From Publishers Weekly
Setting her first American-published fantasy in a world where mankind reveres the plough and the axe and fears the forest, talented Australian Douglass delivers an initially beguiling story of human struggle to put aside its age-old enmity for two other races and join in battle against a deadly invasion. Axis the BattleAxe, bastard nephew of the king and leader of the Axe-Wielders, marches his crack troops north to help his despised half brother and the king's heir to repel winter-strengthened wraiths poised to decimate the land. A prophecy unearthed in a monastery explodes Axis's beliefs about man's ancient battle against the Forbidden--two hated races driven into exile, both of whom, according to the prophecy, must ally with man to defeat the wraiths. Axis's own part in the prophecy, as well as that of his half brother's betrothed, grows clearer with every stride closer to the northern menace. Invoking most of a conventional epic's elements, Douglass sets her hero on a path that reveals his hidden parentage and key role in the reuniting of the three races. Strongest at the beginning while exploring the plough-based traditions of man and its fear of the Forbidden races, this first volume soon loses dramatic tension: the prophecy is so straightforward that the continuing books will play connect-the-dots unless Douglass introduces twists to lift her orthodox, well-written series up to originality. (Mar. 26)Forecast: This novel carries bright blurbs from David Drake and Elizabeth Haydon, among others, and the publisher is pushing it as "an epic fantasy in the tradition of David Eddings and Terry Goodkind." But both Douglass, who is a bestseller in Australia, and Tor will have to work hard to bring Douglass up to the sort of numbers enjoyed by Eddings/Goodkind--or Drake and Haydon, for that matter.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When a plague of monsters threatens the realm of Achar, a military commander and a noblewoman find themselves part of a Prophecy that leads them to question what they once believed true about the history of their world. Australian fantasy author Douglass's American debut features an exotic world peopled with complex characters whose motivations and desires often conflict with their duties and loyalties. Epic storytelling on a par with Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan make this a solid selection for most fantasy collections. Highly recommended. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Lady Faraday is betrothed to Duke Borneheld when she discovers that everything she has learned about her people is false and that they are menaced by the age-old peril of the demonic Forbidden Ones. She also realizes that she is in love with Borneheld's outlawed half brother, Axis, whom she thereafter accompanies on the perilous road that leads them into battle against the Forbidden Ones, on behalf of not only their own people but also of a half dozen other peoples. Inveterate fantasy mavens will be distinctly reminded of Jordan's vast Wheel of Time saga, though Douglass' work accommodates a little less characterization and world building and is more briskly paced. Douglass is at least as good as early Terry Goodkind or David Eddings, and she is currently Australia's most popular fantasist. With this skillfully handled tale, she may find success in the U.S., too. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
A millennia-old prophecy was given when the Forbidden Ones were driven from Achar. And now, the Acharites witness its manifestation: Achar is under attack by an evil lord from the North, Gorgreal-his ice demons strike from the sky and kill hundreds of brave warriors in the blink of an eye.

All Acharites believe the end is near.

One young woman, Faraday, betrothed of Duke Borneheld, learns that all she has been told about her people's history is untrue. While fleeing to safety from the dangerous land, Faraday, rides with Axis, legendary leader of the Axe-Wielders-and hated half-brother of Borneheld-and a man Faraday secretly loves although it would be death to admit it. She embarks on a journey, which will change her life forever, in search of the true nature of her people.

This grand and heroic story tells the tale of one woman's plight to learn the truth of her people and change their hearts and their minds forever. She fights against oppressive forces to share this reality and will not desist until everyone knows. . . . . The truth of the Star Gate



About the Author
Sara Douglass was born in Penola, a small farming settlement in the south of Australia, in 1957. She spent her early years chasing (and being chased by) sheep and collecting snakes before her parents transported her to the city of Adelaideand the more genteel surroundings of Methodist Ladies College. Having graduated, Sara then became a nurse on her parents' urging (it was both feminine and genteel) and spent seventeen years planning and then effecting her escape.

