Customer Reviews

Daughter of Regals and Other Tales

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Daughter of Regals" - Magic, in this land, is the art of manipulating images of the Real: the Wood of the Ash tree, Wind, the Fire deep in the earth, or images of Real creatures: the Basilisk, the Wyvern, the Phoenix. Such magic is inherited by those who descend from some Real man or woman: someone who can shapechange into a Real creature. The Regals who unified the three kingdoms of Canna, Nabal, and Loden into an uneasy realm are such people. Now Chrysalis, on this night of her 21st birthday, must ascend to the Seat in full view of the realm's nobles and take her Real shape and her place as Regal, or watch the Realm shatter. And she alone knows that she's already failed once. (Excellent story, taking place in the single night that will mark Chrysalis' ascension, death, or flight, told by her.)

"Gilden-Fire" - This tale of Korik of the Bloodguard and the mission to the Giants of Seareach was cut from THE ILLEARTH WAR, not because the sequence isn't good, but because 1) Donaldson needed to cut about 150 pages, and 2) using Korik as the viewpoint character caused problems when set beside Covenant's Unbelief. Enjoy; Korik fills in some of the background of the Bloodguard as lagniappe.

"Mythological Beast" - Norman lives a perfectly sane, perfectly safe life as a librarian, in an age when violence has been eliminated by eliminating the causes of fear. Not that many people can read, or that anyone uses the library. He can't understand why the new nub of horn on his forehead doesn't register as anything odd on his biomitter, or why nobody seems surprised by his other gradual changes.

"The Lady in White" - The narrator, Mardik the blacksmith, tells the tale of how his 'mad' dreamer of a younger brother came to be blinded, in rescuing him from the mysterious Lady in White, who had lured many men to their deaths in the Deep Forest.

"Animal Lover" - The narrator is a cyborg government agent, for whom serious injury just means a few more experiments with new equipment. In this age of overpopulation, genetic engineering is outlawed, and the government subsidizes anything that'll act as a pressure valve: slamming cars around a racetrack, game preserves. But the exclusive game preserve the agent's asked to investigate has a *far* higher death rate than normal, and seems to advertise only by word of mouth. The narrator's the best pick, since he'll be inclined to root for the animals rather than slant his report the other way, if no criminal activity is going on.

"Unworthy of the Angel" - The title comes from the saying, Let no man be unworthy of the Angel who stands over him. The narrator, a guardian angel (literally) whose memory of each assignment is wiped away by the next, has the unsavory task of coping with a charge who's selling his soul to become a better sculptor. This isn't a blatant diabolical contract in brimstone, nothing so crude; the sculptor just has to be willfully blind to the consequences of his actions. But an angel can't help you unless you give him permission...

"The Conqueror Worm" - Welcome to the not-quite-right home of Creel and Vi Sump. He's got a good job, but maybe a dead end; the place has some expensive electronics, but a water-damaged ceiling; and so on. Tonight, a centipede is loose in the apartment after they've both been drinking at a party, and they're trying to kill it. (More of a character study than anything; the only story in the collection that's not to my taste.)

"Ser Visal's Tale" - Some of the wild young men of the town regularly buy Ser Visal's drinks at the tavern with the deaf bartender, to hear tales that, while not quite openly heretical or seditious, wouldn't help him any with the Judica or the King. Now they want to know the *real* story of Dom Perralt's excommunication, in this land that's become a theocracy in one generation.

I LOVED the book! I like all of them though my favorites happen to be Daughter of Regals, Ser Visal's Tale and The Conquerer Worm. But I liked Unworthy of Angel and Mythological Beast a lot too. Overall, just read the book. I found them all interesting (except Animal Lover, which I didn't read yet hehe) and there's something for everybody.

The Conquerer Worm isn't really a fantasy or sci-fi story at all- it's the shortest (I think) and it shows how much trouble a centipede causes. It has a psycological "creepiness" abput it and I loved it. It is more about developing the characters than anything.

I LOVED Daughter of Regals because of the complex storyline and all the twists it has.

Ser Visal's tale has an unexpected ending- tho it took me a few minutes to realize it. I was like *GASP*. I found that telling the story through a storyteller was interesting.

Gilden-Fire is great because I loved Thomas Covenant and it ties in some info about the bloodguard that is not in The Illearth War. Great read but might be a little confusing for anyone who didn't read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.

