Customer Reviews

The Emerald Cavern (Fifth Ring)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After years of waiting for the Jordan series to end I gave up. The last book was a complete loser. A friend of mine previously gave me a copy of "The Fifth Ring" which has been sitting in my "to be read" pile and languishing there. Anyway, I gave it a try and it blew me away. Having fallen fell in love with the book I quickly checked the author's web site to see what else he had written (the site rocks by the way), and was pleased to find the sequel was already out.

"The Emerald Cavern" is a fine book and picks up a little after "The Fifth Ring" concludes. I thought this book was extremely well written. I enjoyed the humor as well as the court intrigues and mystery. I thought the relationships between Father Thomas and Teanna d'Elso and between Mathew and Teanna were extremely interesting. There's a lot percolating beneath the surface. Also, the more I read about Gawl the more I like him.

"The Emerald Cavern" has a number of aspects to it that are essential to a good novel: Solid writing; excellent characters; and a plot that keeps you hooked.

I highly recommend this book.

"The Emerald Cavern" is Mitchell Graham's sequel to the highly popular "Fifth Ring" that came out early last year. Both my roommate and I read it and we came to the conclusion...this is a polished character driven story with a fun plot.

It would certainly help if you've read the first book in the series, but the author brings you up to speed so quickly, it's not a necessity. The reader will find themselves rooting for the characters through all their trials and tribulations.

While I'm on the subject of characters, I should point out that even the villians and minor ones have a way of getting to you. Teanna d'Elso, Father Thomas, and Gawl could easily carry books by themselves.

I enjoyed the faster pace of this book, as did Sherri (though she didn't read the first one) and found myself coming back to it over and over again when I should have been working. In fact it kept me up until the wee hours of the morning.

I completely agree with the Klausner review that said Mitchell Graham is a superb story teller. He is...period. He pulls the reader right in and keeps them there. The world he has created is unique which makes the job a lot easier.

I strongly disagree with the comment by the Publishers Weekly person. This book *is* every bit as entertaining as "The Fifth Ring." While some of the charm is gone, this occurs when and author is cobbling a fantasy world together, I didn't suffer from it here. Read both book ins sequence and you'll see what I mean.

Yes, there are a lot of characters, both minor and major, but I had absolutely no trouble in following the plot or political interplays that were going on.

My Verdict: The Emerlad Cavern is a winnner that will appeal to a wide variety of both fantasy and mystery lovers. It's a wonderful follow-up to the start of the series. Hopefully, author Graham won't drag his out forever.

My only compliant is that now I'll have to wait for the conclusion of the story. If Graham's publisher has a brain in their head, they push it out the front door before the villagers burn down the castle.

I highly recommend this book. I found it very entertaining and a quick read. The pages just flew by. I felt myself drawn into the story right away. The descriptions were vivid, but not overblown. Personally, I thought the characters were quite easy to relate to.

I'd like to know where the author gets some of his ideas, because I thought they were great. This is a wonderful story that I'll read again and again as the years go by.

A fine, enjoyable novel that held my interest all the way through. The author has a marvelous style and is a very gifted story-teller.

If you're looking for a mere continuation of The Fifth Ring, forget it. The country of Sennina is as different from Elgaria in its customs and mores as England is from Italy. This is part of Graham's genius, we don't simply get a rehash of middle earth.

As far as I'm concerned the characters keep getting better and better and they seem like old friends by now. There is rolicking action, humor, intrigue, and passion enough to keep you smiling all the way through. I was sorry to put this one down.

I almost didn't pick up this book because of Publishers Weekly. I'm glad I did. I completely agree with the reviewer who said, "whenever the (PW) guy gets out of the mental ward he might want to reread it." All I can say it we obvioulsy read two different novels or have completely divergent tastes.

"The Fifth Ring" was a main selection of our SF book club, so I had high hopes for the sequel. In the end, I found The Emerald Cavern highly enjoyable and packed with wonderful action. There is also a pretty neat mystery that author Graham has thrown in.

I felt the writing was tight and the plot solid. personally, I saw nothing at all rambling in the dialogue. In fact it may be among the most realistic I've ever come across, fantasy and main stream included. It's simple and to the pointand you know exactly what's going on in the characters' heads. Often what they say says more about them.

And speaking of the characters I was pleaed to see that Mathew and Lara are taking on more dimensions as they become more worldly and get older. I also liked the "different flavor" of Sennia. As one reviewer has remarked, not everywhere you go should be middle earth. Graham's world is incredibly detailed and the countries have their own set of values. This is as it should be.

