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"Michael Scott Rohan mixes sea adventure, voodoo, and strange buildings out of
time in Chase the Morning, a rousing contemporary fantasy that has an air of
old-fashioned wonder and magic... a splendidly dark and macabre final battle... Rohan does
a fine job of mixing the mythic with the mundane, with a number of memorable characters,
in particular Jyp the Pilot, who serves as Stephen's wise guide and pal. Nor is this a
strictly male adventure - the hardened veteran on this ship is Mad Mall, a Woman with a
Past, and her own reasons for fighting Wolves. As a sort of counterbalance, Stephen
adjusts slowly to this otherworld, rather than becoming an instant hero. He stands on the
border, able to see the wonders but not quite ready to give up the safe, modern world he
knows. The resulting tension gives the novel a serious core that makes the sea adventures
all the more marvellous."
Carolyn Cushman, Locus
"Costume drama this month. First, a gem, Michael Scott Rohan's Chase the
Morning. It begins in the present day when an Armani-suited and cold-hearted yuppie
turns a corner and walks into romance and adventure... The ending is... as satisfactory as
you could wish. Computer programmes as magic spells, some voodoo hoodoo straight out of a
James Bond movie, laughing demigods and heroes out of every kind of mythology: a rich,
satisfying brew."
Wendy Bradley, Interzone
"It's been a while since Michael Scott Rohan has published a new novel, so when I
obtained a copy of Chase the Morning... I settled down in expectation of a bit of a
treat. I'm pleased to report that Michael's back with a bang... written by a man with an
obvious love of the sea and a real feel for what he's writing...Well worth the wait...
Shiver the timbers me hearties, I'll 'ave 'ee walking the plank if 'ee don't like this
un!"
Alan Crump, Gamesmaster International
"Remarkable... strongly recommended."
Philip Stephenson-Payne, Locus
"Here is a real winner, at least in my estimation. It combines spine-tingling
horror, riveting action, and characters who seem to leap off the page at you... Chase
the Morning combines elements that remind me strongly of Meyer's classic Silverlock
with elements reminiscent of Brin's (sic) On Stranger Tides, but it is its own
book. It relies on no other writers' work to give it life, and I was sorry when it
ended... A very good book!"
Norm Hartman, Science Fiction Review, December 1991
Chase the Morning was named twice in Locus's 'Recommended Reading' -
by Faren Miller (among 'the creme de la weird stuff') and Carolyn
Cushman.
"The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder,
The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder...
That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee:
Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea..."
James Elroy Flecker, Hassan
Successful at his job but starving his personal life, export executive Steve is a
hollow man. Until one night, by chance, he strays unhappily into the docks of his home
city, turns one corner too many and changes his life forever....
When he recklessly intervenes in a dockyard fight which turns into something much more
fantastic and deadly, Steve finds himself drawn into a world he neither understands nor
believes - at first. His meeting with the mercurial Jyp leads to the ransacking of his
office by a pack of horrible semi-human roughnecks, and the kidnapping of his secretary
Clare. Aware of strong feelings for the first time in years, Steve enlists the aid of Jyp
and his roistering, piratical friends to track down her captors and go after them - a
chase which leads him further than he ever imagined possible, east of the sun and west of
the moon, beyond the light of morning itself. Across the shifting, perilous seas of the
Spiral, world upon world beyond our own space and time, he must confront a dark and
twisted cult born out of cruelty and slavery, and come face to face with living death.
A picaresque fantasy that transcends the genre, a funny, erotic and romantic tale of
kidnapping and rescue, of sea battles, swordplay and piracy among the shadows of our
humdrum everyday world.
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