Customer Reviews

Across the Face of the World (Fire of Heaven)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I bought this book at Borders without looking at any reviews here first. I'm glad I did. The reviews here talk about slow pacing and not a lot of character growth. I can only attest to the second one.

I hope that the lack of growth is because the world is being set up. I can see through the foreshadowing that Leith will be doing the growing, as is typical of most fantasy lit. However, I think there is room for other characters to grow as well: Stella towards or away from Leith, Farr as he continues to discover himself. Thus far, we've really been seeing the opening moves of the grand chess match that is coming. There is a endgame here, but at the beginning we have to get a few across the board first.

I know it's tough, once you get through the 671st page of the **first** book of the trilogy, to even contemplate looking at the interview provided at the end. But doing so provides a good deal of Kirkpatrick's thinking and ideas about storytelling. He talks about his reasons for his deliberate pacing. I guess I happen to be a fan of Romantic Literature; I tend not to mind Dickens spending pages describing a character, or Cooper taking a long wordy paragraph to describe the copse of trees, or to read a sentence with about five too many commas or semi-colons in it, as this one has.

One other reviewer said that this book could have been a 300 pager. Yes absolutely it could have, but that would have, in my opinion, left it squarely near the bottom of the derivative fantasy stories, most of the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms stuff. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE Dragonlance and the Realms, but only because they are braincandy and require little or no work. I can just be swept along. This novel requires some effort on your part.

SPOILER
I enjoyed the fact that Kirkpatrick was not afraid to kill off a character that I thought was going to be a series long romantic entanglement for Leith and Stella. It speaks to Kirkpatrick's storytelling that he is unafraid to let the story go where it needs to.

In the end, Kirkpatrick is building a world while telling a story. At the beginning of Chris Moeller's Iron Empires Volume 1: Faith Conquers (Iron Empires), the introduction by Mike Carey says, "Beware the Map!!!" He goes on to explain that, when you see a map, "the writer is trying to pull off the hardest trick of all--not just tell a story, but to create a world to make you believe in, and care about, the whole package" I found, with effort on my part, Kirkpatrick was able to make me believe in and, more importantly, care about his story.

Hope this helps you decide.

Across the Face of the World is a novel filled with lush scenery, the clash of climate and geography, and the characters who must brave the elements. Kirkpatrick, a geographer by trade, has brought that skill to bear full force in Across the Face of the World. The setting is rich and detailed. Kirkpatrick is well versed in the nuances and effect geography has on a people and this comes out in detail in novel, the first in a trilogy.

I can only put some force behind a recommendation. The novel is a long one, so it is daunting to slower readers, and lacks enough action to keep fast readers riveted. It was rather easy to put down Across the Face of the World and turn to doing other things for me, and I even found myself skipping descriptions of some of the setting towards the end of the novel. There is simply too much of it, and not enough character.

Kirkpatrick has built a world but has failed to people it with characters the reader can identify with, save perhaps Leith to a small extent. I would say that for the most part, this is one novel you can avoid and not really feel the loss too keenly.

[...]

I give this book 3.5 stars. This book is your typical fantasy, in that a small group of ordinary people from a remote/rural village, called Loulea, have suddenly realized that all the tales and stories they've grown up listening to is real, and that they have been thrust into an adventure straight out of one of these mythological stories. Of course, also familiar to fantasy is usually a prophecy foretelling the forces of good will defeat the evil threatening the land, in this case, called The Right Hand. There is also one big evil villain, the anathema to the forces of good and righteous. So, the basic idea of good vs. evil isn't that original and Kirkpatrick is just following in the steps that other well-known fantasy authors have gone before him (JRR Tolkien, Terry Brooks, the late Robert Jordan, etc). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I like the adventure-quest storyline and clear drawn lines of the good guys vs. the bad guys of many fantasy trilogies.

The villain is a man that is cursed with immortality for rebellion, called The Undying Man and Destroyer. He was one of the First Men (of which the people of Faltha are descended from) called by the Most High (e.g., God) to a fabled jeweled city that was like a paradise, called the Dona Mihst. In this city the First Men had no worries, everyone was living the good life in the city, regularly conversing with their creator and master and being in his good graces. But one day, the man called the Destroyer wanted more, and drank from the forbidden fountain of life in the city square that was not to be touched. The Destroyer and his followers rebelled against the Most High, for they wanted the knowledge the fountain would grant them, and this causes the city to be destroyed and the First Men to be scattered throughout the land and cutting off their link to the Most High.

Well, 2,000 years pass from the destruction of the ancient city to the present day and the Destroyer is still festering and angry, and plans to bring the Most High to his knees and cause strife by preparing to invade the kingdoms of Faltha a second time, and holds a grievance against the Most High who cursed him with immortality 2,000 years previously. Everyone in Faltha have forgotten their origins and believe the First Men and the Destroyer are only myths, not knowing that the Destroyer is biding his time, after all, he has eternity to enact his revenge.

