Customer Reviews

Foxmask: Children of the Light Isles, Book Two

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved the first two volumes of the Sevenwaters series. I loved Wolfskin. Of Foxmask, I have the same opinion as I did of Child of the Prophesy - very readable, with well-portrayed characters and a good plot... but it could have been pulled together better.

One mildly disappointing surprise was the slip in the author's treatment of dialogue. I've never known her approach to be less than crisp and poignantly effective. In Foxmask, however, there were instances when a group of exhausted, dirty warriors - good folk, but simple - would be sitting around a fire. Suddenly, one would rise and pronounce a speech fit for podiums and marble halls. Declarations of love, too, seemed somewhat over-dramatized - which shadowed the fact that those scenes really were dramatic and un-trivial. Some of the more significant emotional moments seemed a tad rushed, while some of the inconsequential ones ran a little loose and lengthy.

Nonetheless, the story is still the magical, intriguing, and utterly human tale we have come to expect from this fine writer. It is steeped in history and legend. If our world's mythology had not actually held some of these tales, it very easily could have. Nothing here feels foreign or forbidding.

For those who liked Wolfskin, I will say that the story of Eyvind and Somerled is, indeed, continued and concluded to perfect satisfaction. However, the main focus is on Eyvind's and Nessa's daughter, Creidhe, who follows Margaret's son across the sea, to the Lost Isles, where Somerled might, or might not, have ended his journey. There is quite a complicated web, here, of friendship, abandonment, mislaid trust, dangerous assumptions, ambition, and love. It is impossible to predict, from the first, the pattern of the story. Like life, it takes wholly un-looked-for twists. Because of that, the books is quite difficult to put down until you've turned the last page. I do recommend it, highly.

At the top of the world, Norseman Eyvind met and married local Celtic seer Princess Nessa, but the couple and their loyal followers had to struggle to survive the betrayal of his best friend Somerled (see WOLFSKIN). Several years have passed since Somerled was exiled.

Widow Margaret raised her son Thorvald. He learns that his biological father was not his mother's deceased husband, but instead is the traitor Somerled. Needing to learn more about his patriarchal heritage, Thorvald goes on a quest to find his sire while wondering if he might be a murderous chip off the old block.

Sam the fisherman takes him to look for his father, but at sea both are shocked to find a stowaway, the daughter of Eyvind and Nessa, Creidhe, who loves Thorvald. When they are shipwrecked on an island beyond the known world, Asgrim, leader of the Seal People, provides hospitality to the trio. The tribe has terrible troubles as a malevolent force is killing their newborns. Everyone feels Asgrim's son caused the curse when he kidnapped the prophet the Foxmask. Believing that Asgrim is Somerled, Thorvald joins their cause not knowing what the islanders plan to do to Creidhe.

This sequel starts fast with the sea voyage, decelerates to introduce several subplots on the island of the Seal People, but then picks up speed when the various storylines converge. Thorvald is an intriguing soul struggling to find his identity. Creidhe is his key causing Thorvald to choose between his father and the young woman he loves. By moving to another locale, introducing a new tribe and the next generation, Juliet Marillier furbishes a fresh tale in her medieval Nordic world.

Harriet Klausner

"Foxmask" is the last of the duology that Juliet Marillier wrote concerning the mixing of the roaming Saxon warriors and a race of island people known only as the folk. The first book "Wolfskin" was about a warrior named Eyvind who found out that telling the truth and being faithful to the ideal of truth was more important than blind faith in those you trusted. In that book Eyvind ended up with a young priestess of the folk named Nessa, and in the end cast out his blood brother Somerled, who had turned the islands into a blood bath of war between the two races, to the sea to meet his fate.

But Somerled left something behind-a child growing in the belly of his brother's widow, who had loved him, but had known that he was selfish and somewhat evil. This child grew up to be called Thorvald. Around his 18th birthday his mother gives him a letter Somerled wrote to her upon his exile to the seas, and Thorvald, feeling cursed by the horrible acts his father committed, heads out on a boat to find him, thinking he may have found far off islands to live on.

But with him on the boat sneaks Creidhe, Eyvind and Nessa's daughter who has loved Thorvald forever, though she knows he isn't perfect. The two, along with Sam (who owns the boat) land upon strange islands, which are devoid of children, and all the men take place in a yearly hunt to find a child who is the only salvation they could ever have from the forces ruining their lives. But this child id protected by a valiant keeper. Thorvald thinks his father is the ruthless leader of the island people, but he can't be sure, and while he works to impress the man who may be his sire Creidhe is about to find out exactly what is the truth in the strange world she stumbled into...

