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Review Archive
BOOKS
Etruscans: Beloved of the Godsby Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott
Tor; New York, NY; 320 pgs; Hardcover; $24.95
If you're tired of foreign realms and unknown worlds of Fantasy that resonate or mimic Tolkien in the worst of all possible ways, then it might be time for you to look for something a little closer to home. It might be time for you to reevaluate your needs as a Fantasy reader. It might be time for you to come back to Earth and read Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott's Etruscans: Beloved of the Gods.
A wonderful blend of sword and sorcery and spiritualism, Etruscans is the tale of Horatrim, a boy of somewhat dubious genealogy. Set in the early days of the Roman Empire, as Rome is growing by leaps and bounds and the beautiful and noble Etruscan civilization in Italy is in decline, an Etruscan lady is violated by a rogue siu, or demon. Accidentally impregnating her, she gives birth to a child who grows and matures at an alarming rate. After only six years, Horatrim is a full grown man, blessed with gifts of knowledge and abilities from his spiritual ancestors.
Traveling to Rome to seek some modicum of vengeance for the death of those he held dear, Horatrim is separated from his mother, Vesi. At times he feels as lost as a six-year-old child might in a crowded department store, while at other times he uses his forefathers' implanted knowledge to take charge of situations as a man of action does in times of great need. All the while his father, the demon Bur-Sin, searches for his son in order to kill him. For, as long as Horatrim is alive, the demon is vulnerable to magical destruction.
Aided in his search by an Aegyptian priest of Anubis and a benevolent spirit who was once the Lord of the Rasne people, Horatrim must battle monsters, fight spirit wraiths on many planes of existence, and wrestle with foes who wear friendly faces. In the realm of Etruscans, the Earthworld is just one of three places that spirits reside.
As noted in the epigraph at the beginning of the book, the flesh it tied to Earthworld, the spirit is tied to the Otherworld, and Death is tied to the Netherworld. This can be a nasty formula if you have many enemies, because just because their flesh is dead, does not mean they are by any means gone.
Etruscans is an epic in every sense of the word. In it you will find valiant battles where courage is the only weapon, mystical ghosts who whisper advice in the ears of those they shadow, and Emperors and Senators and businessmen alike brimming with political maneuvering and designs.
Llywelyn and Scott weave a wonderful Fantasy tale that will make you fall in love with the genre all over again. But, reader beware! You may not be able to put this one down.
(Originally published in Realms of Fantasy magazine, June 2000.)
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