The second book in a series of ten, the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, by British writer Hugh Cook, 'The Wordsmiths and the Warguild' is about Togura Poulaan who is charged with a mission. The mission being to find a thing called the Index so that the Wordsmiths, a powerful group in the city of Sung, can extract the mysteries within a type of vortex called the Odex. A special incentive spurs Togura on as his one true love, Day Suet, has fallen into it.
So on a journey with walking rocks, pirates, sea-dragons, and wizards, begins to unfold itself with very few clues as to where this Index is. There is also the side quest for Togura to finally lose his virginity. He finds himself out of his depth very quickly. In fact he spends a lot of his time in places he would rather not be.
I read the first book of the series, 'The Wizards and the Warrirors', two or three years ago as a random buy from my local fantasy/ sci-fi bookshop but I ended up loving it so much that I had bought the whole series to enjoy.
What do I love about Hugh Cook? His sheer inventiveness is mind blowing and his use of language is truly unique and very funny. His characters tend to be larger than life and the impossible adventures they go on makes you gripped as to how they are going to get through such a journey.
In 'The Wordsmiths and the Warguild' Togura is a very likeable character who is an ordinary man forced to turn adventurer for the love of his life. The story twists and twists making you want to read more to see how it will all resolve itself. The characters are rich and compelling driven by their own motivations either helping or hindering Togura.
The series was planned to be a huge sixty books but Cook had to stop at ten because they weren't selling well enough. Still ten books is an impressive achievement and though he is not very well known they hold a special place in my heart as I enjoy how much fun it can be to read such books.
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