Review of An Enemy Reborn

By Michael A. Stackpole

Once again Michael Stackpole has written an excellent novel. It picks up where A Hero Born left off.

Tyrchon, a chaos rider with Locke in the first book, awakens in Chaos and finds out that Lord Disaster Fialchar saved him from death. Fialchar forces Tyrchon to make a deal with him to find out what the source of a strange area in Chaos is. Fialchar reveals that he cannot enter this area because it causes him pain. In return for this service, Lord Disaster promises Tyrchon what he most wants, to be human again.

Len Fong is a salesman in a shoe store on Earth. As he is attempting to get a pair of shoes from the top self in the stockroom, he falls and hits his head. when he awakens, he is in Chaos and at first believes he is dreaming and in a comma back on earth. He starts to remember all the role playing games he played in as a teen and found a fortress in Chaos that resembled one he designed for his character. The plastic badge on his shirt had come alive and the foot stool he was standing on also followed him into this place. He stumbles into a tomb and destroys the skeleton in the tomb and takes its boots.

Tyrchon meets up with two companions from the first book: Xoayya and Nagrendra. They were trapped in a cave by some Chaos Demons. Tyrchon makes a deal with them and they leave. They later meet up with Len outside of his Fortress and they fight some Storm Demons. They also meet some troops sent in from a province of the Empire. These soldiers are looking for the cause of a massive chaos storm to end suddenly. They go back and meet Shoth and Princess Myat. Fialchar brings them back into Chaos and they find a valley made of crystal Len and Shoth are both part on one individual called the Dashan. They unlock the way down and find a castle with crystal creatures still working on it. The "owner" of the castle is Spiriastar. She was the master of the Dashan and he imprisoned her here because she was insane. She kills Shoth and the rest escape. Lord Disaster summons the leaders of the chaos demons and they choose Tyrchon as their general. While at the meeting, they are attacked with long range artillery. Len identifies this as a rail gun, something from his world. the battle plans are made and Myat is also reviled to possess part of Dashan's soul as well.

Spiriastar resurrected Shoth to power the rail guns and her army of crystal insects meet the chaos demons on the battle field. It does not go well for the chaos demons. They are getting trashed when Len, Nagrendra, Myat and Fialchar kill Spiriastar. Her army collapses and more troops from the Empire led by Locke show up. Tyrchon is made human and Xoayya agrees to marry him. Len is sent back to his world where he is promoted.

This is a great story and I am eagerly awaiting the next book. Mr. Stackpole is one of the best writers currently being published today. He has also written several Battletech and Starwars novels. To learn more about him, check out his homepage. Follow the link under my Gaming And Entertainment section of my homepage. Thanks Mr. Stackpole!