Customer Reviews

Dhiamarra (Artefacts of Power)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know I'm not the only one who was just plain frustrated with the way this book was written. In the previous books, especially Sword of Flame, the story had a wonderful climax, characters, all that. Yet in Dhiamarra...it was lost. It got confusing twards the end, and whats worse, it didn't finish. What happened to that b**** Sara? What about Bern? Wasn't the Windeye, Chiamh, sort of getting unhealthy thoughts about Aurian at some points? Why did he do that? What did it accumulate to? And how are D'Varan and Maya going to deal with the Phaerie? This book left way too much to be decided. But what's worse, it didn't leave me with any feelings twards the characters like the first three did. The characters were just...names. What happened?!

The first and foremost thing that sticks out in my mind is that the author got locked down in her exclamations. After all the colorful ones in Aurian (I'm reminded of those involving Thara and Chathak, in particular), the ones in this book were dull. Most involved "perdition." Why in perdition, and where in perdition, and what in perdition. I was tempted to reread it just to see how many times this word was used.

But that was just a minor irritation. I was most disappointed by the way things played themselves out. As someone else wrote, it just seemed that she wanted to get it finished before deadline. And on that note, let's just say that it wasn't finished. By leaving unfinished business in this novel, the road is paved to the fifth in the series. When will this end? I loved the first three books, but this one has to be my least favorite. Maybe the next one will be better, and stamp finality on the series.

I don't know how to discripe my feelings about this novel! I read the previus books and found that Dhiammara had problems to speed up. It went till about the middel of the story before it got quite interesting. And what about the end?? Just another clifhanger! Shall we wait another several years to see the real end of the story? After all Aurian was the best of the four books!!

The only complaint that I have about this book is it is the last one yet it does not feel that way. There continue to be loose ends. I can not help but want more information on what happens next. I am waiting with anticipation to find out if there will be more to come. I would assuredly purchase them.

The whole series was good,but the ending was so rushed that it was not a decent ending.Too many things were left unresolved,but it was still a good series....Good story to get caught up in..

The main story is definitely resolved, and Ms. Furey resolves it in grand style....but there are several plotlines that aren't resolved, and that I'd like to see resolved - which is why this book rates only a 6. For example - I'd like to see Aurian confront the Phaerie and thereby resolve the situation with the Xandim. Also, what actually happened to the rest of the Great Cats? We only hear that they left their home - but did they leave or were they killed off, or what? A sequel to this "conclusion" definitely needs to be written, but for what it is, this book is excellent.

This is the fourth and final book in The Artefacts of Power tetralogy (following Aurian, Harp of Winds and The Sword of Flame).

After failing to make the terrible sacrifice that would have allowed her to claim the Sword of Flame, Aurian and some of her friends find themselves trapped in a time breach. They reappear some eight years later, only to discover nothing but chaos and destruction.

Indeed, not only did her failure release the evil-minded Phaerie who, wasting no time, immediately started ransacking Nexis and raping its inhabitants, sowing terror upon the city, but in the meantime Eliseth has also stolen the Cauldron of Rebirth from Miathan and is about to take the last steps that will finally allow her to quench her thirst for absolute power. Aurian has to stop her at any cost if she wants to save the world and the people she loves. Mustering her troops, she embarks on yet another journey to the Southern Kingdoms, towards the final confrontation.

Even though I was glad to read more about loveable characters such as Grince the young thief, Chiamh the Xandim Windeye or Shia the great cat, I was quite disappointed by Anvar's almost complete absence from this volume, for he was my favourite. The idea of time travel was quite unexpected too, and even though it was interesting to find out what Hargorn and Hebba, or Zanna, Dulsina and the Nightrunners had become in the eight years that had passed, this device didn't serve any other useful purpose and might have been more thouroughly explored, used to more enriching ends.

Although I can say I liked Dhiammara as a whole, I also found this volume somewhat messy and rather grim. Too many things happen and it seems that too many subplots have to be solved. And a fairly high number of people die in bloodshed too. Most of all, I found it was a tad insipid and lacked the suspenseful action of Harp of Winds or The Sword of Flame, and finally the end wasn't very spectacular either. Shame, it looked so promising...

All in all the whole Aurian series was wonderfull, But the last book just didnt mesh well, It was as if maggie lost her train of thought with the cast of the book. They all acted different then they should have, I didnt like how the archmage died at all. I didnt like the battle between Aurian and the other mage either. It just wasnt as great as the previous 3 books. But still, I enjoied the book enough to read it twice. Thank you Maggie for creating Aurian, who we all love so dear.

I loved this book, just like I loved the others but I totally agree with the other reviews. There were a lot of loose ends left at the end, like what happens in Nexis with D'arvan, Maya and the Phaerie, what became of the cats on Steelclaw, and what about Shia and Khanu? I really think Maggie should give us another book or two to wrap everything up. And a movie would be great!

Without giving away too much info (as happened when I read other people's reviews from this site before I bought this book...) I just want to say that the last book in the Aurian series is an obvious Must-Read, if you are a true fan of Aurian and her comrades. It is fast-paced, which is true to Maggie's style, however she seems to have outdid herself. So many plots are going on in the beginning that she spends over half the book explaining them, then seems to have run out of time with the contractors and had to finish up everything within about 20 pages or less. It's a little frustrating. And she kills off about half of the main characters, even some new ones you're sure to like- that is until she kills them. All in all, she must have had a contract set for only four books, because she could have gotten two out of Dhiammara. I just hope that someday she'll be able to bring us back to the land where Aurian and her kind live- maybe with a new series involving a grown Wolf, his Uncle, and the new cats.