Falcon Lord: Book One, The Lost Isle of Perpetua seems in its early going a standard fantasy/adventure. Like Carcium although a good deal better. I was never able to get into Carcium . But Falcon Lord hooked me early. Here is its opening: "Brighton listened. While feeling the sun warming his face, and taking in the salt air mixed with falcon's musky odors, he heard only the distant waves." I like the two word minimalist first sentence. Subject verb. The subject is the name of the protagonist in this story, the son of a "Falcon Lord" and eventually, after he has undertaken a hazardous journey and been tested as such a protagonist must be, "Falcon Lord" himself. The second sentence gives us data from three senses as Brighton experienced it at a certain moment: smell, touch, and hearing are all represented. And the data are familiar from our world, even the duskiness of falcon feathers seems right. As I say, in its early going this read...