Dave Duncan's "A Man of His Word"

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It's a fantasy series; one of my most favorite ones (though I'm not a really big fan of fantasy as such, I prefer horror and s-f to fantasy). I read the first book a lot of time ago, when I was like 14, 15, I guess. I didn't find the rest of them in any library but much later I found the three novels as e-books. I love the idea of magic as presented in the four novels: it's the magic words that are responsible for your magical abilities and the more of them you know, the better for you (though if you know more than four, you explode which happened to one of the characters who was too power hungry ). Who else is a fan too?

I LOVE that series. I liked the first four books better than the second four, but I loved his world. The political structure and the cultural problems between races...not to mention the complexity in the overlay of magical politics...wow. The magic is complex, the world is complex, the characters all unique and logical--without being dry or boring. Of course, I love a swashbuckling adventure tale that has a romance at the heart of it. I think this is my favorite series, aside from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

I never read the "Handful of Men" following series and I'm not sure if it was translated into Polish. I liked the world of Pandemia although in spite of my all love for this series, I found it too stereotypical. I like the first book the most, especially Rap's adventures with goblins. The rest of novels were too pale in comparison (though I really enjoyed Rasha's life story before she arrived in the palace). Which series is better according to you?

Man of His Word is better, hands down. I think Pandemia being so clearly drawn from life allowed Duncan to make some harsh political observations by condensing the history of conquerors into one story--Viking invasions, colonization and massacre of South American natives, Rome, the Turks...I wish there had been a little more about Asia and Africa. I like Man of His Word better because Rap is probably my favorite protagonist; he's just a really great hero. He's like...a Sean Connery James Bond: he gets dirty, does his own hand to hand, makes mistakes and bleeds a little, but always wins in the end.

handful of men is far more political, and focuses more on the kids. I enjoyed the political aspects, and felt it explained more of the forces at work that caused Man of His Word to happen a certain way, but that yearning romantic element was missing. Rap still pulls the story along, but it's a different sort of thing when your kids are at stake. Hard to explain. At some point you know you have to let your kids go into the world and be their own person, so the desperate pull to help or rescue them is not as intense as seeking one's love who may be completely lost anyway. It's harder to motivate the story. I do think Handful of Men answers a lot of the questions about magic and the four and gods and the pixies that are never answered in the first series. It's worth the read, but the love story (the first series) got me where I lived.