Customer Reviews

Blade of Fortriu (The Bridei Chronicles, Book 2)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I, too, have fallen victim to Marillier's brilliant first trilogy. While I tried very hard to love this book and the first book in the Bridei Chronicles neither book has done it for me like Daughter of the Forest, etc. did. There's just no living up to it.

There is no doubt in my mind that Marillier is a fantastic writer and storyteller however, I'm not sure what genre she is trying to join. With this series she is reaching towards romance and I hate to say it, but sometimes Ana's blind devotion to a man she literally does not even know is just plain silly.

Ana is a vastly annoying character, for some reason I just had a lot of problems with her. She seemed to me prudish, prim and stuck up. I also had a very hard time with the love story between her and Drustan. So, I'm expected to believe she falls deeply and passionately in love with a man she sees for five seconds in the woods? It seems to me that Ms. Marillier has forsaken the slow, careful and beautiful storytelling of the Sevenwaters Trilogy for a formulaic, trite and conventional. I do like the way she handled the villain, Alipn. It was clear from the moment his character appeared that he was going to be the bad guy, there was no doubt about it but Marillier did manage to preserve some of his background and make you wonder what exactly his backstory was whereas with other villains, Lord Richard in Daughter of the Forest for instance, they were just bad and that was it.

Something that got on my nerves was the jumping around in the story. This is something Marillier did in both Wolfskin and especially Foxmask. The difference between those two books and the story jumping in this book is that I actually cared about all the plot lines in the latter. In The Blade of Fortriu I found myself rolling my eyes whenever the story jumped back to Bridei and Tuala and the war but then I didn't particularly care for that story when it was in its own book either. She does handle historical detail wonderfully, that's one of the reasons I finished the book. Marillier blends fantasy and fact very well and it helps that she writes about a time about which little is known.

I have high hopes for the last book in the series as Faolan was the most interesting character in this series so far. He seems to me to be the kind of hero Marillier writes best, the stoic, guarded and mysterious man who redeems himself through the love of a good woman. Hopefully in the upcoming Well of Shades, Marillier will get back to what devoted fans like myself have fallen in love with.

I'm a Marillier addict. I own every one of her books and have read each one at least 4 or 5 times over [Son of Shadows I've read at least 10 times]. My account of Blade of Fortriu contains much of the story, so I apologize if you haven't read the book yet and I'm spoiling it for you.

Anyway...

Blade of Fortriu follows the story of Ana, the hostage princess that Bridei keeps in Fortriu. Bridei must use her status as a princess to marry her off to Alpin, a Caitte king. The problem is that no one knows anything of this man and sending the fragile princess off makes everyone uneasy. Not only that, but because the decision to send Ana was quick and no one knows if Alpin will reject Ana for his bride upon meeting her. Faolan is sent with her to make sure the negotiations go accurately, as he happens to be Bridei's right hand man, along with some companions. There is danger that meets them along the way- after all they are traveling in unknown territory with many enemies.

Upon finally getting to Alpin's land, there is trouble with the king himself. His actions and manner border on offensive. There's no question of him wanting Ana, he makes that known, but whether she can abide him is the question. Add to that Alpin's "crazy" brother, Drustan. He has been locked up due to his unnaturalness which caused him to kill Alpin's first wife and child. However, the more Ana gets glimpses of Drustan, the more she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, Faolan has gotten himself into trouble by starting to fall in love himself. It doesn't help that Ana named him her bard, which begins to open up the past for Faolan. It's interesting how each character- Ana, Faolan, Drustan, Alpin- fights for something different.

While I'd still read Marillier over any other author, I find myself a little disappointed by Blade of Fortriu. Maybe I've been spoiled by the lush detail and heart-wrenching poetry of the first trilogy. There is excitement, of course, but I didn't really get anything that stuck after the last page had been finished. Certain parts of the book were really great- Ana's realization of how she loves not one, but two men, Faolan's history, Broichan's weakness. These moments shine through with classic Marillier style but other parts of the book are more rushed or not interesting at all.

Regardless of anything, read the book for yourself and write your own review.

:) Happy reading.

Juliet Marillier has an amazing ability to weave the most haunting, poignant tales, and "Blade of Fortriu" is no exception. In fact, I enjoyed it even more than its predecessor. The story follows Ana of the Light Isles, who is finally deployed by Bridei as part of a strategic marriage alliance. She is accompanied by Faolan, Bridei's trusted but darkly mysterious right-hand man.

The portrayal of such conflicted characters as Faolan is yet another of Marillier's strengths, and in my opinion, this one character steals the book. It's amazing to see Faolan's progression through the novel. He begins much as we left him in "The Dark Mirror": stoic, practical, elusive; but on the journey to deliver Ana to Alpin of Briar Wood, he forms a geniune respect for the royal bride and eventually comes to love her. He struggles with this newfound emotion, which is pitted against his loyalty to Bridei and his desire to complete the mission successfully. In his guise as a bard, readers begin to see more chinks in his impentrable armor, which towards the end culminates in the revelation of his shocking and moving past. The final scenes between Bridei and Faolan left me misty-eyed.

