Ashling [Hardcover]

Isobelle Carmody (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: ST MARTINS MASS * (2002)
• ASIN: B000Q2YCW4
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

More About the Author

ISOBELLE CARMODY is an Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy, children's and juvenile literature. She divides her time between a home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia and her travels abroad. Isobelle began work on the highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles when she was just fourteen years old. She continued to work on these while completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in literature and philosophy, followed by a cadetship in journalism. The first two books in the Obernewtyn series were short listed for the CBC Children's Book of the Year in the Older Readers category; Scatterlings won Talking book of the Year. The Gathering was a joint winner of the 1993 CBC Book of the Year Award and the 1994 Children's Literature Peace Prize. Greylands won an Aurealis Award and a White Raven at Bologna, while Billy Thunder and the Night Gate was shortlisted for the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature in the 2001 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Both Little Fur and A Fox Called Sorrow received BAAFTA Industry Awards for design. Alyzon Whitestarr won the coveted Golden Aurealis for overall best novel at the Aurealis Awards. With Nan Mc Nabb she was the participating editor of a two book collection of stories titled respectively The Wilful Eye and The Wicked Wood, released in 2011. Her most recent book The Red Wind won Book of the Year. She is currently working on the final book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles, The Red Queen.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative and captivating, October 29, 2001

By 

"foxechick" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ashling (Obernewtyn Chronicles, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Australian author Isobelle Carmody continues to impress with "Ashling", the third volume of her Obernewtyn fantasy series. In "Obernewtyn" and "The Farseekers", we first met Elspeth and her group of Misfits, humans with strange mental powers, and learnt of their struggles to survive in a post-Holocaust world. Now, summoned by a strange dream- the mysterious "ashling" of the title- and aided by the half-mad but wise cat Maruman, Elspeth must undertake another journey to save Obernewtyn and all who dwell there.

In this novel, the characters and the world sketched out in the first two volumes truly begin to blossom. Elspeth becomes an ever more complex character, with a strong and unique voice, while the ancillary characters acquire far more depth, meshing seamlessly into the story. The story unfolds with a measured pace as Carmody evokes the wonder and mystery of this eerie world.

Those who have read the other books in the series will welcome this addition to the growing story. What began as a decent fantasy series somewhat lacking in depth and definition has flowered into a more developed world peopled with realistic characters. I recommend reading the books in order, as several elements are assumed knowledge and remain unexplained in this book. Frustratingly, the story is not fully resolved in "Ashling", which kept me hanging for a few years until the next book was released. Look out for "The Keeping Place", which adds a fourth volume to this excellent series.

8.5 stars out of 10

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost on the Ashlings, August 28, 2001

By 

Mindy Dean (Tamborine, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ashling (Obernewtyn Chronicles, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Ashling lets the reader delve into the Land and all of Obernewtyn, to previously unexpolred depths mentally and physically that can be seen in both style and story. Carmody's portrayal of the misfit's world has matured as her characters have over time and a great difference can be seen between the marvelous Farseekers and Ashling, the third book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles. This installment is set maybe two years after Ashling, when the hope of alliance with the rebellion against the Land's usurpers The Council, and the Herder Faction is becoming a reality, with request for Obernewtyn representatives to stand audience with the Rebel leaders. Elspeth, the powerful Farseeker Guildmistress, rescues a halfbreed gypsy woman put to the Herder flame and is again caught up in Beastlegend and prophecy, relying on a Futureteller's foreboding vision that she must complete a number of tasks that, through interpretation, mean little to her in a mere sevenday, for all of Obernewtyn rests on it. The novel also takes us to Sador for the first time; a wonderful, exotic land of diverse culture and higher understanding, where the deformed children of the Earthtemple see many things in Elspeth's future of her ultimate task to rid the world of Weaponmachines. And we experience the Dreamtrails; Ashlings, in beastspeech. A world that seems like a dream, but with the H'rayka pursuing Elspeth and her protectors, Maruman and Gahltha, Elspeth finds the threats of the Dreamtrails are very real. This novel makes you love the characters all the more, extends the Land as we knew it to vaster regions and will renew your love in the misfits and their plea. If you have read Obernewtyn and Farseekers, or any of Carmody's other work; get this book. It is, in my opinion, one of her best.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay but could have been much better., February 21, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Ashling (Obernewtyn Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

Considering that I'm 12 years old this may sound funny but this book came across a little immature. I mean the main character Elspeth was so emotionally immature that it made me feel old. Also the story just dragged on and on going no where. The writing style itself is not bad at all, it is the plot and story lines that really lack depth and the moral angles are so cliched and politically correct...it's all too much. I enjoy some of the themes like the psychic stuff but these skills seem to be only glanced over really and they the characters are just so weak when using them. What's the point?