That escape came in the form of a Ph.D. in early modern English history. Sara and nursing finally parted company after a lengthy time of bare tolerance, and she took up a position as senior lecturer in medieval European history at the Bendigo campus of the Victorian University of La Trobe. Finding the departmental politics of academic life as intolerable as the emotional rigours of nursing, Sara needed to find another escape.

This took the form of one of Sara's childhood loves - books and writing. Spending some years practising writing novels, HarperCollins Australia picked up one of Sara's novels, BattleAxe (published in North America as The Wayfarer Redemption), the first in the Tencendor series, and chose it as the lead book in their new fantasy line with immediate success. Since 1995 Sara has become Australia's leading fantasy author and one of its top novelists. Her books are now sold around the world.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
High Fantasy from Down Under
Sara Douglass's Wayfarer Redemption series is the bestselling fantasy series in Australian history, and BattleAxe, the first book, should prove equally successful in America. An epic fantasy, it has garnered comparisons with the work of David Eddings and Terry Goodkind.

BattleAxe tells the story of lovely 18-year-old Faraday, daughter of a minor nobleman in the great land of Achar. When Faraday is presented at court, Douglass introduces the major players with distinctively colorful characterization.

Faraday meets the care-ridden King, Priam of Achar. She meets the most important duke in the kingdom, the gruff Borneheld. And she meets Borneheld's despised half brother, the bastard Axis, whose title is Battle-Axe of the Seneschal, and whom she instantly finds attractive.

Unbeknownst to Faraday, the days are building toward the events spoken of in the Destroyer's Prophecy, a thousand-year-old doom written in a closely guarded book that may be read by only one man whose identity is hidden, the legendary StarMan.

Faraday learns through many hardships of the perils threatening Achar. Against her will, her father arranges her betrothal to rough-spoken Borneheld. Almost at once, she is sent on a journey to keep her away from the war waged by the peers of the realm and the Religious Brotherhood of the Seneschal against the wraithlike Forbidden Ones, who for a millennium have been penned behind a fortress range of mountains. Priam relies on both Borneheld and Brotherhood to keep peace, but frightening news comes from the north that creatures even worse than the Forbidden Ones are ravaging the lands of Achar, leaving ruination wherever they go.

Love blooms between Faraday and Axis as they travel together to the Silent Woman Woods, and then toward the battlegrounds where demons walk abroad. But when she meets three kind but enigmatic Sentinels, Faraday learns of her own role in the Destroyer's Prophecy, a role she abhors.

Douglass spins fascinating mysteries as her tale opens up. Who is this terrible Destroyer? Why is Faraday instructed to assume the role of Tree Friend, when humans know that all woods are evil? Faraday faces with duty rather than passion a future at the side of Borneheld, knowing that the Prophecy must keep her from the handsome young warlord Axis, whom she loves above all others. Douglass achieves an exciting blend of romance and black sorcery, humor and horror, in this exciting adventure. The next installment cannot arrive too soon.

--Fiona Kelleghan

Fiona Kelleghan is a librarian at the University of Miami. Book reviews editor for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, she has written reviews and articles for Science-Fiction Studies, Extrapolation, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Science Fiction Research Association Review, Nova Express, St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Neil Barron's Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide, Contemporary Novelists, 7th Edition, and American Women Writers. Her book Mike Resnick: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to His Work was published by Alexander Books in 2000.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For a thousand years, the Acharites have lived prosperous lives, protected by vast and insurmountable mountains and the powerful Seneschal, guardians of the mysterious Way of the Plow and intermediaries with the great god Artor.

But now Achar's security is threatened as a millennia-old prophecy predicting the return of the Borbidden Ones flares into life. An unnatural winter grips the land as the Ice Lord Gorgrael moves his armies of demonic wraiths and IceWorms south. Achar crumbles under Gorgrael's murderous onslaught: it seems that no one can stop him.

