Customer Reviews

The Arm of the Stone

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are a lot of things I liked very much about this book.. The background premise (the mysterious Stone, and the division of the mindpower and handpower worlds) is interesting. The writing is technically excellent, particularly good at evoking moods. The characters are likeable. The plot setup (evil theocracy, boy with a Destiny, etc.) takes standard genre tropes and twists them into something a little out of the ordinary, and the way it was developing toward the middle of the book was both unusual and unexpected.

So why did I want to throw the book across the room when I finished it?

Put simply, the story Ms. Strauss chose to focus on was not the story I wanted to read. The thing that hooked me most in the early and middle sections of the book was the gradual discoveries by the 2 main characters that their childhood assumptions and goals were based on misconceptions about the Way Things Were, and that the real world, and their real places in it, involved a lot more ambiguity and compromise than they expected. The middle sections of this book portrayed very sensitively the process of disillusionment, and the replacement of illusions with genuine understanding and idealism, and I was fascinated with the way the characters were developing.

Unfortinately, what followed was not a continuation, but a contradiction: the story did a jump-cut across the following 20 years, and the characters have both arrived in places that are perfectly consistent with their early illusions, not at all so with the direction they seemed to be moving in before the break. How did this happen? We get a bit of backfill and narrative explanation, but the real answer can only be, that's what had to happen because the author needed it so to make her plot work out.

There are a number of clumsy elements in the final third of the book (important things happening offstage, for instance, and repetition of events from different points of view) that show a significantly lower level of craftsmanship than the earlier portions. The handling of several characters in that section was also unsatisfying, and inconsistent with what had come before. The final twist of the plot was indeed unexpected, but I wasn't in the mood to appreciate it.

What I wanted, and didn't get, was the 200 pages of the Missing Years. Enough is implied and reported that it seems likely some of the missing material may have actually been present in an earlier draft of the novel -- if so, I'm afraid it was a mistake to cut it out. The imperative to bring the paths of the 2 main characters into convergence may have been overwhelming -- but I would have been much happier with the result had it been resisted, and the plot allowed to take a different shape.

"The Arm of the Stone" is a fantasy about religion gone bad - not my favorite type of reading - but this is a very powerful, intricately plotted book. It is chronicle of hatred, prophecy, and a very, very conservative religious elite who govern through magic (the Domain of the Mind)and forbid any kind of mechanical innovation (the Domain of the Hand). The 'Stone' of the title is the magical equivalent of a fragment of the True Cross. A millennium before this novel begins, the Stone was stolen from its loving and noble caretakers who are hunted to extermination over the years. As you begin to read, the Stone's true caretakers are reduced to a single family, and ultimately, to a single boy. How he seeks to recover the Stone and wreak vengence on those who stole it is the heart of the story.

Now the bad news: reading this book was a lot like being a spectator at a chess match. If the cold, logical intricacies of the religion that play out through this book are of interest to you, you won't mind sitting still until the end game. The story's climax is certainly worth the wait.

However, if you're like me you'll put "The Arm of the Stone" aside, maybe for a week at a time, and look for something a bit more frivolous. I read all ten of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels ("The Great Book of Amber") before I picked up "The Arm of the Stone" and finished it.

The contrast between Zelazny's Amber and the grim, cold world of the Stone is like the difference between winning a vacation to Venusburg, or spending an eon in the refrigerated compartment of Purgatory. Zelazny's plots skip forward, driven by his wise-cracking, laid-back characters, while "Arm of the Stone" inches forward with all of the grim momentum of a glacier.

All religious quibbles aside though, I'm ordering the sequel, "Garden of the Stone". I really did come to care about the Stone's two main characters, chess pieces though they were. And it's hard to find fantasy as original, and intricately plotted, and well-written as was "The Arm of the Stone."

Read it out of duty, if not for fun.

A gripping story which takes a standard fantasy story - the hero's quest for some stolen magic artifact - and makes it new. Lots of unexpected twists. I was especially intrigued by the world which Strauss created. The story is told from two points of view - one male and one female. Both characters are fully realized, complex people with conflicting goals.

Read it just for kicks and you won't be disappointed - but thoughtful readers will also find lots to ponder here. Highly recommended.

