The Barnes & Noble Review
Australian author Sara Douglass's Beyond the Hanging Wall is a marked departure from her epic Axis trilogy (BattleAxe, Enchanter, and Starman). Her newest novel is a more intimate, less action packed tale about a physician's young apprentice son and his fateful meeting with a condemned man.

Like his father, Garth Baxtor has the Touch; by laying his hands on a person, he can sense the specific illness within and in most cases heal the ailment. A royal decree in Escator requires physicians to spend three weeks each year attending to the needs of criminals who labor in the Veins, a labyrinth of tunnels deep under the earth where gloam -- a valuable commodity -- is mined. Garth's father decides that his son is old enough to accompany him into the nightmarish Veins, where the worst convicts labor until they're dead. But while Garth is deep underneath the earth healing doomed men, he meets an almost forgotten legend...

Sara Douglass is Australia's bestselling author for good reason. The unique realm of Tencendor in her Axis trilogy has been compared to Tolkien's Middle-earth, and her grand writing style has been likened to Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind. For those fantasy enthusiasts who have yet to discover Douglass, Beyond the Hanging Wall is a great place to start. The novel's plot isn't overly complex and, because of the fairy tale atmosphere of the story, can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. Paul Goat Allen