Review: A lush, expansive tale.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2012
The hauntingly alien world that author Mark Paul Jacobs has created for us, is almost itself a character within his story. Here, in this rugged yet bountiful landscape, even time is unfamiliar. The hardy populations who dwell in 'The Yaakmen of Tyrie' have mastered survival, civilization, stunningly imaginative beasts, and they mark time by the passage of twin moons. Neither the men, nor the beasts, are brutish. This is not a prehistoric tale. There is a sense of government, carefully refined. There is a structure of honor, and service, that a great history has woven into the fabric of life. These are intricately crafted characters--equal to the vast landscape. Jacobs has created a world that displays itself beautifully.Pleasurable as it is to discover an author who can make something alien feel so familiar, there is so much more to this tale than a well-written adventure. There is a mystery in the origins of these people. There are secrets, revealed to them in the same moments they are revealed to us; there are secrets that are very dangerous to uncover. It will take all the strength of a brave few, to wander beyond what they know, to follow clues they could find more about themselves beyond the vast mountain ranges they have never crossed.For all the beauty we have discovered in reading the entire tale, the conclusion is only a window at last, showing us there is something vast and even greater in pages to come.