Interesting take on good vs. evil - and the ambiguities between them. A young boy whose family is exterminated has a VERY good idea of what evil is - and makes it his lifes ambition to infiltrate the group who killed his family and destroy it. That is, until he is finally accepted into this group - and comes to understand why they exist, and what they are trying to accomplish. He becomes a revered leader. Again - until he is re-united with his brother and realizes that there IS inherent evil in the group he now leads...Extremely lyrical prose makes the book even better!

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I must admit I didn't expect much from the cover art and the uninformative back cover blurb, but I found myself very pleasantly surprised and pleased by this book. It's a real page-turner, with thought-provoking concepts, a fully-realized world, and a gripping plot. The author's take on the prophecy that drives a good part of the action is interesting and unusual. I read the whole thing in two nights--and I usually take a week or more to finish a book.

I have to say that I was surprised to see the comments of a couple of the reviewers below--that there wasn't enough character development over the course of the book, or the characters weren't fully realized. In my opinion, the characterizations are one of the best things about this book. The main characters are real, believable people, who change and grow over the course of the narrative. The hero's story--in which he starts with a dream of revenge, becomes seduced by the philosophy of those he wants to revenge himself against, and ultimately moves beyond both views to find an entirely new perspective--is especially finely-realized.

In sum: highly recommended!

I never heard of this writer until I bought this book, but now I'm hooked. This book is tremendous. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It's a powerful, character-driven story which also has an exciting plot. Ms Strauss builds a convincing and unusual world from the idea that a group of Spanish Inquisition-like enforcers keep technology at a deliberately medieval level. She also writes very well, which you don't find often enough in fantasy. I hope there's a sequel!

When I first started this book I saw many of the typical fantasy themes: the lost magical artifact of incredible power, and the boy born of prophesy to change the world. Then suddenly the action kicked in and the whole plot was turned on its head. Wow.

I loved the world, so richly portrayed and thoughtfully flesh-out. I loved the main character, who was never predictable, always rethinking his notion of the world. I loved the suspense of what is in many ways a spy story - that rush of being deep within the lion's den and the fear of immanent discovery.

As a reader you get to see the point of view of two very different people, both of whom are sympathetic and engaging. Can they both "win" or will one inevitably bring the downfall of the other?

By the end of this book, I had to shut myself away from the world and read non-stop. The last page had me so moved I was wiping away a tear. This is a great book, with a strong, character-driven plot, always surprising and never dull!

This is an original and unusually well-written story. I was impressed with the author's ability to create such a real world and convincing characters. Bron is a tragic hero who is nearly defeated by his own conviction that he can dominate events. Liliane is an appealing and sympathetic heroine. The story grips you from the start, and it's hard to put the book down. Victoria Strauss is a really fine writer with a beautiful style. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for an above-average fantasy novel.

This is a great book. It's based on a classic fantasy theme, but it bypasses most of the cliches you see in the fantasy genre to result in a really unusual, original story. You really care about the characters, and the world, with its repressive laws that restrict all use of technology, is convincing and fascinating. Right up until the end you think the story will leave you hanging (i.e., one of those to-be-completed-in-the-next-seven-volumes abominations) but the main threads of the story are satisfyingly tied up, while leaving room for a sequel. At least I hope so. I'm already looking forward to the next book.

This is one of the most beautifully-written books I have ever read. The gorgeous writing cloaks an incredible story. The plot description sounded to me like a typical schlock fantasy novel, and I bought the book only because I had been told the writing was wonderful. The writing *is* wonderful, but the plot and characters are great, also.

In this book, there are two viewpoint characters who never get to be "on the same side". Each one has a life and a story, and these do intersect, but there are no easy reconciliations of their radically different viewpoints. Moreover, the two characters change significantly from their first introductions. The changes are well-motivated and believable.

I am stunned by this book -- it's incredibly good. Every time I thought I had figured out what was going to happen, the author surprised me, but none of the surprises seemed egregious. The plot is seamless, and I cared about both main characters, even though they were in opposition to one another. In the end, however, the real strength of the book is in the writing, which surpasses even the plot and the characterization.