The High History of the Holy Quail - a Fantasia: Volume the first in: Volume the First in the "End of All Magick" Saga End of All Magick Saga: Amazon.co.uk: Bruce Durie: Books

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Product Description

The Independent 12 November, 1998

"Confident...belongs firmly in Terry Pratchett's comic-fantasy land."

sffworld.com, 1999

The High History of the Holy Quail by Bruce Durie

All in all a great read, so if you're into authors like Terry Pratchett this is a book you really shouldn't miss out on. There's also a quite unique ending for a fantasy story, but that's something you'll have to find out for yourself.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars So good I missed dinner, 17 Nov 2005

By

Geoff Nelder "Geoff Nelder" (Chester, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The High History of the Holy Quail - a Fantasia: Volume the first in: Volume the First in the "End of All Magick" Saga (End of All Magick Saga) (Paperback)

Any reader expecting to dive into the usual quest-fantasy extravaganza is in for a surprise in Bruce Durie’s The High History of the Holy Quail. Oh, it has your essentials: wizards, magic (sorry, Magick), the ever-present threat of other beings, pretty girls, brutish beasts large and tiny. But Durie is a master of language, lateral thinking and science. There you are bowling along nodding to a predictable cliché around the corner, and you fall down an open manhole of a trap. Excellent.

Initially disturbed by being talked to as “you” the reader, three or more similes in every paragraph, and the parody references such as the Rowan Atkinson “bibble-black”, Durie’s writing style subtly changes making you wonder what’s coming next; besides in the fast action plot. I embarrassed myself, on a train laughing out loud, nearly missing my stop in order to turn another page. I applauded his alternative Edinburgh as in his Fantasy world his SamBernados Castle sat on a crag-and-tail hill; the yearly get-rich-slow Festival with abstruse performances that became known as The Cringe. Hah!

The key to appreciate the uniqueness of this fantasy is in Durie’s fabulous explanation of Magick. As a student leader, I was in deep trouble in the late 60s for occupying the college principal’s office and graffitiying “Entropy will win” as my esoteric message on his wall. I had to explain what I meant to a policeman, whose confusion let me off! In The Holy Quail, Durie goes way beyond the expected by explaining the “scientific” fundamentals of Magick. In brief, lost entropy reappears as extropy, manifested as matter and energy created apparently our of nowhere! Brilliant. And you won’t truly “understand extropy until you can unboil an egg.” I love it. And it was this admiration that kept me thirsting for more, and it came.

OK, some of the humour is a bit not of my liking, but most of it definitely is: such as the Psycoclips K’Nib. As a journo for a cycling mag, my whirring thighs rocked with such play on words. Indeed in many ways the reader is on his own quest inside this book. A recursive (aside references to ASCII and other ‘puter jargon will tease your discoveries) self-referential journey to discover themselves as well as the Quail. And once found will you want the sequel? I will. And the next? YES.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Harry Potter for grown ups!, 15 Jan 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The High History of the Holy Quail - a Fantasia: Volume the first in: Volume the First in the "End of All Magick" Saga (End of All Magick Saga) (Paperback)

This book is a hoot! It's like Harry Potter for grown ups, Tolkien with jokes and Pratchett with an edge to it. Definitely the best Fantasy read in yonks!
JD

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5.0 out of 5 stars This book is BRILLIANT! Better than Pratchett or Moorcock, 8 April 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The High History of the Holy Quail - a Fantasia: Volume the first in: Volume the First in the "End of All Magick" Saga (End of All Magick Saga) (Paperback)

This book is BRILLIANT! Better than Pratchett or Moorcock or Craig Shaw Gardner. It is the most intelligent pastiche on the whole fantasy genre I have EVER read. I can't wait for the next two volumes. When are they coming out?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
...An extremely enjoyable read! As soon as I had read it, I had to re-read it. The puns and hidden double meanings cannot all be discovered in the first read. Read more

Published on 8 April 2001 by karen5@mdx.ac.uk