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The Kingdom Beyond The Waves by Stephen Hunt
01/07/2008 . Source: Sue Davies 
pub: HarperVoyager. 560 page hardback. Price: £17.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-00723-220-8. Buy The Kingdom Beyond The Waves in the USA - or Buy The Kingdom Beyond The Waves in the UK  check out website: www.harpercollins.co.uk
There’s a new action movie out this summer. It has an ageing hero with a wannabee follower. The stunts are familiar, the dilemmas incredible. It’s a moral story where good triumphs over evil again, just before Indy goes to collect his pension.
I suggest there’s a new film to be made. A new action hero is waiting. She might not be pretty and her arms won’t fit into a pretty cap sleeve dress but she’s all woman, waiting in the wings for the geriatric Indiana to vacate the arena.
Professor Amelia Harsh is a driven woman. Plagued with doubts and fears and, without a paramour in sight, she dreams of finding the lost city of Camlantis. The University of Jackals thinks she is a coin short of a purse and refuses to contemplate funding an expedition.
Along comes the eccentric but luckily wealthy Abraham Quest who has evidence about where the city ruins are buried. Regrettably, it is the wild and dangerous jungle of Liongeli. This is a place where no one with any sense should be going. Fortuitously, Amelia manages to assemble a motley crew who have more desire for money, than sense.
Her old friend Commodore Black, known as Blacky, is the first to sign up and along with Quest’s female mercenaries; he gets a scabby crew direct from the jails of Jackals.
In another part of town, the conflicted Cornelius, sometimes known as Furnace Breath Nick, has troubles of his own. He and his friend Septimoth and their mysterious Housekeeper, old Damson Beeton, are investigating the theft of steammen’s graves. Someone is using the redundant body parts for probably the foulest ends. The trail leads once again, to Abraham Quest.
As Amelia heads off down river and into the badlands, she finds it’s not just the jungle that offers horrors. There is a traitor on board who seems to have his or her own reasons to prevent Amelia from finding her heart’s desire.
Readers of the first novel ‘The Court Of The Air’ may be disappointed to find that this story is about some of the characters who appeared only marginally in that novel. You will soon get over that as the action, death, disaster and change of scenes is unrelenting. There are battles, deaths and a huge set piece finale that would break the special effects bank.
This is heart-stopping stuff, although it takes a while to get going. Once it does the action is cranked up though there is no stopping. Don’t look for romance and massive character development. As I said this is an all-action plot waiting to be rendered in glorious widescreen and Technicolor. Roll over Indiana, Amelia is on your tail.
Sue Davies
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