This is not to say that the other characters were not fascinating in their own rights. Ana herself proves to be a strong heroine: she is intelligent, resourceful, and capable of handling herself with poise and dignity in even the toughest circumstances. Her relationship with Drustan, while it did seem rushed, was nonetheless beautifully scripted. Bridei and Tuala are more side-characters in this book, but their struggle with the knowledge of the impending war, and in Bridei's case, the inevitable loss of life, is written very sympathetically. Broichan and Tuala, as well, have a small breakthrough that was refreshing to read, and a twist towards the end that I hope will be explored more in the next book. The villain of the piece is also provided with a backstory that, although predictable, serves to add some dimemsion to the character.

The plot itself is not so complicated, but that is far from a complaint. It's the story of people facing duty, people who make choices that ripple in ways they could not imagine, and people who find and fight for love. The tale is lyrically told, written in vivid detail, with several powerfully haunting scenes that I'll admit I read and re-read several times. "Blade of Fortriu" had me thoroughly entranced. It's an excellent novel, and I highly recommend it.

Blade of Fortriu is the middle volume of Juliet Marillier's The Bridei Chronicles about a Priteni king, Bridei, striving to unite his people under one rule and reestablish the old faith, which has been supplanted by Christianity in some regions. In an interesting twist, Marillier relegates heroes Bridei and his wife Tuala to supporting roles and elevates Faolan and Ana as primary characters. At first, I liked the twist, since Faolan seemed to be the most complex character in the series, especially compared to saint Bridei. However, this complexity turns out to be an illusion.

At its core, Blade of Fortriu revolves around a love triangle, one of the oldest plot points. In fact, if you account for Alpin's lust, it contains a love rectangle, perhaps the first novel I have read with such geometry. Unfortunately, the romance emasculates Faolaon when it should strengthen him. Numerous times in the book, he contemplates performing selfish acts but restrains himself: Why? If he were more selfish, making a mess of things that he then has to repair, the novel would have been more engaging.

The Dark Mirror worked because Marillier made me care about Bridei and Tuala despite a predictable story. This approach is less effective in Blade of Fortriu because Faolan is different than Bridei, but Marillier does not embrace these differences. Instead, she portrays Faolan as a mostly good man who has been forced to make terrible choices in his past. In my opinion, a character has to act controversially in the present, on the page, to be complicated, and not in the past, where he can be excused for such actions. Making a character's history provocative is expositional and lazy, whereas making his present provocative is far more enriching. Faolan is a spy and an assassin who should take objectionable actions within the story to achieve his goals. He does not kill or deceive anyone who does not deserve it, and I believe this shortchanges his character.

This issue of character complexity also extends to the villain, who is completely despicable. The best villains have some redeemable qualities or at least understandable agendas. You won't find a sympathetic villain in this series.

The climactic showdown takes up all of a paragraph, with the villain admitting to his lies and plot just like in an Austin Powers movie. On one hand, I understand the quick climactic clash because this series does not focus on action. On the other hand, I would have liked a more substantial climax, if only so I could revel in the resolution. In general, Marillier glosses over the combat, relying on exposition to tell us how the war between Fortriu and Dalraida pans out. Marillier focuses on character and emotion instead of war and action, and while I regret the omission of vivid, visceral warfare, I cannot fault the author for abiding by her nature as a writer.

I am a Marillier fan, her Sevenwater Trilogy was excellent reading. I liked the first in the Bridei Trilogy, The Dark Mirror--not so much as the Sevenwaters Trilogy but I liked it enough to read this second book in the series.


Warning Spoiler:
My complaint is that the author made a huge mistake in this story -- She created a strong heroine and a strong hero --she gets the reader hooked into these two characters and then suddenly she creates another character, who the heroine suddenly falls in love with. After building the hero and heroine's characters up and the reader anticipates their devotion to eachother she gives up on the pair--she lost me--she had a great story going and then midstream she made poor choices in her plot. Perhaps she did this in order to write book three in this Trilogy? If that is the case all I can say is, "what a ripoff" --I am not going to be buying the third book in this series, if I read it --I will get it thru the library.

Feeling more secure than ever, King Bridei of Priteni decides he must rid his land of the Gaelic invaders. To help him succeed, he informs his imprisoned "guest" Princess Ana of the Light Isles that she will marry Caitt Chieftain Alpin of Briar Wood to tighten their alliance. Ana may not like this, but knows she has no choice as she is a political pawn.

