Customer Reviews

The Fathomless Caves: Book Six of the Witches of Eileanan

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Book six, The Fathomless Caves, is a great ending to the Witches of Eileanan series. Though I can see points at which the author could branch off to write other books, there is definately a satifsying closure for the main characters and action.

Leading up to the final trial, which is a no holds barred, battle to the death that stretches everyone to their limits, there is a test of the royal marriage, Iseult's return to the Spine of the World, a confrontation between Lachlan and Isabeau regarding his behavior toward her, Maya's capture by the Righ, and Isabeau's confronting of her personal demons and her feelings regarding Dide the Jugglar.

The main focus of the action here is the war with the Fairgean, the sea people who are sworn enemies of the humans. Obviously, they are bad creatures, because they keep coming up onto the human's land and killing everyone, even children, raping women, taking slaves, all that bad war stuff. But Forsyth does the same thing in characterizing the Fairgean as a people that she does with her individual characters. She shows them as a product of their experiences, most specifically, their experiences with the humans over the last few hundred years. The humans come to be seen as less than virtuous, less than completely in the right, and the Fairgean become not quite the mindless villains they may have seemed. One wonders if, with hundreds of years of history of war and attempted genocide, these people could ever find a way to coexist. And whereas a few books ago we might not have been upset had the humans managed to wipe out the Fairgean completely, now that we have met a few and are seeing them as a people, that no longer seems a viable option for a good ending. Or is it?

The struggle between these two peoples becomes something like a good romance novel. You know both sides have their flaws, and everything's against them, but you really want them to work it out, no matter how much it hurts.

Well, you throw that in with all the individual conclusions, and the amazing action of the finale, and it makes for a great ending.

I have enjoyed this series immensely. It's great to read strong female characters, especially when those characters are actually women, and not just more guys in drag with girlie names. The characterization is brilliant, with characters who continue to grow, from the first pages to the last, who make mistakes, who fall into peril, but who, while ever-changing, mangage to hold on to a sense of self that made you fall for them in the first place. The imagery is lovely, and varied, and the use of Celtic and Wiccan lore highly enjoyable.

If you're coming to read this review not having read any other the other books, I would suggest you look up The Witches of Eileanan, because you deserve to enjoy this from the very beginning. It will be worth getting here the long way.

The conclusion of the Witches of Eileanan is good, maybe not as good as some of the earlier books in the series, but good. Iseult travels away to get the support of her mountain people, leaving Lachlan feeling very forlorn. In addition, the war against the sea creatures is not going so well. Meanwhile, Isabeau is struggling to finish her training as quickly as possible while a certain wandering musician struggles to catch her eye. The end of this series was a little anticlimactic to me, but still very interesting and definitely worth reading if you've made it this far in the series. The whole series gets the thumbs up.

A while back, after I had just finnished this book, I e-mailed Kate Forsyth, not really expecting anything in return. I thought to myself, those books are REALLY good. She'll never have time to read all her fanmail, much less write back.
Whoa was I surprised. The email I got was not a two word reply but two paragraphs about what I had asked! Not only are the books fantastic, but the Author was super- nice!

Well, as nice as she was, the books she wrote were even better. From beginning to end, they are captivating. The hardships of war and peace, trust and denial, are all played out fully in these colorful works. Thank you Kate Forsyth for a fabulous read. It doesn't get much better than that!

I love this series. I bought the first book while looking for something to read while I waited for Harry Potter. This isn't just a "while-you-wait" book, this is awesome book in it's own right. Throughout the series the good-people turn into bad-people and vice-versa. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. The ending of this series is wonderful, better than most series I've read. This is real fantasy. Anyone who reads fantasy should read this series.

If you've followed the series this far, like I have, you'll love the final book. Being in Australia, I've read this book a while ago, and the things I can remeber are all spoilers, and I hate it when ppl do that. So, I'll say this was a good ending and an absolutely fantastic series in general. One thing that particularly impressed me (and this is true for the other 5 books as well) is the amount of respect given to the different cultures/races. As Harriet has said above, the Fairgean are given legitimate reasons for wanting war. This is no goodies/baddies book; you feel for both sides.