One of the strong points of this book is the vivid and detailed descriptions of the fictional world of Faltha. The author describes the background scenery so well that it transplanted me right with the characters into this fantasy world. Unfortunately, the author's characters aren't that complex and fully-fleshed out, and I found this lack of depth in the characters hindered my enjoyment. I like to read about life-like characters and getting to know them in detail, and that just isn't the case in this book.

Also, the plot wasn't that exciting, it was just the group (called the Company) going after the bad guys who have captive the parents of one of the member's of the group. There is a reason for the capture and the subsequent rescue attempt, but there wasn't any tension or suspense for the group along the way. It would have been more interesting to see them encountering more deadly threats than those from the natural environment. Aside from braving the elements, the only fears and worries are whether they can reach the bad guys in time to get word out of a disaster coming to all of Faltha from a menace thought to be a legend. So the suspense, action, and tension are few and there aren't any *gasp* moments where you're biting your nails in anticipation of "What will they do next?". You know what they encounter next, another snow-storm or another hike through an icy landscape with biting, chilly winds.

However, since this is the first of a trilogy, the pace may pick up with the plot and characters becoming more complex and engaging in the later 2 books. Despite the slow pace of the book, the world was interesting enough to keep me reading and I will probably read the 2nd book. Not a bad first book for this new author.

I picked this book up and was struck at first by the cover. The image of several mounted figures riding across the a hillside with the full moon huge in the background is compelling. Next I saw the comparison at the bottom of the cover to Tolkien. This caused me to open up the book (if a book looks interesting I'll peruse the first page or so to see if it grabs me). The maps were very impressive. I thought to myself that the author had put a great deal of work into creating a background for his story. So far, so good. I read the first page and it didn't blow me away but based on the other factors mentioned above, I decided to give it a try.

I was immediately disappointed.

First of all, the comparisons to Tolkien were all too apt, but not in a positive way.

There are many similarities between the stories, and in any attempt to emulate the master, the master will always win. As the judges say on American Idol, if you're going to do something like that, you better blow people away. Kirkpatrick didn't come close.

First we have this entity of ultimate evil, similar to Sauron, who like Sauron has been quiescent for a thousand years or so. Virtually an age ago. He lives in some kind of mountain fortress where bad things happen to people (Barad-dur, anyone?).

This bad guy has some really evil servants to run around on horseback to do his bidding. They are virtually invincible. Does anyone remember the Nazgul?

The hero lives in a small village that might as well be Hobbiton. Like Hobbiton, it is isolated from the greater world, which is virtually a myth to these simple rustics.

A small band of these people set on a hopeless quest to rally the free peoples of Middle Earth...oops, sorry about that. And I'm afraid it doesn't get any better as the comparisons continue.

The little band meets up with a ranger-like fellow who in the author's words has voluntarily limited himself to a chosen small area. He lives on Watch Hill, which even in name made me think of Weathertop, which once hosted, of course, a watch-tower. So here I found several Tolkien themes all bunched together. And the ranger-like fellow, Kroptur, seemed to combine several of Tolkien's characters in one: Tom Bombadil first and foremost. And like the Elves Frodo encounters early on in his own adventure, this ranger-like fellow doesn't like to give outright advice but he foresees great danger ahead. He also dispensed wisdom and knowledge, which dredged up images of Elrond.

By this point, as they rode away from Watch Hill, page 153 of 701, I'd had enough. But I was determined to give the book a fair chance to impress me, so I continued on to page 256, where I finally set it aside as a lost cause.

I honestly don't know what Trudi Canavan is used to reading (she of the "Not since Tolkien have I been so awed!") but I can think of a dozen authors of fantasy fiction that I would put ahead of Russell Kirkpatrick based on this one exposure. I was not only not impressed, I was very disappointed. It is not often that I don't finish a book. I invested some eight-dollars in the project plus the time spent in the car and at the store looking for something interesting. But I feel I gave "Across the Face of the World" every opportunity to hook me, and it failed miserably. I don't know, based on this book, that I would ever pick up another book by this author.

As one of the other reviewers here stated, the characters weren't even compelling. It's bad enough to see a story fail in comparison to another, but when you don't care what happens to the characters there isn't any point in going on. Tolkien had likable characters and you cared about what happened to Hobbiton. But Kirkpatrick's characters are not likable and I didn't care what happened to their town, or even to their world.

When I was younger and naive I had a rule that I would always finish any book I started no matter how bad the book. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser I have decided that life is too short to waste finishing a book you don't enjoy. This is one of those books. OMG is this book boring. Let me summarize the book for you. "Today we got up and headed east. We saw trees, mountains and rivers. We camped outside. It snowed." Now repeat that for 600 pages. If you are in to detailed descriptions of mythical scenery then this is the book for you. The characters are uni-dimensional and unsympathetic. There is nothing new, original or innovative in this story. It is a thoroughly average fantasy quest novel. I finished two other books while struggling to get through page 299 of this sleeper. I give up. Life is too short and there are too many good books to read. Needless to say I'm going to pass on the next two installments in this series.

