Customer Reviews

The Chronicles of Faerie: The Light-Bearer's Daughter

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2 star:		(1)
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Dana's Mom left her musician father and her long before Dana could remember. Bits and pieces of memories haunt her still. When Dana hears that her Dad's got a dream job in faraway Toronto, her biggest fear is that her Mom can't find them should she choose to come back.

When Queen Honor consort of the High King of Faery contacts her for help, Dana agrees willingly knowing that her dearest wish will be granted if she accomplishes the task they set for her--deliver a message to Lugh, the King of Wicklow. The message: "A shadow is crossing the land. The enemy rises. Where is the light to bridge the darkness?"

It's a hard quest for a 12-year-old and even Honor has cause to regret setting such a task for a young girl, but Dana continues on despite offers to have someone else complete the errand. She means to have her dearest wish--her own Mom home. She also sees how the light is leaving the land: male boggles are without their females, humans are destroying the trees, the last Irish wolf has left the country. Something needs to be done and she's willing to risk her life to do it.

Melling's knowledge of Irish language and folklore make this book a compelling and educational read for people of all ages. She spins a fine tale you won't want to put down.

If you enjoy Ireland, faeries, fantasy and romance, The Chronicles of Faerie is a must-read series. The mixture of fantasy, myth and all that is Ireland is magical.

When twelve-year-old Dana was very young, her mother disappeared. The tragedy was difficult, but life with her father Gabriel was good. It was good until Gabriel announces that they will be leaving Ireland for Toronto, Canada. Dana is angry, angry that they are leaving Ireland, that she will lose her friends, soccer, and her life. But also angry because she will be forced to leave the place where her mother was.

On a trip to the glen, Dana leaves her companions to get some cookies. Inside the cave stands a man with a wide-brimmed hat. He orders Dana to `follow the greenway. My lady awaits you.' Dana hurries along the trail through the woods and begins her adventure where a beautiful lady offers her her `heart's desire' if she accepts a dangerous mission. All the while Dana is in the magical Faerie, the real world eco-warriors are fighting to save the forest from developers.

This third book in The Chronicles of Faerie has a definite political and environmental message. And whether you agree with those messages or not, the story is exciting with secrets revealed, a multi-layered plot that is complex and compelling. It is a novel that will make your heart beat fast and hard and your imagination will be carried away into a wonderful world.

Armchair Interviews says: The Light-Bearer's Daughter is a page-turner.

I was impressed by The Hunter's Moon and The Summer King, so I was happy to discover Melling's third Chronicles of Faery book, The Light-Bearer's Daughter. All three have particular appeal for teenage girls, as their young contemporary heroines find themselves pulled into adventures involving Ireland's Fair Folk.

In this book Dana, who is angry to be told she must move to Canada, is asked by a fairy queen to act as a messenger, bearing a request for help to a lost king. In return, Dana will win a wish--which she plans to use to find her long-missing mother. Dana, who's a fairly tough kid, shows her courage as she avoids a dangerous pursuit, deals with the unpredictable boggles, and makes various allies, some from across the reaches of time. She also gets tired and dirty and hungry and hurt, which pleased me because writers of quests often forget to show that.

There's a subplot involving humans trying to save old-growth forests, and another about Dana's father's new love interest (who threatens Dana's loyalty to her lost mother). We also see a little overlap with the other two books, although this one stands alone nicely.

The most important thing I can say about this book is that it's written in medium-high fantasy style, but it works. Melling has a way of drawing you into her story, and even when characters are taking themselves a bit too seriously, you buy it because Melling's writing keeps you well and truly caught, like a fairy spell. I could quibble with a few moments from the plot, and the quest format isn't one of my favorites, but I don't want to fuss because the fact remains that The Light-Bearer's Daughter is simply a good book. The way Melling brings the subplots together in the end is particularly satisfying--especially in terms of teen wish fulfillment!

This author took my greatest flights of fancy and made them into a book. I seriously wonder how she did it. A great novel, the whole series, actually is great for readers interested in urban fantasy, I think it's great for ages 12 to 100. Let's just say, it's one of the books I keep in my dorm two years after I read it.

Finally a book that fits with the last. The second book was separate from the first which I thought was wierd not very connected. but this book was connected just enough to the second book that it made it alot better. This book is not as confusing as the last book the author really tells the story well through the little girl's eyes.

