The Seagull Drovers - by Steve Cockayne

The Seagull Drovers is the last installment in Steve Cockayne's Legends Of The Land trilogy. It's a complex tale but here's a taster of the story line…

Nothing is right in the Land. King Matthew is indisposed and the city is controlled by the wicked Fang and his Royal Wolf Boys. Leonardo Pegasus, inventor of the Multiple Empathy Engine and ex-Royal Magician, has retired to the country where he searches the murky depths of the Signal Network for a malevolent entity that lurks there and preys on the weak.City girl Ashleigh Brown needs a change from her urban life in Tower Mansions and has set her sights on the gaudy wagon of Wanderer Liam Blackwood while Charles Bannister has made his fortune from his Power-Driven Carriage and nows searches the Islands for fuel to run them on. Imp Fever is rife on the Network and roaming bands of Seagull Drovers seek to guide lost gulls back to the sea and when they pass, the children are vanishing.

The Legends Of The Land is a trilogy in three fairly separate parts, spanning about twenty years. Each book tells a different story and in The Seagull Drovers, some of these story threads and characters come together. I'm not sure if I'd call it a climax but some things get tied up at the end.

I suppose the character of Leonardo Pegasus is the most prevalent in the stories but it is all very loosely tied together and you'd easily get lost wondering what some characters play in it at all. That said, it's a pretty easily read and mildly entertaining story. The characters are well developed and easily empathized with but on the whole it's just a little unsatisfying and a bit slow in getting where it's going.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 1-84149-304-X
My Rating: 6/10