The High Lord – Trudi Canavan

Category: Fantasy

This is the final book in the Black Magician trilogy after The Magician’s Guild and The Novice.

As Akkarin’s chosen student and hostage, Sonea feels trapped. The other students resent her for the perceived privilege that they feel should rightly have gone to one of them, and she would happily hand over to be free.

Despite the High Lords references to an ancient enemy, this being his reason for studying and practising the black arts, Sonea cannot help but wonder it he is telling the truth or just making excuses for his perversions.

Now there are murders occurring in the city. People found dead with hardly a mark on them, certainly not enough to explain their deaths. However to those in the know they appear to be the work of a Black Magician. Is Akkarin responsible?

A wonderful conclusion to the trilogy. The story pulls you along through each twist and turn. Some things that happen are predictable, others are wholly unexpected and serve to keep you thoroughly engrossed.

Yet again I found myself unable to put this book down, and while, at the end, I had a great sense of satisfaction, of a story concluded, I was also sorry that it had come to an end.

I await with eagerness for the author’s next work, which is due, according to Amazon, in February 2006.

Rating: 8/10

The Black Magician Trilogy:
The Magician's Guild
The Novice
The High Lord

The Novice – Trudi Canavan

Category: Fantasy

Picking up after the events in The Magicians Guild (what do you mean you haven’t read it! Go and read the review), the story continues…

Sonea is about to be initiated as a Novice and is understandably nervous. Not only does she have the more mundane concerns about how her fellow novices will treat her, but she also has to worry about the High Lord finding out that she knows about his practice of Black Magic.

Very soon Sonea is embroiled in her studies hampered at every stage by the attentions of her fellow students. They have taken exception to having a street dweller in their class and are determined to make life miserable for her.

However these problems are nothing compared to what happens later, when other events take a frightening turn for the worse.

Trudi Canavan continues to embroider a rich tapestry of a story full of colourful and detailed characters. I really lost myself in reading this and found it very hard to tear myself away from its pages.

The story flows wonderfully and you will find yourself torn between hurrying to reach the next page, to find out what happens next, and wanting to linger on the current page, to take it all in, afraid of missing some subtle nuance. I can’t wait to read the last book.

Rating: 8/10

The Black Magician Trilogy:
The Magician's Guild
The Novice
The High Lord

Seeds of Betrayal – David B Coe

Category: Fantasy

This is the second book in the Winds of the Forelands series, after Rules of Ascension.

The story continues with Tavis and Grinsa pursuing Brienne’s killer into the neighbouring kingdom of Aneira. There they discover that Aneira is suffering it’s own problems akin to those plaguing their homeland.

Back home, Lord Kentigern is trying to upset the monarchy by claiming that he did not agree to step aside in favour of the now king. He is claiming that since the Rules of Ascension have been broken, they should be thrown out completely. This has the desired effect of dividing the kingdom between his supporters, the King’s supporters and those who wish to remain, or appear to remain, neutral.

The conspiracy continues to gather momentum, however more and more Eandi are becoming aware of it, and the general mistrust of the Qirsi, and specifically of the advisors, is growing. Added to this are the rumours that the conspiracy is run by a Weaver.

This book continues the massively tangled plots and schemes from the first book. It then proceeds to make things even more complex by moving to a second kingdom with even more characters to keep track of.

Once again I found myself struggling to read and finish this book. It did managed to pique my interest a little in places, but whether sufficiently to make me want to read the rest of the series, remains to be seen.

A good narrative style but an overly convoluted story for my liking.

Rating: 4/10

Winds of the Forelands Series:
1. Rules of Ascension
2. Seeds of Betrayal
3. Bonds of Vengeance (due Feb 28th 2005)
4. Shapers of Darkness (due late 2005)
5. Weavers of War (due 2006)

Rules of Ascension – David B Coe.

Category: Fantasy

I have read this author’s work before in the form of the LonTobin Chronicles, which I really enjoyed, so when I saw new books by him I pounced.

Unfortunately I think the best I can say here is ‘average’.

The story is based in a medieval feudal style society populated by two peoples, the Eandi and the Qirsi. The Qirsi are a race of sorcerers with varying powers who invaded over 900 years before and lost because they were betrayed by one of their own. The powers they command are varied and most only have one or two. Some have all and are known as Weavers, however there have been no weavers since the end of the war as the Eandi have killed then all and their families. Many Qirsi now hold positions of advisors to the dukes of the land and many others travel the land performing gleanings or fatings for it’s people.

