This is one of the great overlooked Fantasy/Sci-fi adventures of all time. And to be honest, I hate even putting it into a genre category; it's just a damn good read. After having read tons of sci-fi/fanasy in my youth, I had reached a point where I was embarrassed to read any more of the stuff; almost all of it was trite, Tolkien- or Arthur C. Clarke-derivative, and, frankly, just plain juvenile....