Deepwood: Karavans #2 [Hardcover]

Jennifer Roberson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2007

Deepwood is the sequel to Karavans, the start of a new, highly commercial fantasy adventure series. Filled with magic, mystical beings, and humans with magical powers, and replete with bloody war and illicit romance, the universe of Karavans is already garnering high praise. Even darker and richer than Roberson's previous work, Deepwood is sure to enthrall her already dedicated readership.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Roberson's complex sequel to Karavans (2006), the mysterious sentient forest, Alisanos, which has moved for the first time in 40 years, surrounds series heroine Audrun, who has given premature birth to a daughter, Sarith. Rhuan, the demigod disguised as a karavan guide who tried to protect Audrun's family, continues to guard mother and child, calling upon his semidivine cousin, Brodhi, for grudging assistance. Other denizens of the deepwood offer aid to Audrun's four older children as Alisanos begins to transform them. In the human world, the karavan settlement has been destroyed by Alisanos's movement. Injured Ilona, the diviner, has lost her gift of reading hands. Jorda the karavan-master, Mikal the tavern-owner and Bethid, a courier, help the few survivors while furthering plans of rebellion against their cruel Hecari conquerors. Readers will be impatient to see what happens in the next volume. (July)
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From Booklist

After the disaster that ended Karavans (2006), pregnant Audrun, Davyn, and their four children have left their conquered homeland and joined a karavan to seek out a new home. But Alisanos, the deepwood, a sentient, mobile forest, is on the move. Home to many dangerous creatures, Alisanos actually takes humans, who thereafter are either never seen again or transformed into hideous monsters. The deepwood attacks the karavan, but Audrun and her children fall in with Rhuan, one of the guides. She gives birth in the forest four months early, yet the baby appears to have been carried full term. The forest wants the child, and Audrun must protect and provide for all five children while trying to escape and reunite with her husband, who is frantically searching for them. Meanwhile, Alisanos' nonhuman inhabitants are fighting internecine battles. Rhuan is in the middle of one, and willy-nilly, Audrun is drawn in, too. Lots of action, competently drawn characters, and a world in which anything can happen. High-quality action fantasy. Murray, Frieda

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover; First Edition edition (July 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756404185
• ISBN-13: 978-0756404185
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Segue, August 13, 2007

By 

J. Wilson (Midwest, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Deepwood: Karavans #2 (Hardcover)

I gave the book 4 stars instead of three because while I still enjoyed the story and the last two pages made my evening, in all honesty the book is unsatisfying. Most of it feels just like a gigantic explanation of the Karavan world, that is useful but would be better explained through action than constant lecture. The amount of storyline progressed is limited and unfortunately Deepwood suffers the same timeline/distance inconsistencies as the first novel (I am of the firm opinion that as a reader I shouldn't be jarred out of reading because one character's week is the same as another's day).

Overall solid, but if you can wait until the third book is released, I'd recommend that.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Karavans, August 3, 2007

By 

C. Hart "Devourer of Literature" (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Deepwood: Karavans #2 (Hardcover)

I really liked this book. As far as sequels go, it wasn't a lot of rehashing of the first book. The author summed it up neatly, and continued with what is turning out to be a fantastic story. Very well written, and I highly recommend this.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The "Who Cares?" factor, September 18, 2008

By 

Michael Lichter (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Deepwood: Karavans # 2 (Mass Market Paperback)

As a 40-something male, I am clearly not in the target demographic for Jennifer Roberson's DEEPWOOD. In contrast to other reviewers, I found DEEPWOOD even slower and even more disappointing than KARAVANS. Readers who just want to know what happens after the end of KARAVANS should consider a quick skim in the bookstore.

Those who read KARAVANS will recall that Audrun and her characterless children have become trapped in wondrous, dangerous Alisanos. What happens? They run around panicking, they say and do stupid things, and they get knocked around a bit. What do we learn about Alisanos beyond what we already knew in the first few pages of KARAVANS? We learn a little about its gods, we learn that it has dryads and dragons, and that's about it. (I don't want to knock the gods' part too much--that's one of the more interesting bits of the novel.)

Ilona, the most appealing character in KARAVANS, gets relatively scant attention in DEEPWOOD. I think that's a mistake. She comes back into the story at the end in a big way, but that doesn't make up for her limited role early on. Rhuan, the demigod who likes humans, gets plenty of play, but there's little character development; in fact, his strong-but-sensitive guy act becomes even more generic here. Brodhi, Rhuan's disdainful cousin, thankfully does develop a little, displaying a little more compassion and fellow-feeling than he had in the past--not that he would admit feeling it.

The book also follows the efforts, led by brave courier Bethid, to rebuild a settlement thrown into chaos by the movement of Alisanos and by the Hecari's earlier decimation of the population. While Bethid's efforts are admirable, it's hard to see this part of the story as anything but a sideshow.

I don't think that Roberson is necessarily a bad writer, and if she had an incentive to do so, she could probably have written a book that was twice as good and half as long. I think market demands for long series of long books is as least as responsible for the tediousness of DEEPWOOD as are Roberson's skills, inclinations, and imagination. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and I do not recommend it.