27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fairy tale like..., January 9, 2002
This review is from: The Dreaming Tree (Paperback)
Composed of 2 books, _the Dreamstone_ and the _Tree of Sword and Jewels_ this book has undergone multiple incarnations. Done in a tone similar to McKillips' _Forgotten Beasts of Eld_ the story has a certain richness that is perfectly contained in two volumes. The characters probably could have used more detailed development but that is a minor quibble.
It is definitely NOT for those who like fast pacing and detailed descriptions of battle so, the traditional sword and sorcery junkie will be left dissatisfied. On the other hand, for those who like a little more depth to their fantasy suffused with a certain melancholy then this book is for you.
I read this book when I was much younger and found it a bit slow, but after some time have picked it back up and now can appreciate it better. It is slow but worth the read nonetheless. Besides, how can one resist a book where Death is an actual character with his own motives and affections?
Anyway, if you are into slow melancholy toned Celtic fantasy than this is for you. Otherwise, you maybe disappointed in this work in which wizards, gory battle scenes and ludicrous love moments are absent.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Omnibus of the Ealdwood stories of Faerie, December 18, 2005
This review is from: The Dreaming Tree (Paperback)
This is an omnibus edition of Cherryh's two Ealdwood novels, THE DREAMSTONE and THE TREE OF SWORDS AND JEWELS. The cover art on this edition is Michael Whelan's painting THE TREE OF SWORDS AND JEWELS, clipped a little at the edges.
While THE DREAMING TREE contains the complete text of THE DREAMSTONE, it omits the prologue of THE TREE OF SWORDS AND JEWELS, which summarized the storyline of THE DREAMSTONE and made it possible for those who had never read the first book to follow the plot of the second. I'm a bit unhappy about the omission, because I myself read the second book first, and I enjoyed the prologue. However, I can understand why it would have been considered redundant in this edition.
For more detailed analysis of the individual books, please consult their specific reviews; I'll only try to give an impressionistic overview here.
Rather than being science fiction, as many of Cherryh's other novels are, the stories are fantasy, set in the last days of the fading of the greater powers of Faerie from the world of men - or so it seems, at first. "Most of all [Men] brought the chill of iron, to sweep away the ancient shadows. But they took the brightness too. It was inevitable, because that brightness was measured against that dark...the darkest burrowed deep and the brightest went away, heartbroken."
"Save one, whose patience or whose pride was more than all the rest."
The story's heart lies in a wood where humans fear to go, wherein the last of the Sidhe guards the trees upon which her brothers and sisters left their swords and the stones containing their hearts, so that they could leave the lands they had loved. The story begins with Arafel being awakened by the presence of a human outlaw in her domain, who (having lurked in the woods bordering his own old lands since the fall of his king) has finally grown weary enough not to care if he offends any otherworldly powers by building a fire in the deep woods and roasting a fish from the stream.
So begins Arafel's interaction with Niall. Feeling kindly toward him, since he meant no offense, she helps him escape both the perils of the wood and those of his human pursuers to a more kindly portion of faerie, a sanctuary few are lucky enough to find once and fewer still twice. The story contains a great deal of these kinds of contrasts, where a cozy bit of human light and warmth is given a richly textured description, and constrasted with the chill, mysterious otherworld lying all around it, like an island of familiar things in a sea of alien wonders and terrors.
Arafel's interaction with humans is split between her point of view and theirs, and since time flows differently for her than for humans, the story stretches over more than one generation. Her loneliness leads her to occasional acts of compassion and friendship toward the few humans who enter her domain, although in the long run this often causes as much trouble for them as it solves, as Niall and his descendants acquire a reputation for dealings with the uncanny, and are perceived as an unnatural threat. A great harper who charms her with his music takes one of the dreamstones as his payment - only to learn that he now dreams her dreams, while she dreams of his waking life, thus inflicting on each visions of alien worlds.
And inevitably, the waking of the last of the great powers of faerie causes a stirring in the slumbers of its ancient enemy, leading to *much* greater complications in human civil strife than anyone ever dreamed of. For instance, Death is considered one of the youngest of the powers in the land, and is an almost-trusted ally compared to the ancient enemies of the Sidhe.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pros and cons, June 27, 2006
This review is from: The Dreaming Tree (Paperback)
This book is a collection of two titles, The Dreamstone and The Tree of Swords and Jewels.
I found The Dreamstone to be a wonderful read. Very concise in its form, the pacing worked well, and the story unfolds over a period of years, which is important to the central focus of the novel being on Eald and its relationship with humans. This first book comes in at under 200 pages, I believe, and really feels right.
Now, the second book is where things fall down. Somewhere along the way someone must have suggested that this story needed more words. Because there's a lot more words. And they're not all necessary. Gone is the conciseness of the story, gone is the mystery of Eald, as we focus more on humans and their squabbles over the kingdom. This book loses focus from the first one, and really drags through the final half. It is too long, it is too wordy, it is too complicated... it is just too much, frankly.
A shame, really, since The Dreamstone was really a wonderful read in itself.
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