| The Shattered Goddess by Darrell Schweitzer is a fantasy novel in the manner of Jack Vance's The Dying Earth or Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique series, set millions of years in the future when the Goddess of Earth has died and her lingering power flickers over her colossal corpse like deadly lightning. In an increasingly nightmarish world, the young hero must discover his true identity and role in what may be the final epoch of human history. "The story plots the rise of a witch who takes possession of a series of bodies in order to ultimately attain the body of the Goddess. She can be defeated only through the heroic sacrifice of one of her own creations. The novel has immense power in its climax."
— The Encyclopedia of Fantasy "Darrell Schweitzer is a story-teller, by whose fire one may sit spell-bound."
— Tanith Lee "Few writers can genuinely touch the quality of nightmare. By that I don't mean the cataloguing of horror and gore that blurb-writers so often refer to as nightmare-like, but the fear that, formless and almost banal, stems from the sleeping mind. John Bellairs did it with The Face in the Frost. . . . James Blaylock can do it. And now there is The Shattered Goddess."
— Mary Gentile in Vector "Compelling, intriguing characters, moody, haunting, persuasive . . . fierce imagery containing equal parts legend and fantasy; distinctly different."
— Fantasy Mongers "A fine, smooth, adroit, controlled style. He knows plot, conflict, pace, tension. I'm impressed."
— Richard E. Geis "Schweitzer uses a very plastic prose full of rich images, without falling into excesses, and gives reality to his gods, men, and demons. A very beautiful and fascinating novel, which I can recommend."
— Eddy C. Bertin |
