From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his military SF (Grimmer than Hell, etc.), Drake is less adept at epic fantasy, as shown in this overlong, wearying novel, the fifth installment in his Lord of the Isles series. Young Prince Garric, his beautiful blonde sister Sharina, his boyhood friend Cashel and Ilna, Cashel's witch-weaver sister, have finally reached their goal, the island kingdom of Carcosa, from which Garric will rule. If only it were that easy. He must first reunite the many island kingdoms, disunited for a millennium. While Garric battles nasty villains and giant centipedes, Drake drops Sharina, Ilna and Cashel each into trouble on separate other-dimensional worlds. His crosscuts between his different story lines call to mind D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, in both their dexterity and monotony. Out of the author's inexhaustible imagination come endless dragons, demons and undersea monsters, as well as two more original and memorable creations: Beard, an insatiably bloodthirsty and chattering axe wielded by Sharina, and Evne, an enchanted female talking toad that accompanies Cashel. Written in an accessible style and with only mild violence and no sex, this series is particularly suitable for adolescent fantasy fans, especially those with a lot of patience.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Garrick, Sharina, Cashel, and Ilna face another threat to the Kingdom of the Isles, this time from a wizard determined to bring on an ice age. The threat turns out to come from surprisingly close to home. Paul Michael gives an energetic reading, without going over the top. His round British baritone is a good match for David Drake's story. Each character's voice conveys a distinct personality--especially the talking axe. Michael avoids sounding like a cartoon, even through the most fantastic parts of the story. The book is abridged mostly by removing whole sections from Ilna and Garrick's points of view. This jars only twice, and not badly. R.G.M. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
The fifth volume of Drake's magisterial Lord of the Isles will quite probably be the last. The title character, on stage throughout, even if sometimes only as a sinister influence, remains so potent, however, that narrative interest and impetus are sustained straight through to the last chapter. Principal protagonist Garric's sorcerous advisor, Tenoctris, makes the danger clear to him when Garric and his disciplined fleet and army arrive in Carcosa as part of his campaign to unite the kingdoms of the isles. Meanwhile, Garric's sister, Sharina, contends with evil magic in another world and with Garric's friend, Cashel, in yet another--and Drake develops both those magical realms as well as he does the more mundane world of the isles. In the north, Cashel's sister, Ilna, and her betrothed, Chalcus, encounter the goddess even more directly, and from that flows a climax in which everyone is swept toward a grand, ultimately compellingly powerful, resolution. A satisfactory conclusion to a series that may be altogether Drake's most accomplished work. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Drake's ambitious high-fantasy saga, Lord of the Isles . . . is emerging as the author's most important work."
--Publishers Weekly on Mistress of the Catacombs

"The book was fascinating throughout, a pleasure to read. . . . certainly one of the finest epic fantasies of the decade."
- Piers Anthony on Lord of the Isles

"David Drake's work here is original, engrossing, and instantly credible."
- Stephen R. Donaldson on Lord of the Isles

"Goddess of the Ice Realm is a solid addition to an outstanding fantasy series, showing once again that Drake is among the most versatile of authors in the SF/Fantasy genres."
-S. M. Stirling

"The heroes are exceptionally well-written, especially the strong-willed Ilna and the unflinching Cashel -- either one of these characters could stand alone to support a book. The secondary characters also grow and change, unusual in fantasy literature. The plot moves forward at a deliberate pace, gradually exploring the people and their land."
-Starlog on Queen of Demons

"The world building and characterization here are among Drake's best, and the magic is well thought out. Drake clearly has embarked on a fantasy saga as big as Eddings', Jordan's, and Goodkind's and as eminently worth reading."
-Booklist on Queen of Demons

"Unlike most modern fantasy, David Drake's Lord of the Isles is an epic with the texture of the legends of yore, with rousing action and characters to cheer for."
-- Terry Goodkind



Book Description
Starting in Lord of the Isles and continuing in Queen of Demons, Servant of the Dragon, and Mistress of the Catacombs, David Drake has told the continuing, interlocking stories of Garric and Sharina, Cashel and Ilna, young brother and sister pairs who journey together from a small town to the capital. Their destiny is to reunite the island kingdoms of the Isles into one empire for the first time in a millennium. They seek to do this at a moment in history when the cosmic forces upon which magicians draw are at a thousand year peak. Wizards of even small learning are immensely powerful. Human greed and evil are reinforced by supernatural energies

In Goddess of the Ice Realm, as Garric and his retinue reach the island city of Carcosa, the wizard Tenoctris perceives a powerful supernatural assault directed against them. Ilna and her beloved, Chalcus, are sent to investigate a magical threat to shipping in the north. Cashel is translated into another world by evil magic, and Sharina to yet another. All of them face deadly dangers and overcome them before they are again united during the terrifying and dramatic climax.

