Talisker (The last clansman) [Paperback]

Miller Lau's first novel, the fantasy Talisker, makes some interesting uses of parallel worlds and Celtic mythology, but suffers from problems with plot and characterisation that mark it out as the work of an inexperienced writer. In modern-day Edinburgh, Duncan Talisker has just been released from jail where he has served 15 years for six murders he did not commit. Talisker is the last descendent of Malcolm McLeod, a clansman whose ghost has been recruited by the shape-shifting Sidhe in a battle against the dark God Corvus. Corvus sends a demon to commit more murders, and Inspector Alessandro Chaplin, once a school-friend, is convinced of Talisker's guilt. Their feud travels with them when they, along with the ghost Malcolm, are drawn into the magical world of Sutra, where they become involved in a struggle between the Sidhe, the human Fine and Corvus, who threatens both peoples. Travelling back and forth between the two worlds, Talisker embarks on an intertwined series of adventures, battling evil magic in Sutra and attempting to avoid the police in Edinburgh. There are many familiar plot devices in this book: a prophesy, a magic gem and vengeful gods, while Talisker is a classic suffering hero--a wronged man battling to clear his name. The world of Sutra is quite rich but Lau still has a lot to learn about plotting; the story lacks coherence and is often inconsistent in its details. Hopefully, Lau will develop more fluency in subsequent volumes because there is promise here, albeit not yet fully realised. --Elizabeth Sourbut

Miller Lau's debut work is a well-crafted, beautifully-structured story

Duncan Talisker has just been released from jail in Scotland. He served fifteen years for a series of violent murders he didn't commit, but knew intimately. Then, the killing begins again. On another world, a jewel is sought and a deadly god struggles to be free. Talisker and his childhood friend, Alessandro Chaplin - who is also the policeman who arrested him fifteen years previously - will undertake journeys between the worlds which mix wonder and danger in equal measure...and may result both in their deaths and the release of a deadly evil.

Miller Lau is a pseudonym. The author is of Scottish descent, and lives in East Lothian.

Outside. A bleak dawn wraps the city in its grey blanket. Edinburgh wakens at it's own pace; a leviathan, its ancient weary soul reluctant to shrug off the calm of the night. The hills surrounding the city leave it only exposed to the sea and it is the elements of the sea which characterize its weather. Fingers of damp mist linger in the closes and alleyways of the old town leaving the sandstone buildings slick and wet, waiting for the warming touch of the sunlight which will not arrive until midmorning.

Gulls' calls are the first noise to break the morning quiet; their harsh cries echo like a scream in the face of the new day. Sounds trickle in like a salt wave encroaching around the buildings, as though they are simply larger pebbles and the city, a natural extension of the shore. Perhaps it is. The city is very old. The light which steals slowly across its craggy face will not illuminate its secrets. As ever, in this time between the darkness and the light, the city has an air of waiting. A silence which hangs above it, above the wave of sound. Silence and waiting.

***

He was a free man.

As he walked toward the red wooden gates the idea appalled him. If it was what he really wanted, why did the impulse to run back seem so real, so immediate? What lay beyond the red finality that had the power to frighten grown men as though they were simple children? He'd always wondered. He'd watched his contemporaries walk this same walk, some laughing, some tearful and some seemingly indifferent. And yet, when they reached the black shadow of the portal, as he had now, they all did it. They paused. They stopped and stared ahead for long moments. Those who would be watching would shout encouragement as though the man would turn back otherwise. Talisker had always wondered what they felt, what the look on their faces was at this moment. Some would turn back toward the grey brick walls and wave, others simply squared their shoulders as though bracing themselves; but they all paused.

And now he knew. The look on their faces was fear, because when those gates opened, a different world lay beyond. A world of changes. Nothing could be the same as when they left, people, places, shops, nothing. The fear was sudden and unexpected, and the realization that this moment, only this moment, was the real execution of their punishment, was overwhelming. It was time they had lost, simply time. The days, hours, minutes and seconds of their lives. Talisker had lost fifteen years.

In fact, the great red gates did not swing open. He was prepared for this but he still felt cheated as the smaller door which was inset lower down was unlocked by a warder. Even these last few moments they stole were not allowed to be remarkable. As the small door swung backward, a square of light appeared, a square of reality. Talisker knew it was no lighter on the other side of the door than it was in the yard where he stood, yet the light seemed blinding as new, unused, unbreathed minutes and seconds spilled across the threshold. He stared at the bright rectangle until the warder coughed sarcastically.

'ur you goan then? Or dae I have tae push ye out?'