Product Description

After the death of Vourniass Lycern, child-bearer to the Seriattic Royal Household, her twin sons, fathered by former Military Intelligence Officer Alexander Delgado, have grown up ignorant of their relationship. Michael has been raised on Earth as the son of General William Myson, while Cascari has been brought up within Delgado's terrorist group. Due to the circumstances surrounding their birth, no-one knows Michael and Cascari are brothers, and both believe they are the rightful heir to the position of Monosiell - head of Seriatt's Royal Household. When the existing Monosiell dies suddenly, the long-awaited opportunity presents itself: with Cascari in power Delgado knows he could strike at Myson more effectively, while Myson seeks the strategic value of Seriatt's proximity to the M4 wormhole. The stakes are heightened as the Seriatts are developing time travel capacity, using technology extrapolated from the Destiny Mask - the artefact Seriattic oracles use to predict the future. Delgado knows that with time travel capability Myson would represent an immeasurable threat, one which he must prevent. While strange occurrences in the vicinity of the wormhole go unnoticed, on Seriatt, the Oracles predict the coming of a saviour; but who this will be, no one can tell.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #907536 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Guardian
"In the best British SF tradition."

SFX
"...action packed..."

Emerald City
Sketchley knows what he is doing, and he’s starting to do it very well...

Customer Reviews

Great action right from the start
This is the sequel to sketchley's first novel, The Affinity Trap. If your looking for a whole heap of great action and a cracking story you'll enjoy this. You do need to have read the first book, though. One or two of the threads aren't tied up (...) but maybe that's coming in the next book. I can't wait!

A poor sequel to a promising series from a new author.
I was a bit miffed when I picked up this book after forking out seven quid to realise that the first thirty five pages were reprinted from the first book. After this poor start things went down hill rapidly when it became evident that all the things that made the first book promising, the descriptions of an entirely alien culture and some promising characters were entireley missing from book two. Instead a cliched plot filled the pages with 'star trek' esq aliens filling the pages. Sci Fi this isnt.

A middle-of-the-trilogy book
I've read all three of this trilogy from new author Martin Sketchley, and while I found this to be the weakest of the three it's an extremely fast read, rocketing along from the get-go. It's packed with action throughout, with an emotional ending that brought a tear to my eye, I'll admit. Despite some faults, The Destiny Mask contains some highly original ideas (the mask itself does not show "the future", but possibilities of what the future *might* be, making it open to misinterpretation). Overall, I'd recommend reading all three of these novels in order to follow the story arc to its full conclusion (all three have brilliant endings) and to see a writer learn his craft. Fascinating, entertaining stuff.