Tag: Fiddleback Trilogy

[Review] Evil Ascending – A Dark Conspiracy Novel

… “Fiddleback is but one of many. Pygmalion, DeadTongue, Baron Someday and a dozen others all operate here on Earth. Fiddleback has been the most ambitious to date, but all are effective in their spheres of influence” … 

Evil Ascending is the sequel to Michael Stackpole’s A Gathering Evil and the second novel in Dark Conspiracy’s Fiddleback trilogy. Be warned spoilers follow!

Plot Summary

Set in the immediate aftermath of the events detailed in A Gathering Evil, Evil Ascending continues the adventures of Tycho Caine (now known by many names, including Michael Loring and Coyote) in the fight against his old master, the Dark Lord Fiddleback. Having successfully thwarted the Dark One’s plan to use the Phoenix Transport Loop as a dimensional doorway into Earth’s reality, Caine and his allies now look to strike back at Fiddleback in any way they can. To achieve this goal, new allies will be discovered, and new enemies revealed, in a mixing pot of stories that sees the novel span the world – from Arizona to Tibet, and finally to Tokyo, Japan.

[Review] A Gathering Evil – A Dark Conspiracy Novel

Awakening in a speeding ambulance, with the scream of its undulating siren ripping your brain apart, is not a pleasant experience. It becomes even less so when you realize you’re in a body bag zipped up tight and you can’t move. Trapped in suffocating darkness, with the rubberized canvas pulling at your flesh, you realize that if this is death, eternity in a grave will be hell itself.

And so begins A Gathering Evil, Michael Stackpole’s first novel in what was to become the Fiddleback trilogy. Be warned spoilers follow!

Plot Summary

As quoted from above, A Gathering Evil starts in the most dire of circumstances, but then moves into a classic romp through a vibrant post-depression world. It is through the eyes of the protagonist, Tycho Caine (a man who knows nothing of his past, not even if Tycho is his real name), that we learn about this alternate 2010s; from the depths of the Eclipse (the name given to the massive solar panel array that now covers most of downtown Pheonix) all the way to the top of the most prestigious of corporate towers. Much like Dark Conspiracy itself, the story is one of fighting back against an unknowable enemy, a universe where it seems it is always left to a collection of misfits and social outcasts to make right when others can, or will, not.

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