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Highlander Novels
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"He is Immortal. Born four hundred years ago in the Highlands of Scotland, he is not alone. There are others like him -- some good, some evil. For centuries he has battled the forces of darkness, with holy ground his only refuge. He cannot die unless you take his head, and with it his power. In the end, there can be only one. He is Duncan MacLeod: The Highlander."

-- 2nd season opening narration from Highlander: The Series

Highlander is something unique in media SF/F. It started as a movie released in 1985, which was panned by critics and did poorly in theaters, but found a new life on video and television. A very bad sequel movie was made in 1989 and rapidly (and correctly) forgotten. A somewhat better third movie was made in 1994. In 1992, a syndicated series was started based on the same premise as the movie, but with a different lead character. The series ran a total of five and a half seasons, ending in 1998. A spinoff series, Highlander: The Raven, ran for one season in 1998-99, but didn't do very well and was canceled. Two additional movies, released in 2000 and 2007, weren't very good, and did badly in theaters and on video. Nothing significant has happened with the franchise since then, which is probably just as well.

The original movie and the series are based on a rather fantastic (in both senses of the word) premise. "Immortals" live as ordinary people unless and until they die a violent death. After that, they revive and could live forever, physically frozen as they were when they first died. An Immortal never gets sick, can't be killed by any of the normal methods, and can heal any sort of injury except one: decapitation. On the down side, Immortals can't have children, and they are forever doomed to watch the mortals they care about age and die. All the Immortals are involved in a mutual battle to the death, for the last Immortal living will get "the Prize." None of them knows exactly what the Prize is, but they all know it involves enormous power. The evil ones fight because they want the Prize; the good ones fight because they don't want the evil ones to win. The fights usually take the form of duels with swords or other edged weapons, because the only way to kill an Immortal is to take his or her head. It sounds weird, but handled properly it can be and has been the basis for some very good drama.

I saw the movie on TV, sometime around 1990 or so. I discovered the series when it was in its third season, and immediately became a fan. The series had good writing (well, most of the time), acting, production, and fight choreography that would have looked good in a film; for a TV series made on a shoestring budget, it was awesome. I'll always have a special place in my memory for Highlander; among other things, it was the catalyst for my first (and so far only) trip overseas. In 1997 I learned that a Highlander-oriented convention was going to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in September 1998, and lost no time planning to attend. Homeland '98 proved a smashing success, one of the grandest vacations I've ever taken.