Forgotten Truth (Truth, Book 3) [Paperback]

Dawn Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2003

Third in the extraordinary series featuring Alissa, a young woman seduced by the power of magic.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Apt and eager Alissa is the only student of the last surviving master of magic. She easily shifts from human to raku, or beast counterpart, and has learned many advanced magics on her own. One afternoon, a tiny miscalculation sends her back in time 400 years within the Hold in which she lives. Now it is peopled by names and faces from stories the master has told of his and the Hold's history. As Alissa and a new, young teacher search for how to send her back, another problem arises: the primal living force behind her raku form is surfacing more often and without summoning. It is just a matter of time before Alissa will be overcome. Her transformation to raku will be permanent. It will be as if she had never existed. Cook's solid third novel about Alissa (after First Truth and Hidden Truth, both 2002) stands very well alone, showing as it does how many characters who exist in both times have grown and changed--or haven't. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Characters to cheer for. (Patricia Briggs)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ace (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441011179
• ISBN-13: 978-0441011179
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting variation, September 18, 2005

By 

Vanessa E. Lee (Cincinnati, OH, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forgotten Truth (Truth, Book 3) (Paperback)

Forgotten Truth, the third book in the Truth series, has little to do with the first two books in the series. The plot that dominated those two books was resolved at the end of the second book, and Hidden Truth has the characters pick up with their lives and then throws unrelated challenges at them. It is really more of a sequel than part of a compact series that follows one main plotline throughout.

In Forgotten Truth, Alissa, the main character of the Truth novels, is transported back in time approximately four hundred years to a time when the keep is thriving instead of abandoned. There, she meets Masters she has only heard about and encounters a much younger version of Lodesh, the not-quite-ghost she awakened in the second book.

Though it does not really continue the plot of First Truth and Hidden Truth, Forgotten Truth is still engaging and something that fans of the previous two novels will likely enjoy. Here, the reader gets to see Alissa mature some and become more confident in her abilities as both human and raku. Readers are also introduced to many new characters that they will, in a way already be familiar with from the first two books as Alissa meets the students, Keepers, and Masters of the past.

Cook does an admirable job weaving the plot, focusing mostly on Alissa and what she is learning and doing as she attempts both to find her way back to her time, but also giving time to Strell, Useless, and Lodesh as they try to figure out what happened to Alissa and how to get her back. The jumps from one time to another are never jarring, and they never leave the reader wondering too much, though they do leave some immediate things unresolved to keep interest. It is a difficult balance to maintain, and Cook does it well.

The returning characters in Forgotten Truth have mostly reached the point where they're rather stagnant and there is little development for any of them other than Alissa. They still have the depth that they had achieved in the prior novels, but they do not change much during the course of this one. However, there are several new characters introduced, and they are all also delightfully well-rounded, dynamic characters who are a lot of fun to get to know. It is the characters that Alissa meets in the past that keeps the book from becoming simply another "Lost in the wrong time" book.

Though the general plot has certainly been done before, Cook manages to keep it fresh and interesting through the characters and by tying all the events that Alissa experiences back into the stories and events from the previous two books. It isn't so much what happens that keeps it interesting, but more what the reader gets to see and who the reader gets to meet.

In many ways, Forgotten Truth is better and more exciting than certainly First Truth and to some extent Hidden Truth. Anyone who enjoyed the first two books in the series will like this one and newcomers to the series won't find themselves quite as lost as they would starting with the second book, though they will miss a lot of what is being referred to.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful blend of romance, action and wizardry, November 26, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forgotten Truth (Truth, Book 3) (Paperback)

Life is never dull when Alissa, a human Master who can turn into a raku, is around. She is the hope that the Master line will be able to go on and she is studying under the auspices of the Hold's Master Talon-Toeca, otherwise known as Useless. Also living at the hold is the commoner Strell who is forbidden to court Alissa, and Lodesh, a keeper who four centuries ago was the warden of the now abandoned city of Ese' Nowoer. The revived ghost also wants to court Alissa.

One day while Alissa is studying with the Master, she accidentally transports herself back four hundred years into the past when the hold was filled with keepers. Master Redal-Sam tries to make her transition into the past easier for he fears she will not be able to return to her present. Alissa turns the hold into a madhouse as she makes one mistake after another. Eventually, she thinks of it as her second home but she can't forget the love she feels for Strell who is willing to do whatever is necessary to bring her back to her own time.

This is the third "truth" in this enchanting series (see FIRST TRUTH and HIDDEN TRUTH) and it is a delightful blend of romance, action and wizardry. Dawn Cook will appeal to readers of Robin McKinley and Patricia Briggs, authors who write romantic fantasies for adult entertainment as well as for high school students. There are many threads left dangling in this novel so that readers know there is at least one more truth to follow.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey Into the Past, November 25, 2003

By 

"castledreamergirl" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forgotten Truth (Truth, Book 3) (Paperback)

While shifting from her raku form to her human form, Alissa is caught up in a mistake, accidentally sending her self in to the past. She soon realizes has been somehow transport nearly four hundred years back when the Hold was filled with students, Masters and Keepers, not to mention when a certain blonde, green-eyed Keeper was around, pining after her affection. Despite the fact that life was in a Hold filled with people was great, Alissa cannot forget about her life back in her own time with her love, Strell. Yet Alissa finds it hard to leave when she is constantly surrounded be friendly people of both the Hold and Ese' Nawoer. If she can't return to her own time, Alissa risks turning feral forever. Filled with romance, suspense and even more magic than before, Forgotten Truth is a fitting sequel to First Truth and Hidden Truth. :o)