A thousand years after the Most High annointed the First Men, a child of remarkable beauty and intelligence was born to the House of Leuktom. By the time he was 3, his depth of understanding of the Fuirfad, the Way of Fire, surpassed that of his parents, and so he was named Kannwar, the Guardian of Knowledge. But when he became a man, his father was passed over for leadership of the House of Leuktom. Then rebellion kindled in his heart, and he drank from the Fountain of Eternal Life. Because of his disobedience, the Most High drove the First Men from the Vale. And Kannwar became the Undying Man, the Destroyer, implacable enemy of the Most High and the First Men.

Two thousand years have passed since the destruction of the Vale of the Chosen. The immortal Destroyer has become a disbelieved myth in the nations of the First Men, the 16 lands of Faltha. Certainly Kannwar isn't much on the mind of young Leith. He has bigger concerns. He envies the calm of his crippled adoptive brother, Hal. He yearns for the unattainable Stella, beauty of the snowbound northern village of Loulea. He has no wish to labor for the harsh old farmer Kurr. And he misses his and Hal's father, Mahnum, a Trader who departed two years ago and has not been seen since.

The Midwinter festival brings the return of Mahnum. Leith's joy turns to fear as he learns why his father was missing for those two long years: Mahnum was a spy, captured and tortured in distant Bhrudwo, land of Kannwar the Destroyer. Mahnum is bringing word to his king of Kannwar's plan to invade Faltha. He has traveled by indirect means to Loulea to see his much-missed wife and sons. He believes he has thrown the Undying Man's four uncanny, terrifying warriors—the Maghdi Dasht, the Lords of Fear—off his trail. He is wrong.

The Lords of Fear kidnap Mahnum and his wife, Indrett, and leave their sons, Leith and Hal, for dead. Joined by the old farmer Kurr, the young woman Stella, the village headman and a brave pair of fighters bereaved by the Maghdi Dasht, Leith and Hal embark on a secret mission, hoping to rescue Mahnum and Indrett and warn the Firanes Court of the Destroyer's invasion. Both goals seem hopeless. But Kurr is more than he seems. And so, perhaps, is one other member of their Company. For a prophecy foretells the coming of the Right Hand of the Most High, who will defeat the Destroyer. And there are signs that the Right Hand is one of their Company.

The title is truth in advertising

A professional map-maker and atlas publisher, New Zealander Russell Kirkpatrick drew on a singularly suitable talent in writing his epic fantasy series, the Fire of Heaven trilogy. He spent "a year making an atlas of Faltha, the world of the novels, with enough detailed topographical maps ... to cover the roof of a house if all put together." With inevitable life interruptions, the trilogy "took seventeen years to complete". His hard work and map-making skills pay off impressively in his debut novel, the trilogy's first book, Across the Face of the World.

As the novel's five maps suggest, and its text proves, Kirkpatrick has engaged in epic world-building. Geography, geology, climate, weather, nations, ethnicities, languages, flora, fauna—all have been worked out in such enormous detail that it's an understatement to say that Kirkpatrick has developed the world of Faltha in depth. Maybe his isn't the most ambitious feat of world-building ever undertaken by a single fantasy or SF author, but it's got to rank in the top 10. (Why the publisher condemned the book's detailed maps to the smallness of a mass-market paperback is an annoying mystery.)

The Company's quest to free the captives and reach the court takes the seven characters across more than a thousand miles of wintry Faltha. They cross frozen moors and forbidding mountains. They traverse deep forests. They ride raging rapids. And, much of the time they battle brutal weather. They also encounter a variety of friendly and hostile people—usually the latter. Across the Face of the World will be a joyous experience for readers who love getting lost in a complex fictional world and/or embarking on a long fictional voyage.

However, Across the Face of the World will be tough slogging for readers who prefer the destination to the journey, because the quest takes its simplest form: the chase. The good guys pursue the bad guys, and the author throws obstacles in their path and, hypothetically, the obstacle-throwing can go on forever. And when a novel goes on for almost 700 pages, it can feel like forever. So it's unfortunate that Kirkpatrick isn't content to unite the Company with their kidnapped loved ones. At the moment of reunion, he makes Leith the captive of a new foe, thus tacking on a new chase. Except for the most die-hard quest fan, this is overkill.

The novel has another weakness: The characters aren't nearly as well developed as their world. While they have some interesting quirks and secrets, they aren't sufficiently differentiated from their overfamiliar templates ("callow youth fated for greatness," "gruff mentor," "evil magic-worker," etc.), which are at least as old as the Arthurian mythos. Experienced epic-fantasy fans may find Kirkpatrick's characters a disappointment in comparison to the fully developed characters of master fantasists such as Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien.