‘Lord Tophet’ – Gregory Frost (Del Rey)

After having enjoyed Gregory Frost’s ‘Shadowbridge’, ‘Lord Tophet’ (the sequel) has spent a little more time in the ‘to read’ pile than perhaps it should have done. There’s absolutely no sense of order in the pile right now, it’s very much a case of me seeing something interesting and then grabbing it! I got round to ‘Lord Tophet’ in the end though and am very glad that I did. Not only is it a great read (although not quite up to the standard of ‘Shadowbridge’) but it kept me sane through one of the worst train journey’s home that I have ever had...

Following the cliff-hanger ending of ‘Shadowbridge’, Leodora has bought healing to the wounded span of Colemaigne along with her soaring reputation as the master shadow-puppeteer Jax. Jax’s success may be Leodora’s undoing however. Tales of Jax’s prowess give rise to rumours that legendary puppeteer Bardsham (Leodora’s father) himself has returned to the spans. This news reaches the ears of Lord Tophet, the vengeful God who wrought ruin upon Colemaigne after Bardsham’s final performance. A quintet of deadly killers is dispatched to track Jax down, and learn the truth behind the mask, in a series of events that will lead Leodora into the most important performance of her fledgling career...

At only two hundred and twenty two pages long ‘Lord Tophet’ is a fair bit shorter than ‘Shadowbridge’ and (for the most part) forgoes the world building elements of the earlier book; preferring instead to concentrate on moving the story along to it’s conclusion. Frost does take the time to concentrate a little on Colemaigne as well as Leodora’s trips into Edgeworld and the result is as pleasing as his work in ‘Shadowbridge’ with brooding and evocative images of an alien world...

The story itself comes across as fairly tight with a definite ending on the horizon. Frost has already invested time in building up characters, Leodora and Diverus in particular, and I was very keen to see how the story ended for them. While the introduction of Lord Tophet comes at a good time for the story as a whole, I was left wondering if his introduction was a little bit rushed in the book itself. In many ways ‘Lord Tophet’ felt like it needed another hundred pages to make certain things clearer and maybe this would have helped in terms of introducing the ‘evil plot element’. It felt very much like a case of ‘one minute Tophet wasn’t there and the next minute he was’... Having said that though, Tophet is a real nasty piece of work and his ‘Agents’ do make for some chilling scenes as they work their way across the spans in search of Leodora/Jax. I guess this balances things out!

The finale is appropriately dark and revelatory but again feels like things could have been explained a little clearer before everything just ends and leaves the reader with more questions...
The importance of stories is again elaborated upon and one of the things I came away with is that stories don’t have to explain everything, this approach adds to the mystique of the setting if nothing else. It’s a fine line to walk though and while Frost uses this approach to enhance his setting to great effect (making the story part of a tantalisingly unfinished ‘whole’ instead of something limited by being self contained) I was left with other questions that I felt needed answering. What was the significance of Edgeworld other than a place for Leodora to conveniently gather what she needs to confront Tophet. What was the ‘Coral Man’ all about? Everything fits together perfectly but I just kept wondering why...
Luckily, Frost’s storytelling left me wanting to find these answers out rather than putting the book down in frustration. ‘Lord Tophet’ is definitely a book that I will be returning to at some point...

‘Lord Tophet’ is sometimes frustrating but is ultimately a testament to Gregory Frost’s skill at telling an enthralling tale that sucked me in and didn’t let me go until I’d finished. These books aren’t done with me quite yet, both demand a re-read to fully appreciate what’s going on the spans and islands of Shadowbridge...


Eight and a Quarter out of Ten