This isn't my favorite of Marillier's books, but in terms of technical storytelling it may be her best work yet. The writing is haunting, the suspense is well played out, and the ending is something you would never see coming. I enjoyed this, and it made me want to read more of the author's works.

Four point five stars.

I picked up Foxmask in an airport in Brussels about half an hour before my flight home. I had never heard of Juliet Marillier or her Wolfskin series, so I had no idea what I was about to read.

The story of Foxmask is simple enough. It is set in the Light Isles (aka the Orkney Islands, just northeast of Scotland) and the pseudo-fantasy "Lost Isles" in about the 9th or 10th century. We are introduced to the charming, young and beautiful Creidhe, who possesses an exceptional talent for weaving. Throughout the story, she works on a seemingly endless piece called "the journey," which is like a picture-story book of her whole life. As she encounters new adventures, she adds them to her weaving, never knowing if it is the Gods who command her to weave, or if what she weaves can change the future.

Creidhe, about 17 when the story begins, has been a lifelong friend of Thorvald, a few years her senior. He has hair like fire and a temper to match, and has never quite appreciated Creidhe's constant companionship. When we meet him, he is immature and petulant, much like a 9th century teenager who is coming of age and has yet to find his purpose.

When Thorvald's mother hands him a note written by his father before he was born, he finds the purpose he has long sought. Thorvald goes into a rage when he reads the letter, since it reveals his father was not the honorable person he thought, but a murderer who had been exiled long ago by Creidhe's father. Thorvald, sensing a chance to change his destiny, goes out in search of his long-lost father, who was exiled to the Lost Isles before he learned of his son's birth.

Creidhe, partially out of a sense of responsibility and partially for love, decides to go with Thorvald, and stows away on his boat as it makes it perilous journey northward. It is in these intimate moments of danger that Marillier's writing is at its best: she describes the vomit, the cramped quarters, and the constant strain on Thorvald and his companion (Sam) as they fight the raging seas in the "Sea Dove."

The Sea Dove eventually makes a desperate landfall on a mysterious island, which the lost travelers later discover is the Isle of Storms, home to the Long Knife people. Thorvald and Sam are separated from Creidhe, and Thorvald finds his calling leading a dispirited group of Long Knife men in preparation for "the Hunt," a mysterious annual journey to the neighboring Isle of Clouds. To restore peace to their people and prevent their newborn children from being snatched away by some awful sorcery, the Long Knife people must journey to the Isle of Clouds, search for Foxmask (a powerful seer who can take on animal attributes), and return him to his people, the Unspoken.

Throughout all of this, Thorvald comes to learn he is a natural leader and whips the men into shape, and Criedhe journeys to the Isle of Clouds and ends up in the care of a strange but capable man, who feels she is a goddess that has washed up on his shores.

What I like about Marillier's story is how none of her characters (with the exception of the unimaginative bad guy Asgrim) are static; they change dramatically and believably, and by the final page they have all learned valuable lessons. The lessons learned are not moral, but personal: Thorvald learns who his father is, and that he's not such a bad guy after all. Criedhe is forced to grow out of her sheltered naivete and is transformed from a lovesick little girl to a woman wise in the ways of the world. Even the minor characters, like Sam, become battle hardened. There is even an unexpected love story and a deviation from the norm: the guy does not, in fact, get the girl at the end. At least, not the guy I expected.

Yet despite these character evolutions, so carefully and deliberately wrought, Marillier's overall style failed to capture my imagination. Her language was typically uninspiring and the dialogue predictable, though often enough her descriptions of feelings and expressions were well written. However, when I reached the last word, I could not help asking, "So what? What's the point?" When it was all said and done, it seemed like little more than a love story, painfully delayed though eventually brought to a happy conclusion. I, for one, want a book that will make me think on greater things.

I've been an avid Marillier fan since I first picked up her book Daughter of the Forest, and I loved Wolfskin, the first of this series.

That saying, Foxmask was kind of a disappointment.

Marillier has always had strong female characters, but in this book, it almost seems formulalic. Girl A, beloved by her family, has some connection to the earth/old magic via healing/telepathy/spinning, is forced by extraordinary circumstances to choose a life unlike the one that she thought she'd have and marry Boy C, while Boy B (Stalking Horse Boy) is left in the dust.

It's the same scenario in each of her novels, and although Marillier depicts each one beautifully in a way that any lesser novelist would simply make repetitive, sadly, Foxmask isn't exactly the best example of it. I found the heroine to be slighly annoying and vapid, lacking a lot of the strength that Marillier's previous heroines had. It's still wonderfully written, and fans of the Light Isles series should still enjoy it. However- definitely not in the 'reread' category as were her beginning two novels and Wolfskin.

