Gideon's Wall
 Greg Kurzawa
 (Associate Reviewer - Colleen Helme)
 2003 Riptide Press, Inc.
 ISBN: 0972345604

What sank an entire empire beneath the desert sands?

Shallai has been dead forty years. The barren wasteland that fills her borders has slept undisturbed for decades. But an age of fear is ending, & the Archaists are coming now to delve into her secrets. They are crossing oceans & braving deserts to seek the truth of what enemy sank an entire empire beneath an ocean of sand. The answer is buried at Gideon's Wall.

Associate Reviewer Colleen Helme writes:

An archaist is sent from the Loraean Isles to discover the answers to the fall of the vast Shallai empire, its cities destroyed in less than forty years under heaps sand. Even the city of Jericho has crumbled to dust. What caused such complete destruction & decay?

The trail leads to Gideon's Wall -- built many years in the past to separate the people of Shallai from the Bedu, a desert people who once tried to conquer Shallai. In their hatred & fear the wall was built between them & an ambassador sent from Shallai to sue for peace.

The new ambassador is a soldier, Dell, who lives among the Bedu for six years. He returns to Gideon's Wall every six months to make his report, which is received with casual dismissal. In Shallai the Bedu are despised & called “sand-dogs”, but the longer Dell lives with them, he learns to love & honor their ways.

But their time is short. A new threat looms upon them from the south. The wells dry up & a scourge chases the Bedu north toward Gideon's Wall. Will they be allowed to pass through? More importantly, will the wall be enough to stop the death that pursues?

Greg Kurzawa has written an epic tale of the fall of an empire. His poetic prose captures the feel of a dying land that needs to be reborn. As the land dies, so must the people, but their story is preserved in a voice from the dust.

Gideon's Wall is not for the faint-hearted. Dell is a hero with honor & courage who must sacrifice more than his life for the future. Violent death is a major character, & how the people face it, is a defining element in the story.
(09/07/03)

Colleen
2003©Colleen Helme
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I have been an avid reader “forever” & live in the Rocky Mountains with my husband & four children. In my spare time (when I'm not reading!) I do watercolor paintings, make music, & WRITE! My first fantasy novel, Child of the Flame, is being published this year by American Book Publishing.