Runescape Return to Canifis by T.S Church, from Titan Books (547 pages, $12.99/ 7.99GBP/ $14.95 CAN), continues the story of Theodore, squire of the Knights of Falador, Kara-Meir, the girl raised by dwarves after .jpg)
Sulla of the Kinshra killed her family, Gar’th, the werewolf who escaped Morytania with another werewolf in pursuit and the rest of their friends as they strive to learn the truth behind Gar’th, the pursuit by Jerrod and what is really going on in Morytania.
The story has elements of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings so clearly visible as to make it feel derivative at times. A fellowship of friends needs to undertake a trip into the land of darkness to find out the plans of an evil of unknown power. The struggle between good and evil and attempting to fight one’s nature and birthright. There are even scenes in the book that I swear were simply rehashed imagery and dialog from LOTR to the point where I skipped over a few paragraphs.
But overall, even though Runescape Return to Canifis calls to mind much better known stories from better known writers, it still manages to be more entertaining than the first book, Runescape: Betrayal at Falador. Then again, considering how that book plodded forward and was rife with things I thought irregular as well as typos, that isn’t an amazing accomplishment. This book too has a dozen or so glaring typos and it certainly looks like someone did a replace all on the manuscript for "sir" to make it "Sir" but caught every instance of desire as well making them all deSire.
Flaws aside, the story moves much faster than the first book, but still manages to get bogged down in some very slow parts. The writing itself is a marked improvement from the first book in that I managed to finish this in just a couple days as opposed to the first which took me weeks to burrow through to the end.
I think part of that was far fewer places that made me put the book down due to groan-inducing dialog and description of unimportant matters so thick that it was like mentally wading through a swamp.
Overall, while Runescape Return to Canifis does feel derivative of what has gone before in the genre and the story is fairly predictable it’s still an enjoyable romp through the Runescape world that breathes some life into it more than it deflates or detracts. Fans of Runescape will most likely enjoy the book while fans of fantasy in general might find fault with it. Either way it’s a good improvement from the first book in the series and does move the story forward, even if in somewhat predictable fashion. I would venture a guess as to the resolution of the entire story, but I don’t want to give too much away for those who want to read it.