Faraday, betrothed of Achar's War Lord, Duke Borneheld, is as frightened as everyone else. While fleeing to safety with Axis, legendary leader of the Axe-Wielders and hated half-brother of Norneheld, Faraday learns all that she has been taught about her people's history has been based on lies. Leaving the company of Axis—a man she secretly loves, although it would mean his death to reveal it—Faraday embarks on a journey that will forever change both her life and those of her people.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Setting her first American-published fantasy in a world where mankind reveres the plough and the axe and fears the forest, talented Australian Douglass delivers an initially beguiling story of human struggle to put aside its age-old enmity for two other races and join in battle against a deadly invasion. Axis the BattleAxe, bastard nephew of the king and leader of the Axe-Wielders, marches his crack troops north to help his despised half brother and the king's heir to repel winter-strengthened wraiths poised to decimate the land. A prophecy unearthed in a monastery explodes Axis's beliefs about man's ancient battle against the Forbidden--two hated races driven into exile, both of whom, according to the prophecy, must ally with man to defeat the wraiths. Axis's own part in the prophecy, as well as that of his half brother's betrothed, grows clearer with every stride closer to the northern menace. Invoking most of a conventional epic's elements, Douglass sets her hero on a path that reveals his hidden parentage and key role in the reuniting of the three races. Strongest at the beginning while exploring the plough-based traditions of man and its fear of the Forbidden races, this first volume soon loses dramatic tension: the prophecy is so straightforward that the continuing books will play connect-the-dots unless Douglass introduces twists to lift her orthodox, well-written series up to originality. (Mar. 26) Forecast: This novel carries bright blurbs from David Drake and Elizabeth Haydon, among others, and the publisher is pushing it as "an epic fantasy in the tradition of David Eddings and Terry Goodkind." But both Douglass, who is a bestseller in Australia, and Tor will have to work hard to bring Douglass up to the sort of numbers enjoyed by Eddings/Goodkind--or Drake and Haydon, for that matter. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

Faraday, a young woman caught in the political plans of her father, finds herself fleeing the city in the company of her betrothed's brother. She is unaware, as is he, of the supernatural events that place them in a war that will change the lives of the people and places they love. Falling in love with each other complicates, but does not ruin, the plans made for them. In a land where trees are feared, Faraday and Axis must unite the people of the plow and the people of the trees and air to conquer the evil that is trying to cover the land with eternal winter. As Axis fights the evil creatures that attack the fortress where they are staying he must find a way to use the power within himself to help overcome Gorgrael, his half-brother. This long novel, complete with its own glossary, will be intimidating for some readers. But those who love a good epic fantasy novel, which is the beginning of a new series, will rejoice. I fell in love with the complex characters and wanted them to succeed. I would recommend this book for high school students who are excellent readers. Category: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1995, Tor, 653p., Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Stacey Conrad; Middle School Reading Teacher, Palmyra, MO

Library Journal

When a plague of monsters threatens the realm of Achar, a military commander and a noblewoman find themselves part of a Prophecy that leads them to question what they once believed true about the history of their world. Australian fantasy author Douglass's American debut features an exotic world peopled with complex characters whose motivations and desires often conflict with their duties and loyalties. Epic storytelling on a par with Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan make this a solid selection for most fantasy collections. Highly recommended. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Internet Book Watch

Fearing the return of Gorgrael and his icy minions that feed on human flesh, Duke Borneheld leads the Kingdom of Anchar's army into battle. At the same the King sends Borneheld's half-brother Axis to find some texts that might tell how to defeat the powerful Ice Lord. Borneheld's fiancee, Faraday accompanies Axis on his quest. On their trek to find the ancient tomes, Faraday and Axis fall in love. Meanwhile she begins to learn more of the truth about her people after years of believing lies. She knows her love for Axis is forbidden and that the truth about her people is also taboo. Either event means certain death.Gorgrael realizes that Axis is the bigger threat so sends his troops to kill him. However, Axis discovers a prophecy that if true could save the kingdom. Faraday realizes she is a key player if the prophecy is to occur, but Gorgrael is devious and deadly, and her betrothed may prove likewise too. The Wayfarer Redemption: Battleaxe is an exciting fantasy epic that is like the beginning of a roller coaster ride. It goes up the incline ever so slow but at the apix, it takes off like the speed of light. The story line is well written and the characters including the Ice Lord seem genuine. Fans of epic fantasy will find Sara Douglass' first tale in her new series (first published in Australia in 1995) to be quite good and will want future tales released rather quickly.