Exiles of Kho by Christopher Paul Carey (Meteor House 2012)

Originally published Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:29:18 AM

Philip Jose Farmer, Wold Newton, Christopher Paul Carey

UPDATE: if you missed this when it came out.  It is now available at Amazon as an ebook.

So I had seen the cover on-line with the notices that the book was coming and I thought “that’s a nice looking cover”. The package arrived; I opened it and the cover in breathtakingly beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice.
In a lot of ways I was reminded of the Daw SF books from the 1970’s like Hadon of Ancient Opar, and Flight to Opar by Philip Jose Farmer. Of course this is intentional as Christopher Carey completed the third book in the series The Song of Kwasin (All three books were published as Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa by Subterranean Press 2012) Exiles of Kho is a prequel to Hadon of Ancient Opar.

If I were to judge the book by the cover alone it’d be a winner but I’m not judging by the cover alone. It’s the story and I am very pleased that the story lives up to the cover and I was pleasantly surprised that there is interior art that is just as gorgeous as the cover (I’d scan them here but I’d have to damage the spine). The artist for both the cover and interiors is Mike Hoffman. Hopefully Meteor House will use him for future volumes.

Carey tells the story of the priestess Lupoeth and her band of outcasts exiled by the new Queen of Khokarsa to build a new temple. The motley group of exiles is joined by Sahhindar, the gray-eyed God of archery and time. (gee I wonder who he might be – perhaps a certain time traveler from one of Farmer’s other works that I recently reviewed) .
The band travels to the site of the new temple facing danger from the beasts and other tribes and the different factions within the band. Carey manages to balance the political intrigue with action that makes this an enjoyable read.

I read the entire book in an afternoon and enjoyed every bit of it. The characters are well drawn and the action flows well. Carey manages to sneak in references to several other of Farmer’s other works and themes.
I hear that Meteor House has plans to issue further volumes like this and I am looking forward to future books.