Beautifully written story picking up 18 years after Wolfskin. In this novel, Marillier devils in the lives and relationships of the grown children. Marillier is a true artist as a writer, and even though it slightly, only slightly, lacked the emotional roller coaster found, and therefore expected in all her novels, it is still a novel that cannot be missed.

I have always enjoyed Juliet Marillier's work and Foxmask is no exeception. Although I did not read Wolfskin, the prequel to Foxmask, I had absolutely no trouble getting into the book at all.

The book starts at a steady pace, introducing us to the main characters of the rash and not entirely likeable Thorvald, the charming Creidhe, the sweet and honest Sam, and Eyvind and Nessa who were the leads in Wolfskin.

The story is predictable at times and I could tell what the ending of the story would be like. However, the book was still really enjoyable. Especially with characters like Keeper and Small One, who lent some poignant moments to the story.

Marillier never fails to provide her readers with an exhilirating adventure, and enough romance, in her character-driven books. And for that, Foxmask definitely deserves 5 stars!

It all started when Thorvald read the letter holding the long-concealed truth. His father was not the venerable, slain chieftain Ulf who led the expedition and settling of the Light Isles, but Somerled, his hated brother who'd been banished by his blood brother Eyvind from the islands before Thorvald was born. Driven by the anger of his mother Margaret's deceit and the intense need to find his father, Thorvald plots to sail with his friend Sam on Somerled's same course. The two friends aren't the only to sneak away on the journey, however. Creidhe, the daughter of prietess princess Nessa and Wolfskin Eyvind also saw Thorvald storm off. Without asking or being told, she knows exactly what Thorvald will do. For she loves him, and has been his best friend since they were young. It doesn't matter that Thorvald doesn't look at her that way. Creidhe has the faith that one day he will come around to her domestic charms she so values. Besides, he needs her help. And it may also have to do with the small flicker of rightness she feels deep down that this is her path.

I think of all Juliet Marillier`s books this one had me from the first sentence. After being left with that sad, lonely image of Somerled and the heartbreaking position of Margaret at the end of Wolfskin, I've never been quite as anxious to open the next book in a Marillier series. The need to find closure with some characters and catch up with others could not be when I get around to it, but immediately. Only winning characters cause this kind of urgency, and as it turns out, seeing these characters find happiness and redemption was the most rewarding part of Foxmask. That and the well-written, suspenseful plot, which had me throwing out all my expectations in turn and biting my nails at the sheer impossibility of the decisions Thorvald, and especially Creidhe, are forced to make. Choosing your love or your friends at the death of the other, or killing your countrymen over and over to protect your kin and live a solitary life, or choosing your family over everything you know - these are far worse than your standard win-lose situations and resulted in strong character development from both Thorvald and Creidhe's characters, who went from childish to incredibly mature. While I was in denial over how things would turn out and would've wanted it different, I had the sense that things ended as they should, maddening misunderstandings and sorely missed chances aside. And this is exactly what I've come to expect from a Juliet Marillier novel.

Unlike the first book of this series, This book was alot more to my liking. It was truley an amazing experience.

Thorvald, at the age of 18 years, has just been told about his true parentage. He immediately sets on a mission to find his father, with the help of his friend, Sam, an experienced sailor. What Thorvald doesn't expect is that his other friend, Creidhe, stows away on the boat and isn't found until it's too late to turn back. So the three journey together where they come across the Long Knife People. After hearing their story, Thorvald and Sam decide to stay on and help. Thorvald also believes that Asgrim, the leader of the Long Knife People is his father, so he decides to become a great warrior to make him proud. What he doesn't realize until too late is that Asgrim had other plans for Creidhe and when those plans go awry, she is thought to be dead. Instead, Cheidhe is on the Isle of Clouds, the exact place where the Long Knife People fight year after year to find Foxmask, the seer of their enemy. Thorvald makes it his mission to train the men to become true warriors and return Foxmask to his rightful place. On his journey, Thorvald learns about power, hope, sorrow, love and the importance of family.

Not being an avid fan of fantasy, I was a bit apprehensive when I first got this book, it being over 500 pages. After getting through the beginning, I couldn't put the book down. Thorvald's journey is fascinating. Juliet Marillier has a way of describing characters and places. With all the twists and turns in the novel, it was hard to predict what would happen next. I went from loving a character to hating them. This was the first book I've read by Juliet Marillier, but now I can't wait to read the rest. I'd recommend Foxmask to fantasy readers and nonreaders alike. I thought that this book was amazing and I can't wait to read more by Marillier.