Being candid, I would have to say there are weaknesses, but the strength of the narrative and marvelous characters far outweigh them. Did anyone happen to notice the brief byplay between Father Thomas and Teanna? Or Father Thomas's passing remark, that he knew Marsa d'Elso? Our club argued about that for an hour and we can't wait to see what Graham does with it.

The Emerald Cavern was a solid, action oriented tale that you won't go wrong picking up. If Graham didn't become an author, I suspect he'd be a gypsy telling stories from the back of a wagon with a crowd around him. Definitely watch this guy.

Nobody knows much about the Ancients except that their minds were so powerful that they had the mental ability to change energy into matter. However with all their power they still ended up destroying themselves. All that is left of them are some ancient ruins and eight rose gold rings that give the wearer the ability to use their minds in ways similar to the ancients. Thanks to the rose gold ring that Matthew Lewin wore, he was able to stop Karas Duren and his minions, the Orlocks, from conquering his country.

Matthew is in Sennia where King Gaul and his counterpart in Elgaria try to keep the ring wearer out of jail for killing the man who murdered his father. While at the palace, statues come to life and try to kill Matthew. He reasons that an unknown enemy has a ring and his fears are confirmed when the ring the church was guarding turns up missing. When traitors to the crown plan to overthrow the king, the only hope to see justice prevail rests on Matthew's shoulders, a burden that would break a lesser man.

Matthew has matured from the time he first used the ring to stop a war (see THE FIFTH RING). His current trials and tribulations in THE EMERALD CAVERN make him even stronger and wiser than he was before he reached Sennia. There is plenty of action but author Mitchell Graham doesn't ignore his characters. They are well-developed and easily understood, heroes and villains alike. It is going to be hard to wait for the next book in this trilogy because there are questions the audience wants answered now. Mr. Graham is a superb storyteller with a colorful imagination.

Harriet Klausner

This book was a pleasant surprise to me. I'm not generally a fan of fantasy, but I'd have to say I'm now a potential convert. I enjoyed the character of Mathew quite a bit and found the story lots of fun in general.

The author has a clean, straight-forward style that appeals to me, something I find infinitely preferable to endless pages of description.

When I read I usually want to be entertained and forget about what's going on in the rest of the world. THE EMERALD CAVERN did just that. I'm a fan and will read whatever he writes next.

Martha

Mitchell Graham has a way of weaving a story that just keeps you coming back and back. This is his second book in The Fifth Ring series. It was a great follow-up. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am anxiously awating the concluding novel.

All of the characters were easy to relate to and just plain fun. You could read this as a stand-alone novel, but I reccommend getting The Fifth Ring first.

Easily one of my top ten favorites now.

This book was a blast to read. I just love Mitchell Graham. He has a way of making you care about all of his characters and keeps you hooked right from the start.

I've read everything that Raymond Feist and Terry Goodkind have written and I think Mitchell Graham is every bit as good. I could just see the expression on Mathew's face when he finds out about Lara's statue. It was too good.

The Emerald Cavern definitely moves along faster than The Fifth Ring did, though it was about as enjoyable for me. Mathew and Lara are definitely more mature in this book, which really makes sense since they're older. I also found the plot easy to understand along with the differences in Senninan society.

If you're looking for a good book to curl up with on a Sunday morning, you won't go far astray picking this one up.

I could be wrong, but I'm betting Mitchell Graham becomes one of the top names in the field.

I got hooked on "The Fifth Ring" during a plane ride to Sydney, Australia and was pleased to find that author Graham already had a sequel out. (The publisher really should label them book 1; book 2, etc.)

In "The Emerald Cavern" we see Mathew as older, wiser, and more worldly. In many ways this is a departure from Mr. Graham's first book in that he throws in a murder mystery for the hero to solve. The second part ends in a cliffhanger.

I found each of the characters to have matured and grown since book one. It was delightful to see it happen instead of a repackaging of the first story. My conclusion is that Mitchell Graham is an extremely talented writer who bears watching.

Before picking up this series I had pretty much exhausted my local bookstore's fantasy section and had almost give up on the genre. I would have no hesitation in putting these books up against anything out there. They're written with style and intelligence with just a hint of science fiction lurking in the background.

If Graham writes it, I'm buying.

Phillip