As Bridei prepares for war, his most trusted men, especially his top bodyguard and assassin Faolan, escort Ana to her groom. However, all is not what it seems in Briar Wood. There she meets the lord's brother Druston, who wants her as does the secretive Faolan. Both know they cannot have her as the former is a cold killer who cannot understand why his heart suddenly beats and the latter has strange abilities that kill anyone who gets close to him. Still Druston must warn Ana that she must trust no one, not even the King's man, but especially anyone using the BLADE OF FORTRIU. His action leads to a dangerous quest by the trio that if they survive someone's heart, if not all, will be broken.

Book one of The Bridei Chronicles the exciting THE DARK MIRROR contained a more somber purer fantasy tale than the BLADE OF FORTRIU does. In spite of the key subplot of the romance between Bridei and Tuala in the first novel, the second thriller is more romantic with a fascinating relationship triangle between the three major players. Sub-genre fans will agree that this is a delightful stand alone (though it would help to better understand Bridei to have read the previous story) in which the fully developed lead protagonists struggle to endure in a vividly depicted fantasy realm.

Harriet Klausner

This is one of the most frustrating reads I've had in a long time. First, let me say that I *love* Marillier and highly recommend any of her books. This book was well written, well paced, and had all the classic great elements of Marillier's writing.

For me, the problem came in the plotting. Marillier's main characters tend to have a lot of substance to them. They seem real and they seem well drawn and intriguing. Ana started out as a quiet and unassuming girl. She was dedicated to her mission, which was to marry Alpin and form an important military alliance. Marillier made a huge mistake, in my opinion, in letting the readers believe that she was setting Ana and Faolan up for a romance. To have that *almost* happen, and to encourage the reader to believe it was going to happen, and then throw Drustan in the way was a bad idea. Ana acted completely out of character when she instantly fell madly, head over heels in love with Drustan upon first sight. Marillier's writing is so rich, I felt completely cheated that one of her characters would behave as though she were in a Harlequin Romance. Drustan was a completely uninteresting character, despite his ability to change forms. His human form had nothing going for it. So what if he's good looking...he's boring and tedious. A little like Ana, so perhaps in that they were well-suited. I am glad that Faolan is going to get his own story in the third installment, but I think this story would have been so much better if there had been no setting up for Faolan to get his heart broken.

I am looking forward to the next book to learn the truth about Broichan and Tuala. That should be interesting.

Overall, this was an okay book, and a necessary stepping stone between book one and three. I just wish it had been plotted differently, and that Ana and Drustan had been more realistic, more interesting, and that their romance had been based less on looks than substance.

I just finished reading Blade of Fortriu, the second of the Bridei Chronicles. I was extremely pleased with this book. I have to say that I liked it better than the first!

After reading several of Marillier's novels, I have decided that she is my favorite author. Her writing is so good. She knows how to make you care about the characters. And her work is completely original and often unpredictable. It doesn't follow the classic storylines. For example, in Foxmask, the main character does not fall in love with the one you think she will. In Blade of Fortriu, two men are in love with the same woman.

I find myself caring for Faolan, and I sincerely hope he is the focus of the next book, Well of Shades. I am hoping for a happy ending for him.

I found "Blade of Fortriu" predictable.
The only surprise was the sudden love of Ana for Drustan.
Ana is not very likable and the changes from the "Dark Mirror" are such that it doesn't feel like is the same character. Why Faolan falls for her,seems to me, the only true unexplained mystery,in a book full of very predictable ones.
Interesting characters, like Ferada, never fulfill the potential they seemed to have in the first book
Of all the books of Marillier, i must say this is the only one that disappointed me and is probably due to the fact that my expectations were quite high.
Also i did not like the cover.

In this second book of the Bridei Chronicles, Juliet Marillier picks up the story five years after The Dark Mirror concludes. Bridei is king, has built his new "castle," and is married to Tuala (the Fey girl) who has given birth to his son. While this book gives hints and glimpses of the toddler's (Derelei) special gifts, and develops the reader's interest in the elderly druid Broichan's health and obsession with Derelei, this plotline is obviously meant for a future novel. The story line that this book concentrates most closely on is Bridei's campaign to get the Christian-practicing Gaels out of Priteni lands, which includes forming an alliance with a particular chieftain (Alpin of Briar Wood) that no one in his immediate council knows very well. To form that alliance, Bridei sends the lovely hostage Ana, a friend of Tuala's, to marry the guy. Despite Ana's stoic, queenly march off to her duty, surprise after surprise messes with her heart. Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't turn into merely a mushy romance story. Marillier maintains a well-researched, historically-influenced fantasy story with several intricate plotlines. The plotlines take a while to develop over the seasons during which the action and travel takes place, but, as the first novel in the series did, the book gives time to learn more about the characters and to look forward to the next installment in the story.

From Fantasy Author Sandy Lender