I feel bad for giving such a poor rating to this book. This world is incredibly well-developed as far as geography and history is concerned. It's the work of years. However, the story itself is lacking not the point of non-existence. There is a plot, but it is little more than a device that allows cardboard cut-out characters to wander Mr. Kirkpatrick's extremely well-realized world. For some, that may be enough, but for me, not so much. The prose is outstanding when it comes to describing features of the world. It falls flat when it calls for dialogue or when characters interact with one another. As a result, the book fails.

Imagine a pizza. A delicious pizza with all your favorite toppings, piping hot from the oven, steam rising from the melted cheese, waiting to be eaten by only you. Now imagine pouring an ice-cold glass of water over the top of it. That pretty much sums up this book.

It exhausted me. It was like trudging through a swamp in search of treasure and only finding a few dollars in lost change.

Kirkpatrick isn't a bad writer really, he just needs a little guidance (and an editor with a spine - "Hey, Russ, I'm pretty sure the reader knows the Company is still in the mountains. How about we use some words to build suspense, or to develop a character?").

One thing that drove me nuts was the Point of View. It was everywhere! It's not like it bothered me because he would switch from one character to another in the same chapter, he literally switched mid-paragraph, and he did it often. Another thing was the character development, or lack there of. For example: Leith is the same boy at the end of the book as he was in the beginning, but he's somehow supposed to become this incredible leader of the world. He didn't even lead when the group consisted of him and one other person. He didn't grow at all!

In fact none of the characters grew, with the possible exception of Farr, who basically just stopped crying after a while.

Kurr - a farmer that's not really a farmer, may be a foreigner
Hal - a crippled orphan with some secrets
Indrett - a woman from out of town, may have some high political ties

How about a little more info? Almost all of this was obvious from the beginning... so why did I just read 650+ pages?

Across the Face of the World could have easily been 300 pages shorter and been better for it. If it had been shorter maybe I wouldn't be so upset about the lack of an ending.

One thing I did LOVE about this book: The cover art! Beautiful covers on all 3 books. It's nice when there's a theme to the cover art and they're done by the same artist.

While the story is the typical 'group of wanna-be heroes goes on a quest to save the world' the author has built a very believable world (seemingly set in Europe in the far future? <shrug>) and I really wanted to become immersed in it. The problem is that he cannot tell a compelling story! I felt no connection to any of the characters and the action sequences were laid out almost matter-of-factly. And it's too bad because the setting is remarkable and deserves to be inhabited by people to match it. The story never grabbed me and while it can be argued that the book is setting the stage for the next two the plot isn't all that complex and needs dynamic story telling to bring the whole thing off. 2 stars for the world and history, I won't be reading the other books of the trilogy.

I picked this book up in the airport to read while waiting for my next plane. I selected it mostly for the cover, and the fact that there were many copies of it, implying that they expected to sell a lot of them. Usually I base my choices on a lot more than that, but it isn't as if an airport bookstore gives you that luxury.
I have read some of the other reviews here and I do agree with the some of the reactions people have had. The characters are not as strong as I have experienced in other novels. Though I think that, while slow to come, there is promise of greater background for some of them, and more understanding of the motivation of others.
I agree also that there is great great amount of detail of the world it takes place in. But, that is something I enjoy so it's a plus for me.
The thing that grabbed me however, was that this book had a couple of moments where the suspense had a physical manifestation in me. I have read many books where I cannot stop turning the pages to find out what happens next. This was different. My heart started beating faster, my muscles tensed, I felt like I could not function normally until the conflict was resolved. I was very surprised by this.
Only once before has a book made me feel an emotion so strongly that I have physically reacted to it, and in that case I knew the author well and knew they were capable of creating a world I truly felt I was a part of. Feeling something like that, especially unexpectedly, certainly makes me want to continue reading the series.

I was immediatly drawn in to Across the Face of the World because of the Prologue, a description of the plans and burdens of "the Undying Man". Midway through the book it is obvious that he is a Satan-esque Dark Lord type, but in the prologue I was intrigued by his point of view and musings. There are some very clever ideas about prophecy, which led me to believe that this wouldn't be a typical fantasy novel.

Alas, it is, except that the Fellowship (okay, Company) is even less capable than most. Kirkpatrick tries for diversity, but sometimes credibility is strained and one has to wonder why the characters survive certain events. Character development, especially with Leith, Stella, and Kurr, is lacking. They don't fall into the typical slots of Hero, Girl, and Old Mentor, but eventually I wanted them to, as they weren't doing anything else either.

The writing is decent. Kroptur, the Other Old Mentor, is cool. But I think that one should go into this book expecting it to be plodding instead of flashy. Actually, perhaps cartographically inclined is a better descriptor than "plodding". In fact it was those hotly debated maps and descriptions of places that kept me going. The place-names were fantastic, feeling both alien and grounded, and poetic.

Despite the good parts, though, I kept wanting to return to the Undying Man and see from the baddies' point of view. It was just more interesting, and I don't think Kirkpatrick intended it to be so.