There is a place where all the young princes are noble and brave, all the old soldiers brood but are willing to be called back for one last campaign, and all the aristocrats are sneaky and villainous. There is a place where the forests are haunted, the caravans are impossibly huge, and the innkeepers are gruff but kindly. It's called fantasyland, and Simon Brown lives there, or he might as well do.

"Inheritance" is a fantasy novel of the old school, where you can tell who's a villain because they sneer on stage, and old men who have drunk their lives away in a bar can earn redemption by fighting to protect a slain friend's long lost son. Some may call it cliched. I call it a refreshing trip down memory lane. This is a story that makes you feel young again, that makes you think that maybe a hapless band of misfits really can defeat a much larger group of evil minions.

Prince Lynan, youngest son of Queen Usharna, roams the streets hoping to find information about his long dead father. General Chisal was a great leader in years long past, but was despised by the elitist upper classes for being a commoner. Now sinister forces are moving to dispose of Lynan, but will one of Chisal's former soldiers show up just in time to stop the assassins? (Take one guess.) Thwarted in their first attempt, the bad guys dream up an even farther-reaching conspiracy, and soon Lynan and his companions are fleeing for their lives, with hordes of vicious mercenaries on their tail.

What makes this book work is Brown's careful writing. He understands what the story needs, and also what the story doesn't need. Every paragraph in "Inheritance" carries important information. There are no space-fillers, no long descriptions, and instead we get tons of action and intrigue. There's more plot in this book than in many twice its size. Brown also develops his characters, major and minor, with the utmost care. Everyone has believable motivations for what they do, including the villains. The fight scenes come across clearly and with pulse-pounding excitement. Perhaps most important is the intelligence of the book's structure. The good guys actually win by being good - brave, intelligent, loyal, and resourceful - rather than by pulling magic tricks out of a hat. In fact, "Inheritance" has virtually no magic.

For sure Simon Brown will never win a Hugo or get raves from the New York Review of Books, but he delivers everything you could rightfully expect from him; he writes a well-thought-out story with tons of excitement and no unnecessary violence, sex, or profanity. For this I hold him up as an example of what fantasy can be, and I hope he decides to offer us a great deal more in the years to come. ( )

There is a place where all the young princes are noble and brave, all the old soldiers brood but are willing to be called back for one last campaign, and all the aristocrats are sneaky and villainous. There is a place where the forests are haunted, the caravans are impossibly huge, and the innkeepers are gruff but kindly. It's called fantasyland, and Simon Brown lives there, or he might as well do.

"Inheritance" is a fantasy novel of the old school, where you can tell who's a villain because they sneer on stage, and old men who have drunk their lives away in a bar can earn redemption by fighting to protect a slain friend's long lost son. Some may call it cliched. I call it a refreshing trip down memory lane. This is a story that makes you feel young again, that makes you think that maybe a hapless band of misfits really can defeat a much larger group of evil minions.

Prince Lynan, youngest son of Queen Usharna, roams the streets hoping to find information about his long dead father. General Chisal was a great leader in years long past, but was despised by the elitist upper classes for being a commoner. Now sinister forces are moving to dispose of Lynan, but will one of Chisal's former soldiers show up just in time to stop the assassins? (Take one guess.) Thwarted in their first attempt, the bad guys dream up an even farther-reaching conspiracy, and soon Lynan and his companions are fleeing for their lives, with hordes of vicious mercenaries on their tail.

What makes this book work is Brown's careful writing. He understands what the story needs, and also what the story doesn't need. Every paragraph in "Inheritance" carries important information. There are no space-fillers, no long descriptions, and instead we get tons of action and intrigue. There's more plot in this book than in many twice its size. Brown also develops his characters, major and minor, with the utmost care. Everyone has believable motivations for what they do, including the villains. The fight scenes come across clearly and with pulse-pounding excitement. Perhaps most important is the intelligence of the book's structure. The good guys actually win by being good - brave, intelligent, loyal, and resourceful - rather than by pulling magic tricks out of a hat. In fact, "Inheritance" has virtually no magic.

For sure Simon Brown will never win a Hugo or get raves from the New York Review of Books, but he delivers everything you could rightfully expect from him; he writes a well-thought-out story with tons of excitement and no unnecessary violence, sex, or profanity. For this I hold him up as an example of what fantasy can be, and I hope he decides to offer us a great deal more in the years to come. ( )