Well worth reading. Ordered the books directly from Amazon, they arrived quickly and in perfect shape. Had a very hard time finding this particular one in local new or used book stores.

The scene Forsyth opens with is quaint and eloquent, a picturesque portrayal of a land blanketed in peace and harmony. Of course, as the reader, we know that all is not well. Trouble brews under the surface of this tranquil setting. The Fairgean have not had their final say, and the battle to end it all draws near. The peaceable setting in the land is soon ripped to shreds by a violent outbreak from the Fairgean. In the aftermath, many lie dead. The Righ is nearly killed, saved only by the bloodthirsty sword that Dillon wields. The children narrowly evade death as well, saved only by Bronwen and her deadly lullabies. It was a grand way to set the stage for the final book to this epic series, furthered evidence of Forsyth's command of storytelling.

It seemed appropriate that the focus of this final book in the series would be on Iseult and Isabeau. As far as Iseult was concerned, her primary goal was to attain the loyalty of the Khan'cohban for the Righ. This caused the rise of an interesting internal struggle: where do her true loyalties lie? Lachlan had to release Iseult from her geas, her life debt, in order for her to be able to journey to the mountains. While on the journey there, she pondered whether or not she should remain in the mountains with her people or if she should return to Lachlan.

Of course everyone is wondering what Meghan's fate will be. If you would recall, she had made a pact with the swamp faeries to forfeit her life to them upon the return of the comet. I struggled with this as there was a part of me that didn't want Meghan to die, but then, she is God awful old and everyone has to go at some point. Indeed, there had been such a build up to this that if Meghan didn't end up making the ultimate sacrifice, it might have seemed anticlimactic. I will not spoil the story and reveal what happens there.

In the end, things were tied up quite nicely. The final battle was everything it was promised to be, worthy of the crescendo of attention that it received. One minor gripe I had with it was the delayed actions of Jay. Why didn't he just do what he did from the start? Still, I can't fault Forsyth too much for this. It is a flaw in many fantasy books-- for the sake of not making the battle too one sided, use of an inherent ability or magical power by a protagonist or their helper is put off for what is often a very nominal reason.

This series had the elements of a good series. The evil characters were not purely evil, the good characters were not purely good, the buildup to the end was handled well, the action was neither over or under done, and there was just enough mystery as to what would happen next to leave you wanting more. Needless to say, I am greatly looking forward to the trilogy of Rhiannon's Ride. It will be interesting to see if the consequences of not killing Maya have any impact.

THis book is GREAT i absoulutely LOVED IT. I couldn't put it down. I lost sleep. OMG it is SO good!!!!!!

The war with Tirsoilleir is over and its leader has sworn fealty to Lachlan Macquinn, the ruler of Eilenan. On May First on Beltane, the inhabitants are celebrating the pact of peace, a document ensuring that all of mankind and fairy abide by the terms of the treaty. During the merry making, the one race who didn't sign the pact infiltrates the castle and causes a bloodbath.

Lachlan swears vengeance on the sea-faery creatures, who need land and sea to live. The whole nation plans for war. Lachlan's wife Iseult travels to her father's people in the north to enlist their support for the upcoming battle and her twin sister the sorceress Isabeau councils Lachlan and gathers the forces of magic to use as a weapon against the enemy. When the battle finally takes place it's resolution takes place in the hearts of two men who see the folly of perpetrating a long held grievance.

Book Six of the Witches of Eileanan saga is every bit as good as it's predecessors. Readers will enjoy the harmonious relationships between human and fae as they work toward a common goal just as they will admire Isabeau who bears up to her many responsibilities admirably. The Fairgean, who are the antagonists of THE FATHOMLESS CAVES, are portrayed as a race who have legitimate reasons and grievance for going to war and come across as sympathetic figures. Kate Forsyth has written another rich and textured fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

I'm sorry to see this series ending. This last addition was a bit disappointing. Everything was closed off just a little too neatly. All potential love interest came together and all potential problems were solved. It just wasn't as interesting since it was completely predictable.