The Burning City.

By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Synopsis:
The story of Whandall Placehold, his home, Tep's Town (the 'burning city' of the title), and Yangin-Atep, the fire god. With a supporting cast of a highly perseverant water sprite, ponies that are sometimes unicorns, bandits, thugs, lords, pirates (sort of), ancient american socio-economic theory, tightrope walkers, one slightly deranged Atlantian wizard, and many more...

Review:
I liked this a lot. In fact, I think I may have to forgive Messers Niven and Pournelle for 'The Mote in God's Eye.'

I'm not going to say too much, because there isn't much you can say without ruining it. It's not as wacky as I've made it sound from the synopsis, and the only thing I can think to compare it to is 'Flight of the Horse', which was also by Larry Niven, so it's not much of a comparison (also, this is a bit more epic). Suffice to say, this isn't fantasy as it's usually written. The magic and mythical creatures and so on are background, usually not present, and rarely relevant, since most of the action takes place within Tep's Town itself - a place where magic doesn't work. This makes a nice change from your normal cheap fantasy novels, where the characters are secondary to the magic - they aren't people in their own right, they just exist to use all these cool magical powers and to encounter all these cool magical beasts.

The plot was excellent, and all the different elements tied together perfectly. I especially liked that there were no moments of great revelation, everything just slotted nicely into place when it needed to. The setting was original and interesting (California, 12000 BC), but with no blatant hooks to attach it to modern times - to put it another way, there wasn't anything stuck it with a huge luminous label saying; 'This is what you identify with. Proceed from here', which was good, because such things strike me as patronising and annoying, especially when used in science-fiction and fantasy, as they are, by definition, escapist genres, where you don't really want to be reminded of the world around you. There are a few notes in the afterword, but I forgive them, as they didn't try to insert themselves into the actual story.

The characters were all good, and the social order in which they lived (both in and out of Tep's Town - two very different societies) was very well thought out. Again with the progressive revelation - there wasn't much explanatory dialogue, you just figured it out as you (and the characters) went along.

Conclusion: It's good. Read it!