The third volume of a classic fantasy series set on two worlds Travis Wilder and Grace Beckett have returned to modern Earth on a mission of mercy: to get medical help for the severely wounded Beltan, a knight from the otherworld of Eldh. But as Beltan lies unconscious in the ICU of a Denver hospital, a shadowy organization plots to kidnap him for use in its cruel experiments, while sinister forces of dark magic cross the boundary from Eldh in a murderous search for Travis and Grace. Meanwhile, in Eldh itself, a young baroness, her witch companion, and their mortal and immortal friends journey to a dying city, there to confront a nameless evil that has begun to annihilate the very gods. Somehow Travis and Grace must save Beltan and themselves, and then make their way back to Eldh, for only in this realm of gods and monsters, myth and runecraft, can they hope to defeat a demonic enemy that can shatter time, devour space, and turn existence into nothingness.

Amazon Review

The Dark Remains, the third volume of Mark Anthony's The Last Rune sequence, shares with its predecessors Beyond the Paleand The Keep of Fire, a strong sense of two worlds and the rules by which they operate. Our own world is one where reason holds sway, but is not the only factor. As Travis and Grace struggle to save the wounded knight Beltan, whom they have brought through a portal from his own world, they have to deal not only with hospital bureaucracies, but also with powerful business interests who are as prone to using magically modified hunting beasts as they are crooked evangelists and sophisticated bugging equipment. Much of what is going on in the magical world of Eldh, from the murder of gods to the jockeying of priests and royal advisors for prestige, is best understood through reason as well: the former goddess Melia proves a competent detective. Anthony effectively balances a large cast of flawed well-intentioned characters and some interesting villains, many of whom know no more than the heroes what ultimately is going on; the set pieces of violent and magical action are involving and exciting as well as psychologically and emotionally plausible.--Roz Kaveney

About the Author

Mark Anthony learned to love both books and mountains during childhood summers spent in a Colorado ghost town. Later he was trained as a palaeoanthropologist but along the way grew interested in a different sort of human evolution - the symbolic progress reflected in myth and the literature of the fantastic. He undertook the LAST RUNE series to explore the idea that reason and wonder need not exist in conflict. Mark Anthony lives and writes in Colorado.

The Dark Remains

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