The Bristling Wood

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking Fantasy
Review: This is the third in an expanding series set in a cod-Celtic world focussed on the "kingdom" of Deverry. I was impressed enough by the first to buy the whole opening quartet, and was sadly disappointed. Books 1 and 2 are advertised as re-written, and are reasonably polished. The unrevised 3rd and 4th books have a first draft quality and increasing reliance on dialogue, long stretches that read like film-script, which isn't well-written and expose the poor quality of the character writing. Book 1 dealt with some adult themes, principally incest, but in book 3 the heroine Jill is just gratuitously and tastelessly sexually abused. The main gimmick of the series is that the main characters are linked by destiny through reincarnation, and it records their "reunions" at different points in history. In the first book the stories run parallel and reflect on each other. As the series runs on the link between eras is weaker and the switch between stories is awkward and arbitrary. In the later volumes, in an attempt to open the story into an eternal battle between good and evil, the author crow-bars in opposing schools of "Light" and "Dark" magic, obviously "inspired" by The Force from Star Wars. Her magicians also travel and fight on an "astral plane" extraordinarily similar to the world of Marvel comics hero Dr Strange. In the final analysis these are teen romances, with very few original ideas, populated by lacklustre characters, adequately written but operating on the law of diminishing returns. I bought them so I had to read them. Don't be sucked in.

Rating:
Summary: Childish
Review: This is the third in an expanding series set in a cod-Celtic world focussed on the "kingdom" of Deverry. I was impressed enough by the first to buy the whole opening quartet, and was sadly disappointed. Books 1 and 2 are advertised as re-written, and are reasonably polished. The unrevised 3rd and 4th books have a first draft quality and increasing reliance on dialogue, long stretches that read like film-script, which isn't well-written and expose the poor quality of the character writing. Book 1 dealt with some adult themes, principally incest, but in book 3 the heroine Jill is just gratuitously and tastelessly sexually abused. The main gimmick of the series is that the main characters are linked by destiny through reincarnation, and it records their "reunions" at different points in history. In the first book the stories run parallel and reflect on each other. As the series runs on the link between eras is weaker and the switch between stories is awkward and arbitrary. In the later volumes, in an attempt to open the story into an eternal battle between good and evil, the author crow-bars in opposing schools of "Light" and "Dark" magic, obviously "inspired" by The Force from Star Wars. Her magicians also travel and fight on an "astral plane" extraordinarily similar to the world of Marvel comics hero Dr Strange. In the final analysis these are teen romances, with very few original ideas, populated by lacklustre characters, adequately written but operating on the law of diminishing returns. I bought them so I had to read them. Don't be sucked in.

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This was one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read- its funny, I almost stopped after darkspell... That one let me down. But as it turns out, I made a great decision! The only problem I had was that she dove into her best flashback sequence ever in the forging of the silver dagger group, but then she proceeded to leave us hanging.... in the middle of that story she returns to the current story which I found to be less intriging... and then she never picks up the other story. A huge disappointment! And I may never know because the next book failed to keep my intrest after 300 pages of trudging. So close to finishing The Dragon Revenant, and I had to put it down in disgust.

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This was one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read- its funny, I almost stopped after darkspell... That one let me down. But as it turns out, I made a great decision! The only problem I had was that she dove into her best flashback sequence ever in the forging of the silver dagger group, but then she proceeded to leave us hanging.... in the middle of that story she returns to the current story which I found to be less intriging... and then she never picks up the other story. A huge disappointment! And I may never know because the next book failed to keep my intrest after 300 pages of trudging. So close to finishing The Dragon Revenant, and I had to put it down in disgust.