Cameron Dial
Deal With The Devil (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 15th March 2003 (1)
Tags: Short Story
(15K)
This is another story which deals with the question of why
Joe didn't blow the whistle on Adam Pierson being Methos at the
end of "Methos". This one gives another reason, with a rather more
actively persuasive Adam, and a rather more irritated Joe. Good.
The Forsworn (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (4)
Tags: Novella
(214K)
The summary says: "When Dr. Amy Zoll--head of the Watchers'
Methos Chronicles project--accuses the ROG of murder she winds up
involved not just with Methos,but with Joe Dawson,Amy Thomas,Amanda,Nick
Wolfe,and Inspector LeBrun. Let's just say it was hardly the weekend
she had in mind." Very true. This gives a nice portrait of Amy Zoll
(basically an original character, though her name was taken from the
Watcher CD) as well as slight mayhem and consequences with all of the
abovementioned characters, and a few different points of view, not just
the main characters. Ah, poor Le Brun! Though this is set post "Not To
Be", I can't tell where it is in HL:Raven continuity because I've only
seen like one episode of that series. This is a like-an-episode story,
with a lot of picture-painting of the scenery as well as the people.
Generations (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (6)
Tags: Novella
(166K)
The summary says: "When Joe Dawson fails to return to Paris after
a short trip to the U.S.,Methos and Amy go looking for her father,who's
been kidnapped by hunters after just one thing: Duncan MacLeod.
Unfortunately, MacLeod's nowhere to be found."
This one is a tense adventure, with good portrayals of Amy, Joe and
Methos; a complex plot, arisen out of consequences of MacLeod's earlier
doings. It isn't just an adventure either, there are points where the
characters are pondering over things with insight.
Yes, you could say that the theme is "The sins of the fathers shall be
visited unto the third and fourth generations" -- but whose sins and
whose fathers, well, that remains to be seen. One could also consider
that some people are doomed to make the same mistakes.
In Silence and Tears (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (5)
Tags: Short Story
(11K)
This short piece is set in the immediate aftermath of "Not To Be"
(the last episode of the Highlander series). Methos and Joe find that
MacLeod seems to have taken off for good; anger and angst ensues.
This is also notable because it gets referred back to in chronologically
later stories by this author. I would have called them a series, but
unfortunately, some of them are already in a series specified by
the author, so until the day I have a method for making stories
part of a sub-series, I'll just leave these for you to figure out
yourself... (or go to the author's homepage if you can)
Hearts of Glass
(1) Seasons of Change (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (7)
Tags: Novel
(309K)
This one follows after "Generations", though I realized before I
got to the end of this story, that the author's story "The Forsworn" is
also incorporated into this universe. This story is also set just after
the last episode of Highlander:The Raven "Dead on Arrival". When Methos
comes across a mortal attacking the newly-immortal Nick Wolfe, he
intervenes -- and the consequences get very complicated. This was a
good story -- good plot, and good Methos. I really like the Methos
here; he's both humanly vulnerable as well as his calculating, planning
self. The plot was rather out there in one way; like a Catholic
conspiracy theory, with quotes from Revelations and ramblings about the
Essenes (reminiscent of Barbara Thiering's wild theories), and some
rather alarming assertions about St. John which make me glad this is
fiction. Still, it was very Highlandery.
One problem about the resolution at the end was that I felt as if an
entire scene had been left out -- how they actually got out of the
situation they were in. One could guess, but that really wasn't
sufficient.
But it makes me pant for more anyway, because I love this Methos.
(2) Seasons of Rest (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (8)
Tags: Novel
(489K)
This is a long story -- and more on that later. It opens with a
quote from a poem which very well sets the scene and the tone; weary
loneliness, as it follows both Methos' search for Duncan MacLeod, and
also cuts back to what Duncan had actually been doing. The intercutting
is good, because you it gives the detective work a sort of immediacy,
rather than the dismalness of a cold trail. Indeed, the stuff with
Duncan is very much a slice-of-life, both relaxing and adventuresome.
(And the kittens, we must admire the kittens!) With Methos, meanwhile,
he gets the bad end of the stick more than once, as people put what he's
doing in the worst light -- because of course, he hasn't actually told
anyone he's looking for MacLeod; he just took off...
Unfortunately, in the length department, this story is really too long,
not due to its length, but due to the amount of repetition in it; it
felt as if it had been written over an extended period of time, long
enough for the author to have forgotten that she'd already written that
flashback, made that point, used that phrase, earlier in the story (or
just in the story before). Having read both this one and the previous
one one after the other, it stood out to me. Now, not all the
repetitions were bad -- I did like the way that MacLeod kept on dreaming
that he heard Fitz saying "Look up, MacLeod"; but for the most part, it
just got tiring.
Whether it was the above repetition or not, I sort of felt, by the end
of it, that we'd had a very long journey -- without having actually
gone anywhere.
(3) Transitions (Highlander)
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 31st March 2003 (9)
Tags: Short Story
(8K)
This is the last story in this sequence, an epilogue, really, and
this time the story is frustratingly short -- just one scene, which
resets the stage, closing this book and leaving the way open for another
to begin.