Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

  (4 Horsemen Publications, 2024). ISBN: 979-8-8232-0432-3 In August of 2022, I was asked to review Eric N. Lard’s Dawn of the Construct , which uses narratives in a trio of timelines to give us a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid that evokes Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons, and George R.R. Martin. Drawing its three heroes together over time and space, it also reminded me of Stephen King’s second book in the high-fantasy/sci-fi series The Dark Tower : The Drawing of the Three . Another innovative element that struck me in Dawn of the Construct is that all of the heroes were struggling with doubt. Lard continues this theme in Arcfire of Antiquity with Captain Cadian Galas. Arcfire of Antiquity begins a different series, which resides predominantly in the sci-fi genre, although elements of fantasy are also threaded through. Cadian Galas, who reminds me a little of Ripley in Aliens , has lost everything precious in her life—her family and hometown (as we watch unfold in the prologue, or Ch...

  “Uncertain Magic”: A Review of Dawn of the Construct (Book 1 of the Soul Machine Saga), by Eric Lard (Winchester, UK and Washington, USA: Cosmic Egg Books, 2022). ISBN: 978 1 80341 079 1. Although one could lump Dawn of the Construct into the fantasy/sci-fi hybrid that coopts much of its monsters, characters, and content from Tolkien, Martin, and D&D , that would be doing Eric Lard’s opening book in what promises to be an action-packed saga a disservice. Two things set it apart, which I will focus on here. First, the narrative happens in three timelines. One is Earth, centering on the war in Afghanistan. Another is sci-fi and futuristic, taking place on a forbidding planet. The third—where most of the story unfolds—is a fantasy/ D&D world where goblins and orcs menace the simple folk just trying to survive. Enhancing this triple-timeline structure is the literary device of “constructing the team.” Because the three heroes representing the timelines come from other...