Into the Thinking Kingdom (Journeys of the Catechist, Book 2)

By Alan Dean Foster

Book Overview

An adventure of epic proportions continues as Ehomba, a man bound by honor, travels through exotic and perilous lands on a quest to find and protect a beautiful princess he has never met. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446521361
• ISBN13: 9780446521369
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Aspect
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Fast, Easy Read. Hard to put down

I found this book to be as compelling as the first book of the series. Maybe I had been away from Foster's books for awhile so I was not so jaded, but I found the pace of the book and the story to very well done. If you are into a little bit different type of story (i.e. The Spellsinger Series) I think you will find this series enjoyable.

Not much different from the first, but still enjoyable.

I was really worried after reading the first chapter of this book. It introduces us to the villain of the story. After only getting a brief glimpse of him in the first book, he gets an entire chapter devoted to him here. It was awful. Foster has created one of the most cliched antagonists I have ever seen. Combine all of the cheesy elements from various sci-fi and fantasy villains and you get Foster's creation. Ugh.Fortunately, not much time was spent here. If the tone of the book had been set by that first chapter, then I would have given it only two stars. This was most definitely not the case. We still see the plot device from the first book of Etjole encountering obstacle after obstacle and defeating each with something given to him by a person from his village. This is getting tedious. The book would have received only three stars if this had again been the thrust of the book. Luckily, Foster has begun to dig deeper into the supporting characters and giving them a life of their own. Their interrelationships were also delved into a bit more. My one complaint in this regard is that the characters are very static. For example, at one point, Simna gets an undisguised glimpse into his soul, but it does nothing to change his personality. Why? It is very frustrating to follow characters through several hundred pages of adventure and have them not change a bit.I guess the reason I gave this book four stars instead of three was that, after about the halfway point, I found it difficult to put down. I was enjoying the story way too much. It is also very different from most other fantasies on the shelves today; different themes, different types of characters, and different locales. All add up to a fun journey through an interesting world. I couldn't help but enjoy myself.

Clever

I enjoyed this book even better than the first one in this series. Very interesting, complex characters.

A great continuation to the first part of the trilogy.

This book was a great contiuation to the first book in the series. It continues the story of the triad of characters who travel through a strange and wonderous world. A great read.

A remarkable blend of simplicity and complexity!

One does not know the complexities to the simple man. The antihero herdsman in this tale, weaves the reader through the realities of living a simple existance intertwined with the fantasy of other-world imagination. With the last utterances of a dying stranger, Etjole Ehomba, shepard of sheep, curator of cattle, introduces the unwary reader into the mysteries of brotherhood and honor, of war and peace, of courage and duty. Together with two heartily enjoyable and very unlikely fellow travelers, Etjole leads us north into adventures that could only exist in the imagination of Alan Dean Foster!As an avid, and almost singular, reader of hard science-fiction, this book came as a suprise and delight! Thanks Mr. Foster!