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The Unseen Tempest (Lords of Arcadia book 3)
By John Goode (and J.G. Morgan)
Harmony Ink Press, 2014
Four stars

“Family is just another word for People I Am Not Allowed to Kill…”

This was a strange experience, because I had read the first two book in this excellent fantasy series by John Goode. Problem is, I read them five years ago, and could not for the life of me remember anything. I decided read about them, and to just forge ahead, and see what it was like to drop into the middle of a multi-part epic with no memory of the earlier books.

It says a lot for Goode’s writing and storytelling that I enjoyed this a great deal. It’s a teen fantasy—which is just fine with me--no on-page sex, but lots of smart-ass teen attitude and quick pacing. Goode shifts POV constantly, from chapter to chapter and even from paragraph to paragraph. Only Kane is in the first person. Once you get used to this, it’s easy enough. I got caught up in it pretty quickly, and by halfway through I’d begun to retrieve memories of the earlier books.

This is the penultimate chapter in an epic that takes a clever premise and runs with it. Kane Vess, an average teenager in middle America discovers that all of the fantasy-based fiction that’s been a part of his life—from the Wizard of Oz to Narnia to Transformers—is, in fact, based on truth. As he has learned from his amazing boyfriend, Hawk, who is a fairy prince on the lam, that there are in fact nine worlds, all interconnected. Hawk in on the run, the nine realms are in danger, and Kane gets dragged into something he never imagined.

The great underlying themes of this book are the selfish quest for power as opposed to self-sacrifice for love. We meet fantasy-world echoes of real-world issues: religious zealotry, social snobbery, cultural clashes. Plus there are these constant surprises of things familiar to each of us from our own childhoods, placed in the context of a “Star-Wars” like journey across unknown worlds. Really very compelling.

“Kane looked at Hawk and shrugged. ‘I’m counting on the kindness of strangers.’”

I liked this so much I immediately looked for and purchased the fourth volumes. Goode’s cliffhangers make me crazy, so I hope this is the last one.