Filled with action, startling revelations, romance and sorcery, Goddess of the Ice Realm is epic fantasy at its exciting best.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Goddess of the Ice Realm, the fifth book in David Drake's Lord of the Isles series (Lord of the Isles, Queen of Demons, Servant of the Dragon, and Mistress of the Catacombs), continues the adventures of two brother-and-sister teams, Garric and Sharina and Cashel and Ilna, as they try to reunite the island kingdoms -- which have long been troubled by rebellion and dark wizardry -- for the first time in generations.

The novel begins with Prince Garris and his group traveling to the historic island city of Carcosa, which used to be the capital of the Old Kingdom millennia ago, to restore order. While Garris and his wife-to-be, Liane, try to stabilize the government and various religious factions, Cashel and Sharina are mysteriously transported to strange realms where they must survive long enough to figure out a way back to Carcosa. Ilna and her beloved Chalcus, meanwhile, must try to defeat a strange winged plague threatening trading ships in the north.

As in all Drake's Isles novels thus far, the dozens of plots and subplots in Goddess of the Ice Realm are subtly interwoven into a delightfully thick tapestry of adventure, intrigue, romance, and magic. A comment from Ilna aptly describes the novel -- and the series: "If I could pull one thread long enough, I'd unravel the whole cosmos." Drake's Isles saga is first-class epic fantasy comparable to Raymond E. Feist's Midkemia novels and Harry Turtledove's Darkness sequence. Goddess of the Ice Realm is Drake at his very best. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Starting in Lord of the Isles and continuing in Queen of Demons, Servant of the Dragon, and Mistress of the Catacombs, David Drake has told the continuing, interlocking stories of Garric and Sharina, Cashel and Ilna, young brother-and-sister pairs who journey together from a small town to the capital. Their destiny is to reunite the island kingdoms of the Isles into one empire for the first time in a millennium. They seek to do this at a moment in history when the cosmic forces upon which magicians draw are at a thousand-year peak. Wizards of even small learning are immensely powerful. Human greed and evil are reinforced by supernatural energies.

In Goddess of the Ice Realm, as Garric and his retinue reach the island city of Carcosa, the wizard Tenoctris perceives a powerful supernatural assault directed against them. Ilna and her beloved, Chalcus, are sent to investigate a magical threat to shipping in the north. Cashel is translated into another world by evil magic, and Sharina to yet another. All of them face deadly dangers and overcome them before they are again united during the terrifying and dramatic climax.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Best known for his military SF (Grimmer than Hell, etc.), Drake is less adept at epic fantasy, as shown in this overlong, wearying novel, the fifth installment in his Lord of the Isles series. Young Prince Garric, his beautiful blonde sister Sharina, his boyhood friend Cashel and Ilna, Cashel's witch-weaver sister, have finally reached their goal, the island kingdom of Carcosa, from which Garric will rule. If only it were that easy. He must first reunite the many island kingdoms, disunited for a millennium. While Garric battles nasty villains and giant centipedes, Drake drops Sharina, Ilna and Cashel each into trouble on separate other-dimensional worlds. His crosscuts between his different story lines call to mind D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, in both their dexterity and monotony. Out of the author's inexhaustible imagination come endless dragons, demons and undersea monsters, as well as two more original and memorable creations: Beard, an insatiably bloodthirsty and chattering axe wielded by Sharina, and Evne, an enchanted female talking toad that accompanies Cashel. Written in an accessible style and with only mild violence and no sex, this series is particularly suitable for adolescent fantasy fans, especially those with a lot of patience. (Sept. 24) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile