Thomas Watson has delivered a beautifully rendered epic fantasy, which isn't really a fantasy but rather a SF adventure. With not really magical swords, gryphons, dragons, and--listen, just roll with it. It all makes sense, and it's a fun, rollicking adventure.
Daffyd Outworlder was a child when rifts between realities began to.open, but he grew to be a special operative with the trans-reality police. He is pulled out of retirement by his old friend Trey, an alien from another universe, asks for his help. The mission? Save the world, of course. Not this one, but rather a suppressed society named Adrathea, several realities away, that is being usurped by Trey's evil cousin. As a bonus, this is the world where Daffyd lost his love and family to a time-slip. Together, the two travel to Adrathea and, with the assistance of a beautifully deadly island woman, try to recapture the eponimous Gryphon Stone.
Readers will quickly fall into one of two camps: a) "Not SF! Dragons and magic and crap!" or b) "Clarke's Law, totally SF!" I admit I pondered this for a while as a fun diversion, but in the end it doesn't matter. This is a story about a soldier drug by honor back to his battlefield of horrors,and his hero's journey to both restore order and conquer his own demons. The genre is unimportant, no matter how masterfully it is delivered.
This reminded me very much of McCaffrey's Pern novels, both in tone and scope, but with a healthy dollop of Niven. Everything makes sense, mostly, and those aspects which push the scientific envelope are treated in a logical manner. The focus is not so much the setting, which is lush and prosaic, nor the technology/magic, which is lovingly detailed, but rather the interplay between characters with vastly different perceptions. And this is as it should be.
The plot grabs you, and demands your attention. Be prepared to eagerly await the sequel. Regardless,
Buy this book. I did.
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