The Long Look
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 Cover of first edition | |
| Author | Richard Parks |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Steven Gilberts |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Laws of Power |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Five Star |
Publication date | 2008 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 297 |
| ISBN | 978-1-59414-704-3 |
| OCLC | 226984792 |
| Followed by | Black Kath's Daughter |
The Long Look is a fantasy novel by Richard Parks, both his first novel and the first volume in his series The Laws of Power. It was first published in hardcover by Five Star in September 2008.[1] It has appeared as an ebook in 2011[2] and a trade paperback in October 2018.[1] The book placed twelfth in the 2009 Locus Poll Award for Best First Novel.[1]
Tymon the Black, known widely as an evil magician, is understandably misunderstood. He suffers the curse of "the long look," giving him glimpses of terrible futures that will inevitably come to pass unless he intervenes in the present. Haunted by the horrible consequences of inaction, he does what he must, ably assisted by his dwarfish assistant Seb. Alas, his interventions often affect innocent, or seemingly innocent, bystanders; some might also, if executed with insufficient finesse, result in outcomes even worse than those he sought to prevent. Hence his unenviable reputation.
Tymon's current intervention involves engineering the death of the headstrong glory-hound Prince Daras of Borasur, who will otherwise blunder his country and its neighbors into a devastating war. Casualties are his reluctant fiancé Princess Ashesa of Morushe, guilt-ridden over being the instrument of Daras's demise, and the prince's admiring younger brother Galan, now obsessed with vengeance. Between them they might well stir up troubles far worse than those Tymon has forestalled.
Unfortunately, the only solution is further meddling. A complicated sequence of events follows involving Ashesa, Galan, Seb, and many others, including the scheming Duke Laras, Laras's even more scheming henchman Vor, aged puppet-pretender to Borasur's throne Lord Molic, the servant Takren, who is more than he seems, the interfering goddess Amaet, a young man named Korik, who finds himself drafted as Tymon's apprentice, and a nameless fiend called up by Galan that needs to be banished.