Truthfully, I found these pieces lackluster. I felt they had very little of what makes Donaldson so strong as a novelist. Somehow the short form never gives him the chance to create the worlds for which he is so justly famous.

I was particularly disappointed in the first two stories, the longest in the collection. "Daughter of Regals" was quite predictable, and "Gilden-Fire" read like a failed sketch for Illearth, rather than a story set in its mythos. I did enjoy the book more as it progressed, and the stories towards the end were the strongest. I was particularly fond of "Animal Lover" and "Unworthy of the Angel". "Unworthy of the Angel", to my mind, started to approach the quality of the novels-- it was bittersweet, surprising and well-crafted.

Recommended for readers who are already fans. If you have never read any Donaldson before, then pick up Lord Foul's Bane or A Man Rides Through instead.

The jewels of this collection are "Ser Visal's Tale" and "Daughter of Regals". These stories don't just create anticipation and uncertainty in the telling, they also generate complete conviction when all is told.

Donaldson's shorter short stories don't give him enough scope for his forte, i.e. unfolding layers of the truth. In order to shine, he needs time for his characters to be acting on incomplete information at first, but eventually realize what is going on. Unfortunately, his big novels, which have unlimited room for intricacy, tend to bloat with repetition and bog down under lengthy delays.

I believe that if Donaldson would write all his stories in the 50-page range, he would be an even larger figure than he already is in the world of the sci-fi/fantasy novel.

A collection of short stories, Daughter or Regals suffers most from its title story, which takes its own sweet time getting to a point. Taken as a sketch of his work to come however, particularly Mirror of Her Dreams, it gives you a look at one of Mr. Donaldson's rough drafts.

The rest of the stories included are better, a wide mix of urban fantasy and cyberpunk. Of greatest interest to the fan of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles is a deleted Book of The Illearth War, written entirely from the perspective of the haruchai. The author explains why it was deleted, which make sense, but I found myself coming away with a greater understanding of the Chronicles after reading it, and I wish that it had not been removed.

A mixed genre collection, based around the Gilden-Fire novella, but mostly fantasy and then horror. Not too bad, with a 3.31 average.


Daughter of Regals : Daughter of Regals - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : Gilden-Fire - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : Mythological Beast - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : The Lady in White - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : Animal Lover - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : Unworthy of the Angel - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : The Conqueror Worm - Stephen Donaldson
Daughter of Regals : Ser Visal's Tale - Stephen Donaldson

Mage manoeuvres and the dragon lady.

3.5 out of 5


Gilden Fire is is the result of one of the earlier modern fantasy writers inability to write anything short. Obviously a disease that has proved seriously catching.

Because the Illearth War was too long originally and threatened to turn into a black hole, this is a part chopped out of there and deals with Korik the Bloodguard's quest to Seareach, so is not a Thomas Conveant story as far as that goes, directly.

Lords, Giants, fighting as a big finale, too.

3.5 out of 5


Unicorn revival.

3 out of 5


Wizard lust magic disguise.

3 out of 5


Hunting cyborg armed animal casualties.

4 out of 5


Bloody rooted.

3 out of 5


Bugged relationship.

3 out of 5


Witch execution cauldron escape.

3.5 out of 5




3.5 out of 5

Daughter of Regals is a wonderful collection. Each story has some different way of offering a thrilling glimpse into the stuff from which the human soul is made. The title story is an intriguing journey into self-actualization, and I rarely find this kind of depth and quality in fantasy. Most of the other stories are equally inventive, and similarly revealing, but "Daughter of Regals" is my favorite of the bunch.

I got this book as soon as saw it because having read and loved t'The chronicles of Thomas Covenant', I wanted to see what this was about. I found that the story'Daughter of regals' dragged on a bit but made it up at the end. In fact, all these stories are unique in their own way and all have slight twists. I loved 'Animal lover' and 'Mythalogical beast'- this was prehaps the shortest of all the stories. However, I wasn't that impressed with 'gilden fire'-it does help to have read the Thomas Covenant series before you read this.

But all in all, I would recomend this to anyone who enjoys all Stephen Donaldson's books. He is a marvel.

This is possibly the most complete set of short stories from one author I have ever seen. Each one of the stories carries something special. I concede that there were stories that were slow starting, (namely Daughter of Regals and Ser Visals Tale) but these were inevitably saved by their conclusions. Two stories will stay with me for ever. The Conqueror Worm and Unworthy of the Angel are sheer magic.

I havn't read this book but it looks great.