Gideon's Dawn by Michael Warden

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Submitted by Mike Nappa 
(Apr 04, 2003)

Wow. It's hard to believe that Gideon's Dawn is Michael Warden's first novel. He writes with such imagination and vision that the characters and setting seem to come alive right on the page.

The story goes something like this: Gideon Dawning is a burned-out teaching assistant at the University of Texas. When he takes a group of undergrads on a geology expedition, he is summarily and unexpectedly transported into a whole new realm - birthed into this place through the chaos of an earthquake. Here he is taken against his repeated protests for a long-foretold messiah. The result is a journey of hardship and discovery as he makes his way through a world where words have power and "there is no magic, only words of life and death."

Have to admit I approached this one with scepticism, but was won over almost immediately by the lyrical prose and depth of story Warden has created. Fans of Terry Brooks, Tolkien, or CS Lewis should eat this up. Warden is a bright new star in fantasy fiction... Let's hope he keeps writing for another 50 years.