Wrong Way Round

SFRevu’s Colleen Cahill astounds me, having elected to dive into a four book series with book three. I’m talking about Sean Williams’ The Hanging Mountains,the third book in his Books of the Cataclysm series. Which can also be read as a set up followed by a three-act quest fantasy, albeit one that combines Mad Max scenarios with Ursula K. Le Guin. But such a perspective means that Colleen came in on the dreaded “middle book.” So how did The Hanging Mountains hold up read on its own? Pretty darn good.

“This book moves fast and it quickly swept me into the complex, beautiful and deadly work that Williams has so artfully crafted. In the second chapter, the boat is attacked by a large white snakelike creature, big enough to encircle the ship in its coils. The monster is made all the more eerie by its lack of eyes, nostrils or mouth. My heart was racing through this scene and I knew I had to finish this story. If an author can do that much in less than thirty pages, imagine how good the rest of the book will be!”

Colleen admits there are better ways to read the series, but adds, “If I thought it was good, just think how much better it will be when you have the whole story.”