Customer Reviews

The Farthest Seeking: Ghatti's #2 (Ghatti's Tale)

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

 

 

I liked this book, but the ending just felt very rushed. Doyce, Khar, Rawn, and hubby seemed just thrown in with no real point. I think the idea of moving to new characters and evolving the world in time a bit was excellent and most of the story went along well, except the cameos by Doyce and crew. Better to have focused on the twins and the Edwin plot lines. The ending was just unsatisfactory. Loose ends were tied up that could have been left for a later book, later plots, but instead got thrown in without hardly any supporting story line.

Again Ms. Greeno had produced a wonderful story. I'm not sure the ending is what I wanted. It leaves no one happy-kind of in limbo. I can overlook this though. I will look forward to another book in this series.

I just finished reading The Farthest Seeking and was almost jumping up and down! It was an excellent book! I felt so much emapthy towards all the characters especially Jenneth. The book is so full of conflicting emotions that I felt like I was there. I was amazed! I eagerly await the next book in this series. I hope it is as full of Adventure as this one was. My congratulations go to Ms.Greeno for one of the best books I have ever read.

Farthest Seeking has to be the best novel in Gayle Greeno's fantastic series of. It follows the lives of Jenneth and Diccion, along with their bonds, in the capital of marchmount. It's strangness to these two is discovered as old and long forgotten enemies arise. To tell you anymore would spoil the twists and turns that lie at every corner. This is a must for all lovers of Greeno's work and you won't be disappointed.

It's been a year since the eventful voyage of Doyce Marbun, Jenret Wycherley, and their party to the Sunderlies, as chronicled in Sunderlies Seeking: Ghatten's Gambit #1 (Ghatti's Tale). As winter begins to cloak the land of Canderis, Doyce and Jenret are enjoying a well-deserved vacation on the seacoast, accompanied by their ghatti Khar and Rawn, while their 17-year-old twins, Diccon and Jennet, and the twin's ghattas, Kwee and Pw'eek, stay home and undergo training as Seekers Veritas. Then their "Aunt" Mahafny Annendahl--actually the widow of Jenret's father's brother--demands their help to transport her aged and failing ghatt, Saam, to the mountains of Marchmont, where she hopes to find someone who can restore this, her dearest friend, to health. Saam isn't afraid to die--he knows that ghatti go on to another form of existence, and so do their human Bonds: Rawn has even ascended the Spirals and mindspoken to Matty Veersma and Kharm, the first Seeker pair on the planet of Methuen--but Mahafny, a retired eumedico who has never found emotional closeness easy, fears the barrenness of her life without him. Accompanied by her housemate, the Shepherd Harrap, and his ghatt Parm, the party sets out for the mountains. When Jenret's sister Jacobia learns what they've done, she follows. Meanwhile, in Marchmont, the two cousin-Seekers, Theo and Holly, and their sister-ghattas Khim and P'roul, are drawn into a perilous situation when the young King Eadwin finds himself confronted with a delusional but progress-obsessed young subject who discovers a cache of forbidden technology buried deep in the cellars of the royal palace. And a bookish little Marchmontian farm girl named Etelka, fearing that her father will order the drowning of the unusually large kitten that has become strangely precious to her, runs away from home (kitten and all) to seek the King and gain a royal clemency order for her pet...

In this fifth, and so far last, volume of the adventures of the ghatti and human settlers of Methuen, the series for the first time begins to show truly fantastical elements--the ability of the Erakwa people (supposedly native to the planet, though they can crossbreed with the folk of Marchmont and Canderis, as ghatti can with Terran-descent cats) to influence nature, a mountain where living beings don't age in the normal way, a "world within" where a long-ago ancestor lives on in a youthful form, and a kind of golem that proves critical to foiling Romain-Laurent Charpentier's kidnap of Etelka and Doyce's sister Francie and his insane determination to use the rediscovered technology, the devil take the possible consequences. Indeed, it becomes clear that if Jacobia and the twins hadn't left Canderis, Charpentier would probably have been able to get his way--so, perhaps, Something has been guiding them all along. Diccon plays a major role in the creation and animation of the golem, while Jennet, still traumatized by her ordeal in the Sunderlies, learns that she need not fear emotional attachment. And though Doyce and Jenret are faced with a painful choice, and the eight hands of the Goddess aren't quite enough to bring all nine of the Canderisian travellers (humans and ghatti) through, the book ends on a positive and promising note. It's been almost nine years since this novel, with the typical huge cast and many interwoven subplots of Greeno's work, was published. I'm hoping that there will be another to follow the marriages that take place at the end and reveal what becomes of Etelka and her kitten (who, of course, turns out to be much more than the girl suspects).

Much better than the previous book, almost as good as the original three in the collection. A 'box-of-tissues' ending. A definite must for any ghatti fan.

Let's face it, good (fantasy) books about cats are few and very far between. The series (The Ghatti's Tale / Ghatten's Gambit) is a sure winner. The "characters" are charming and well developed with interesting and involved story lines. As an adult I can appreciate the autor's style, but I feel the books will appeal to a younger audience as well. When reading these books you can't help wishing you had one of these cats. I would say they are on a par with Tad Williams, Gabriel King, Diane Duane, etc. I am anxiously awaiting the latest book in the series.

First let me say I have enjoyed all the books in the series. The author makes you care about the characters, and what happens to them. In this book, like ones in the past, I laughed; Haruup and Pharm are in it, and cried. It leaves you wanting more adventures of the new generation. The only negative is Ms Greeno's usual multi-plot story line that sometimes frustrates; you'll be into the adventures of one group and she jumps to another, to keep everyone in about the same time frame, unfortunatly it sometimes makes you want to skip ahead to see what happed in the story line you just left. Don't do it, just keep reading and enjoy

I have read the previous four books in the series. Greeno is a long winded author with scattered plots. The plot in this fifth book no long was realistic nor well planned. It seemed to me that the author was merely trying to write another book in the series instead of having planned anything. In fact, I was not able to finish the book. I will not spend any more time or money on a Gayle Greeno book.