The Wanderer
The Rulers of Hylor, Final Installment
Hardcover - 400 pages (May 2004)
Tor Books; ISBN: 0-312-87405-7
Paperback - 464 pages (November 29, 2005)
Tor Books; ISBN 0812567811
Hardcover - 400 pages (May 2004)
Tor Books; ISBN: 0-312-87405-7
Paperback - 464 pages (November 29, 2005)
Tor Books; ISBN 0812567811
Reviews
Full of cosmic drama and grand enchantments, the late Wilder's last Hylor novel, completed by Reimann (Wind from a Foreign Sky), addresses the same morally and philosophically complex issues of gender, society and self-learning that lifted earlier volumes in the Rulers of Hylor series (A Princess of the Chameln, etc.) above the common run of fantasies. The ambitious daughter of a peasant family struggling in a land of poverty, Gael Maddoc eagerly trains as a mounted soldier when offered the opportunity. She wins the respect of her rank after guiding betrayed charges across an enormous desert. Receiving council from the Shee (aka the Fair Folk), Gael is soon submerged in ancient intrigue. The plot gathers momentum when it becomes clear that she's the legendary, long-awaited Wanderer, "the chosen servant of the light folk." The authors' sparing use of magic helps highlight a naturalistic world of warring kingdoms, treachery and political conflict. Fans of both pastoral and hard-edged fantasy should be well satisfied.
--Publisher's Weekly
Gael Maddoc, the daughter of very poor peasants, is offered the chance to become a soldier. After making a reputation by bringing her company safely through a large and dangerous desert, she is recruited by the last of the Shee to be their champion. For Gael is the Wanderer, the paladin of legend for whom the Shee have been waiting. To fully enjoy this good, competently written story--Wilder's final novel of the lands of Hylor--familiarity with Wilder's trilogy The Rulers of Hylor (A Princess of the Chameln [1984], Yorath the Wolf [1984], The Summer's King [1986]) helps but isn't necessary. Wilder died while writing The Wanderer, but Reimann has competently finished it. It ends not with a cliff-hanger but at a stopping point, thereby allowing for further stories set in Hylor by other hands--a prospect about which, provided those future writers keep the continuity within the parameters of classic fantasy, no fantasy reader is likely to complain.
--Frieda Murray, Booklist
“[Those young adults who are] fans of high fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings, will find it difficult to put this book down. It contains all of the elements of a grand heroic quest, including fierce warriors, magical rings, and faerie folk.”
--VOYA
Though the great Cherry Wilder died two years ago, readers will agree that THE WANDERER is wonderful homage to her terrific fantasy series, The Rulers of Hylor. Fans will not be able to delineate between Ms. Wilder and Katya Reimann who apparently completed this tale. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Gael becomes a soldier in training and never slows down as The Wanderer tries to make things right. Without any gimmicks, readers obtain a realm scarred by war and betrayal with a pinch of magic as a flavoring. This is a fitting tribute.
--Harriet Klausner, The Best Reviews
Flap Copy
Cherry Wilder's classic fantasy trilogy, The Rulers of Hylor, established a detailed and intricate fantasy world. Its warring kingdoms, treacherous advisers, and generational conflicts are set in a world of rich physical beauty, vibrant life, and a realism leavened with occasional and startling magic. Fifteen years after the third book in the series, Wilder returned to this favorite world and was working on a draft of this volume at the time of her death in 2002. Katya Reimann, creator of her own acclaimed fantasy adventures and passionate admirer of the original trilogy, asked for the opportunity to complete and polish this last treasure of Wilder's legacy.
Gael Maddoc is the child of struggling peasant crofters, the guardians of the Holywell. She leaps at the chance for a better life when she is offered training as a kedran, a mounted soldier.
After a simple assignment as a traveling guard goes disastrously wrong, she seeks aid from the Shee to rescue her charges. But the Shee--the dwindling, long-lived Fair Folk--now wish to recruit her for their own purposes. Her nascent magical talents and her resourceful survival skills show her to be the Wanderer, a legendary figure for whom they've been watching.
Gael fulfills her assignments but is unable to resist opportunities along the way to rescue the downtrodden, intervene against nasty, political plots, and otherwise serve and protect the common people from whom she draws her life and her moral vision. Wilder and Reimann have together created another deep, enchanting vision of a world suffused with wonder, magic, and humanity.
Gael Maddoc is the child of struggling peasant crofters, the guardians of the Holywell. She leaps at the chance for a better life when she is offered training as a kedran, a mounted soldier.
After a simple assignment as a traveling guard goes disastrously wrong, she seeks aid from the Shee to rescue her charges. But the Shee--the dwindling, long-lived Fair Folk--now wish to recruit her for their own purposes. Her nascent magical talents and her resourceful survival skills show her to be the Wanderer, a legendary figure for whom they've been watching.
Gael fulfills her assignments but is unable to resist opportunities along the way to rescue the downtrodden, intervene against nasty, political plots, and otherwise serve and protect the common people from whom she draws her life and her moral vision. Wilder and Reimann have together created another deep, enchanting vision of a world suffused with wonder, magic, and humanity.