First, let me say that I liked Hunter's Moon a lot and I LOVED The Summer King. I was really excited to pick this book up, but honestly, I had a really hard time finishing it. Certain aspects of it were very clever, like the fact that Dana's quest was really about herself. I liked that she needed to forgive herself for her mother's disappearance in order to unleash her true potential. I thought it was a very clever way to overlap her struggles in the faerie world with her struggles in the human world. However, some of the parts were honestly very boring. I know that some people really liked the wolf parts, but I found those ridiculous. I skimmed most of those chapters, because I had such a hard time focusing on them. I did enjoy most of the ending, as I really enjoy the scenes with the High Court. I liked that she tied the story in with The Summer King, and I enjoyed seeing Midir and Honor again. The nice thing about this series is that each book can be enjoyed individually, and you don't have to read them all sequentially. Each book stands alone well, which is good because I didn't enjoy this book enough to pick up the last book in the series.

I read this book expecting an interesting fantasy. Instead, this book was awkwardly written and sometimes the storyline appeared forced. The enemies were pathetic, the combination with the other books were incongruent, and there was an obsession with environmentalism. There is a time and place for everything, and Melling's timing never seemed to ring true. Also, it ended with a strange kind of polygamy that I did not find appropriate or plausible. Simply did not like it.

O.R. Melling's third installment in her Chronicles of Faerie series for young adults, The Light-Bearer's Daughter, was awarded the Green Earth Book Award, which features works that "inspire a deeper appreciation for the environment," and this book certainly lives up to that standard. Enchanting and deeply romantic, The Light Bearer's Daughter follows twelve year-old Dana Faolan's journey from her home in Bray, Ireland, to the magical realm of Faerie, a place where the Bogeyman really does exist and has cousins who live in the bogs, and little old women turn into mice that scamper around the countryside.


Author O.R. Melling was born in Ireland but moved to Canada with her family when she was four. She lists some of her favorite writers as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and E. Nesbit. She even credits them with giving her the idea to write under a penname: "...I felt that my real name wasn't very magical like, say, JRR Tolkien's, whose name looks elvish, don't you think? Also, many of my favourite authors when I was young had initials for their names, e.g. CS Lewis, E Nesbit, PL Travers, AA Milne, JM Barrie. " (http://www.ormelling.com/o.r.mellingfaq.html) It's easy to see where she drew inspiration from the works of others; however, the inner-workings of her own mind are what drives this tale.


The Light-Bearer's Daughter has two parallel storylines in alternating chapters. At first, they seem independent of each other, but as the tale progresses, Melling weaves the two together as the characters find they share the same fate. Dana's part of the story - which takes up more than half of the pages - is written in a typical modern prose. It's fast-paced but still sprinkled with the Irish mythology and folklore that adds a spark of life to the book.


Written in a more traditional style, the other storyline chronicles the musings and memories of an ancient king, who lives in Faerie, the land all around us to which we are blind. These two worlds unite when Dana meets one of the mythical Tree People in the woods, who tells her to "follow the greenway." She then embarks on a journey to give the Lugh of the Mountain a message from the High King of Faerie in exchange for the Mountain King granting her a wish. But when she discovers a demon hunting her, she realizes that the journey is no longer about her wish - she must do her part to save Faerie.


With its lyrical, rhythmic prose and intriguing plot, The Light-Bearer's Daughter draws you in and refuses to let go. The reader realizes that not only is Dana transported to Faerie, but so is he; and that is where the magic of O.R. Melling lies - in her ability to capture and captivate an audience, much like her contemporary J.K. Rowling. But this book will not only expand your imagination, it will also allow you to appreciate the beauty of the natural world. On face value, some of the environmental pleas might seem extreme - "The death of the forest is the beginning of the end of our world," for example - but if we delve deeper, we find that in Faerie, the destruction of the wood really is the end of their world, because they're so connected to nature. And since the inhabitants of Faerie work in our own lives (though unseen), we will also be affected. To Dana and the rest of Faerie, nature is the soul of humanity and in the face of industrialism, they say, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"

Many different faiths are represented, all in a favorable light. A Christian monk named Kevin offers Dana sanctuary and advice, Dana calls out to the "gods of her people" and receives a guardian to aid her on the journey, and the fairies seem to have a pantheistic-view of the world, worshipping nature itself. Some readers may find themselves turned off by the post-modern embrace of a sort of uni-faith, however. Melling offers no one truth or set of values; instead, she highlights goodness in its practical form.


The Light-Bearer's Daughter stands out as one of the few young adult fantasy novels not about vampires or werewolves or the like, but rather tales and lore nearly as old as the Emerald Isle itself.

katiemstout.blogspot.com

Not my favorite book in the series. I just kept putting it down. There were some great parts and then a chapter of pure boredome. The "save the woods" storyline was really refreshing and new for me in a book about faeries. I have to confess, I really don't care for Dana and her faerie/human combo. This will probably be my last Chronicles of Faerie book, since the next book is about Dana, again. It was a good ride though. The Hunter's Moon will always be one of my favorite books and the best one in the series.

This is the third book of her series and even better than the first two. OR Melling transports you to the world of faerie with magical writing. I love this series and can't wait for the next book! (due out in US in 2009)