Fires of Azeroth (Morgaine Cycle) [Paperback]

C. J. Cherryh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1979 | Series: Morgaine Cycle

There was a star Gate in Azeroth marked by alien fires that Morgaine must seal. But Morgaine and Vanye have brought devastation to the peaceful land. For the hordes of Shiuan were on their heels, determined to conquer a new land for themselves and to avenge their lost planet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cherryh is the best writer of this sort of adventure tale since C.L. Moore and Leigh Bracket....Any reader who is willing to become lost in an alternate reality will find much to enjoy." -The Washington Post This fantasy-adventure story will satisfy any reader's wish for action and excitement." -The Milwaukee Journal "For those who have read GATE OF IVREL and WELL OF SHIUAN, it is sufficient to say that this finally concludes the trilogy, wraps up all the loose ends, and in the process is better than either of the earlier books. -Fantasiae --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: DAW (June 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886773237
• ISBN-13: 978-0886773236
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,965,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written sf and fantasy for publication since 1975...but I've written a lot longer than that. I have a background in Mediterranean archaeology, Latin, Greek, that sort of thing; my hobbies are travel, photography, planetary geology, physics, pond-building for koi...I run a marine tank, can plumb most anything, and I figure-skate.

I believe in the future: I'm an optimist for good reason---I've studied a lot of history, in which, yes, there is climate change, and our species has been through it. We've never faced it fully armed with what we now know, and if we play our cards right, we'll use it as a technological springboard and carry on in very interesting ways.

I also believe a writer owes a reader a book that has more than general despair to spread about: I write about clever, determined people who don't put up with situations, not for long, anyway: people who find solutions inspire me.

My personal websites and blog: http://www.cherryh.com
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore
http://www.closed-circle.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TENSION ... that makes you beg for more., January 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Fires of Azeroth (Morgaine Cycle) (Paperback)

This whole series, consisting of "Gate of Ivrel", "Well of Shiuan", "Fires of Azeroth", and "Exile's Gate", is my favorite of any author's, and I've read A LOT.

Cherryh's style is clean and dry, but at the same time very intense and passionate. Instead of using flowery words and melodrama to spoon-feed emotion to the reader, she uses common words and short, almost aggressive phrasing. The tension and passion and danger are drawn with a sharpness and clarity that is almost painful. A deceptively simple word or glance between these characters, whether friends or enemies, will at times bring that tension to a breathless peak, but without the expected release afterwards.

This is not an easy, exciting Harlequin-esque roller-coaster of peaks and valleys. This is a sharp ridge on a bare mountain with an occasional rock slide.

This is not a graceful Puccini aria that makes you want to weep and feel melancholy. This is avant-garde jazz where a single painfully high note is drawn out in the background for so long that you find yourself begging for a release that you fear may never come but then again do you really want it to?

It's exhausting, but in the best sense.

And about the 4th time I read the series, I found that it was funny too! It is, of course, a very dry humor, but it's there. And not a joke or eccentric comedic bit player to be seen.

It's easy to fall in love with these characters. They're very different from each other, but they're both excruciatingly familiar!

Cherryh creates the perfect male characters for a straight female audience. Cherryh's men are the kind many of us would create for ourselves. (Which is very different from the men male writers create.) Cherryh's men are capable of great valor and honor, but also of very deep emotion and affection, and self-reflection.

Also, her men often feel strong love and affection and respect for other men, without there being any sexual element to it. This is not only unique, but very difficult. The ability to create tension between male characters who love each other without it reading like sexual tension or a Sunday night "family drama" is something I rarely see. I appreciate it when I do.

My circle of friends has a shorthand way of expressing our reaction to this exhausting mix of physical danger and emotional tension, just by groaning "AAAAAHHHHGHHHHGHGHHHHHG!!!". If one of us starts off a conversation this way, another might say "Are you dying, or did you just finish a Cherryh?"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Character-driven fiction of the VERY highest quality . . ., May 28, 2007

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fires of Azeroth (Morgaine Cycle) (Paperback)

Wow -- what a climax! The final extended battle scene in this third volume of the trilogy, the summing up of all the threads of plot and character that began in Andur-Kursh months ago -- or maybe thousands of years ago -- all are brought together here. And Cherryh's skill in laying out the scene is such that you don't know what's going to happen until it does. Where the first volume was set in a land of mountains and crags, and the second in a drowning, swampy world, Azeroth is a land of vast forest and vaster plains. The qhal in this world have become the best they could be over the centuries, guarding the forests and the villages of men, laying down laws that ensure peace, and protecting the Gates of their world. Unfortunately, this also makes them difficult to persuade of the need for violence to deal with the scores of thousands of invaders from Hiuaj and Shiun who came through the Gate from their dying home world at the end of the last volume. Vanye is separated again from Morgaine, to whom he is bound by an unbreakable oath, though it's clear now that his regard for his mistress is far stronger than any oath he could take. The character of Roh, Vanye's cousin, inhabited now by an ancient, shape-changing qhal, is also developed with great adeptness and considerable sympathy. Finally, the crescendo of the final chapters is nearly unmatched in fantasy or science fiction, even in Cherryh's other works.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fires of Azeroth, April 13, 2010

By 

L. Tallent "readitall" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fires of Azeroth (Mass Market Paperback)

Good science fiction book that supposedly has ties to the creation of the WarCraft Gaming series.