Warrior Angels series with this rousing quest in the elaborately constructed world of the Five Isles, where the evil Angel Prince Aeros of Ser Sevier is poised to invade the kingdom of Gul Kana, the last realm to oppose Aeros’s power. King Jovan, a religious fanatic, insists Gul Kana will endure, but his sisters Jondralyn, who’s battling injustice as a warrior, and Tala, who’s caught up in an eerie quest of her own to save her sick cousin, come to fiercely oppose Jovan. Meanwhile, Nail, a bastard raised in obscurity, treads a fearsome path of his own toward maturity. Durfee’s artist’s eye and fertile imagination populate this complex tale with fascinating beings such as the fey elf-like Valle, sinuous needle-toothed merpeople, valiant doomed townsfolk, and assorted oghuls (which are surely descended from Tolkien’s orcs). Lacking profound skill with language, Durfee relies too heavily on gory violence to maintain tension and momentum in a story laden by heavyweight commentary on the isolation of individuals adrift in a hostile world. Durfee’s central characters plunge through torturous trials with dogged determination, each one learning to respect and follow Durfee’s recurrent theme of “trust no one.” This depressing advice may not sustain many readers throughout this welter of betrayal and treason. Agent: Matt Bialer, Greenburger Associates.