However Qirsi born as weavers have learned to hide and so there are actually weavers in the land again and they are not happy with the current status quo.

Oh how I struggled to read this book and I’ve struggled with writing this review. The story is incredibly complex and the first problem I encountered was trying to decide who the main characters are. Once I realised who they were I then discovered that I had absolutely no feelings for them one way or the other, I really didn’t care what happened to them. This is bad; my caring about a character or characters is what makes me keep reading. This was then made worse by the profusion of secondary characters, all of seemingly equal importance. Many of the character names are similar or long and many have titles. This only adds to the confusing nature of this book.

I bought the second book in the series at the same time I bought this one and I have to say, at the end, it did managed to pique my interest sufficiently to make me read the second book. However I also have to say that I will not be reading it again.

If you enjoy books with complex plots and twists and many many characters, then by all means give this one a try, the writing is still good.

Rating: 4/10

Winds of the Forelands Series:
1. Rules of Ascension
2. Seeds of Betrayal
3. Bonds of Vengeance (due Feb 28th 2005)
4. Shapers of Darkness (due late 2005)
5. Weavers of War (due 2006)

Dime Store Magic - Kelley Armstrong

Category: Supernatural

I'm not classifying this one as Horror even if you will find it in that section in the bookstore. It's just not.

This follows on from her first two books Bitten and Stolen. If you haven't read them the follow the links for their reviews. You really need to have read them before reading this.

Now, back to the plot, and what a plot it is...

Paige has returned to her life with the Coven taking Savannah with her to be trained, however the Coven Elders don't take to Savannah, despite her Aunt being one of them. So when Leah appears on the scene with a Sorcerer lawyer to serve a notice of proceedings to take custody of Savannah, Paige is told by the Elders that she should let her go.

Paige finds out that the person suing for custody is claiming to be Savannah's father but she is suspicious and vows to fight the battle. However when the Cabals get involved and bring in a couple of half-demons and a necromancer to take custody of Savannah, Paige's home town suddenly gets a rude awakening to her nature and everything starts to go horribly wrong.

With each book I have read in this series I have found myself more and more gripped by the story. This time I found it very difficult to put it down, so much so that when reading on the way home one night, the tram had been stopped at the terminus for a couple of minutes before I realised we were there!

A lot of that comes from the increasing familiarity with the characters. They have always been very well written and after three books they start to feel like family. The writing too just keeps getting better and I can't wait to pick up the fourth book in the series.

Rating: 7/10

The series:
Bitten
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic
Haunted (due out May 2005)

Stolen – Kelley Armstrong

Category: Horror(ish)

This is the follow up to her first book, Bitten. You haven’t read it? Well here’s my review, go and read that first, go on, shoo :)

After the events in Bitten, Elena is now living with the Pack, more accepting of her role than before. When not following her journalistic career she spends time searching for news and other reports of incidents that could be werewolf related. These she investigates to see if they may endanger the Pack by bringing werewolves to the attention of the general public.

When one of these events appears to present a real threat Elena travels to meet the people selling the information. However the people she meets are not what they appeared to be and seem to have an awful lot of knowledge about the Pack and Elena.

In the events that follow Elena finds herself captured and taken to a rather unusual private research installation.

Once again I make the point that although this book is filed under Horror and does indeed contain some gore, its strength is the tension that builds up as the story flows, and in it’s humorous interactions between the characters. The characters themselves are very well written and it is easy to recognise that while they may be supernatural beings or have unusual powers they are still human.

A very enjoyable and powerful second book. One I found myself unwilling to put down at times.

Rating: 6/10

The series:
Bitten
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic
Haunted (due out May 2005)


 

The Fairy Godmother – Mercedes Lackey

Category: Fantasy

Ella Klovis lives in the Five Hundred Kingdoms with her wicked Stepmother and two nasty stepsisters… see where I’m going with this one.

The Five Hundred Kingdoms are where fairy tales are played out day after day by the people who live there. Most people are just the chorus but a few are picked out by The Tradition to play the leading roles.

So what happens to you if you’re meant to be Cinderella but the prince of the kingdom is only 12 years old?

This is definitely a novel concept, and it plays out like a fairy tale itself. It is lovely to read and the characters are just what you would expect from this author, very well rounded and entertaining. However, in a comparison with her other works it somehow fails to measure up. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, far from it, I was just left feeling vaguely disappointed at the end, as if something was missing.

I may read it again, I may not. I’m certainly glad I read it once.

Rating: 6/10