Beneath the padding, overblown prose, and interminable description, a genuinely moving tragedy sometimes glimmers through....
Final installment in the trilogy (The Lady of the Sorrows, 2002, etc.) set against a British/Irish myth/folklore backdrop. The war between the immortals High King Angavar and Prince Morragan continues; they and their retinues can’t return to the Fair Realm until they discover the location of the last remaining gate. Following yet another confusing change of name, Tahquil (a.k.a. Ashalind, Rohain, etc.) has recovered her memory; she does know the location of the gate—she hid inside it while a thousand years passed—and hopes to stop the war by sending the antagonists home. Somehow, though, she can't quite recall the gate's exact location. Still, with her companions, young Caitri and the maid Viviana, she must search—while Morragan's agents search for her. A couple hundred pages’ worth of travelogue later, Morragan grabs Caitri and Viviana, and Tahquil, too, when she goes to rescue them from Morragan's enchanted castle in Evernight. But Morragan can't force his way past the barrier in her mind, and he's too much of a gentleman to torture her. Tahquil realizes, though, that Angavar, whose armies press ever closer, is not only her beloved, Thorn, but King-Emperor James, the supposedly mortal ruler of Erith! There will be a showdown between Angavar and Morragan, and Tahquil will find . . . not what she hopes or expects.
Beneath the padding, overblown prose, and interminable description, a genuinely moving tragedy sometimes glimmers through. Would that Dart-Thornton had simply let her characters find their way. Still, fans of the previous shouldn't be disappointed.Pub Date: April 18, 2003
ISBN: 0-446-52807-2
Page Count: 472
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Moorcock's latest metamorphic, calculated, gnomic, self- referential venture into the ``multiverse'' completes the trilogy of Blood (1995) and Fabulous Harbors (1997). The chief character and narrator here is Rose von Bek, nÇe Moorcock (it's an ``autobiographical story,'' the author explains helpfully), who, born during the London Blitz, becomes a highwayman to defy the oppressive Universal Transport Company before discovering the doorway to the multiverse—and thence the impending war between the Singularity and the Chaos Engineers that threatens not only the First and Second Ethers but creation itself. Endlessly reinventive, purposefully bewildering, unquantifiable, and elusive—typically Moorcock, in fact. Your move.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-380-97597-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1997
For the author’s fans, and for younger readers who may still find freshness in fantasy of this type.
Volume one of a new series, this is epic fantasy with an Important Moral Lesson.
Prejudice is wrong. Just in case you didn’t get the memo, this novel drives the message home with sledgehammer subtlety. Lici, a vengeful basketweaver with the gift of blood magic, curses her baskets with pestilence that attacks the Y’Qatt, a religious sect that believes using their magical powers is sinful. Back in Lici’s former home of Kirayde, Besh the village elder seeks to understand the motives behind her actions. Meanwhile, Grinsa, a protagonist from Coe’s previous series, Winds of the Forelands, takes his wife Cresenne and baby daughter to the Southlands to escape the fear and distrust the people of the Forelands hold for Weavers, those who bear multiple magical gifts. However, they quickly discover that the Southlands has its own brand of fear and distrust, as well as those who would co-opt Grinsa’s magic for their own purposes. Will Grinsa and Cresenne ever find a true home and acceptance? Can Besh prevent Lici’s baskets from killing all of the Southlands magic users? The answers almost certainly lie in future books. But it might not be worth the bother of finding them, as the weakly drawn characters fail to sustain the tension in this mildly interesting but ultimately limp sword-and-sorcery tale.
For the author’s fans, and for younger readers who may still find freshness in fantasy of this type.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1638-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
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