A Triumph of Souls (Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3) - Hardcover

Foster, Alan Dean

3.93

327 ratings by Goodreads

9780446522182: A Triumph of Souls (Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 044652218X ISBN 13: 9780446522182

Publisher: Aspect, 2000

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Arriving in the land of Ehl-Larimar, he and his loyal friends face their greatest battle: thwarting Themaryl's powerful captor, Hymneth the Possessed. For the first time, the friends are wondering whether the price of victory may be too dear.

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Review:

"The truth is a riddle wrapped in an enigma--or sometimes in a nice piece of hot flat bread fresh from the oven. That's my friend Etjole." So surmises the boisterous sword-swinger Simna Ibn Sind, one of three fantastical companions that the seemingly simple Ejtole Ehomba has gathered in his wanderings through the three-book Journeys of the Catechist series (preceded by Into the Thinking Kingdoms and Carnivores of Light and Darkness--Triumph of Souls concludes the series). But as every fan knows (at times, unfortunately, to the point of eye-rolling), the self-effacing Ehomba only seems simple: Alan Dean Foster's answer to Baron Von Munchhausen is a modest, humble sheperd who talks with dolphins, fights tornadoes, summons man-eating sharks out of the air, and plays music that will make the snow dance. And that, predictably, is not the half of it.

Fulfilling the dying-gasp request of Tarin Beckwith from book 1, Etjole is finally getting around to rescuing the Visioness Thermaryl of Laconda from the evil clutches of Hymneth the Possessed, a very disagreeable sorcerer-type. Along with Simna and his two other companions, the big talking cat, Ahlitak, and the hulking man-beast, Hunkapan Aub, Etjole dutifully heads west to rescue the damsel, but must first control the four winds, get his ship towed by a jet-propelled Kraken (for, literally, the price of a big cup of coffee), stare down skeletons, dupe demons, and all other sorts of such likable nonsense. --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Born in New York City in 1946, Foster was raised in Los Angeles. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA (1968, l969) he spent two years as a copywriter for a small Studio City, Calif. advertising and public relations firm. His writing career began when August Derleth bought a long Lovecraftian letter of Foster's in 1968 and much to Foster's surprise, published it as a short story in Derleth's bi-annual magazine The Arkham Collector. Sales of short fiction to other magazines followed. His first attempt at a novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, was bought by Betty Ballantine and published by Ballantine Books in 1972. It incorporates a number of suggestions from famed SF editor John W. Campbell. Since then, Foster's sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant, but always entertaining short fiction has appeared in all the major SF magazines as well as in original anthologies and several "Best of the Year" compendiums. Six collections of his short form work have been published. Foster's work to date includes excursions into hard science-fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He has also written numerous non-fiction articles on film, science, and scuba diving, as well as having produced the novel versions of many films, including such well-known productions as Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. Other works include scripts for talking records, radio, computer games, and the story for the first Star Trek movie. In addition to publication in English, his work has appeared and won awards throughout the world. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first work of science-fiction ever to do so. Though restricted (for now) to the exploration of one world, Foster's love of the far-away and exotic has led him to travel extensively. After graduating from college he lived for a summer with the family of a Tahitian policeman and camped out in French Polynesia. He and his wife JoAnn Oxley, of Moran, Texas, have traveled to Europe and throughout Asia and the Pacific in addition to exploring the back roads of Tanzania and Kenya. Foster has camped out in the "Green Hell" region of the Southeastern Peruvian jungle, photographing army ants and pan-frying piranha (lots of small bones; tastes a lot like trout); has ridden forty-foot whale sharks in the remote waters off Western Australia, and was one of three people on the first commercial air flight into Northern Australia's Bungle Bungle National Park. He has rappelled into New Mexico's fabled Lechugilla Cave, white-water rafted the length of the Zambezi's Batoka Gorge, driven solo the length and breadth of Namibia, crossed the Andes by car , sifted the sands of unexplored archeological sites in Peru, gone swimming with giant otters in Brazil, and surveyed remote Papua New Guinea and West Papua both above and below the water. His filmed footage of Great White Sharks feeding off South Australia has appeared on both American television and the BBC. Besides traveling he enjoys listening to both classical music and heavy metal. Other pastimes include basketball, hiking, body surfing, scuba diving, collecting animation on video, and weightlifting. He studied karate with Aaron and Chuck Norris before Norris decided to give up teaching for acting. He has taught screenwriting, literature, and film history at UCLA and Los Angeles City College as well as having lectured at universities and conferences around the country and in Europe. A member of the Science-Fiction Writers of America, the Author's Guild of America, and the Writer's Guild of America, west, he also spent two years serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission of his home town of Prescott, Arizona. Foster's correspondence and manuscripts are in the Special Collection of the Hayden Library of Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. The Fosters reside in Prescott in a house bu

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