Customer Reviews

The Gathering Storm (Crown of Stars, Vol. 5)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Gathering Storm is the fifth novel in the Crown of Stars series, following Child of Flame. In the previous volume, Prince Bayan has been killed by Quman sorcery, but Prince Sanglant has defeated the Quman hosts, capturing Bulkezu, and now has taken his army to the east. King Henry has been possessed by a daimone and Sister Rosvita has been imprisoned in a dungeon, but Hathui escapes the plotters. Liathano walks the spheres, learning the truth of her mother and meeting Sanglant's grandfather and mother. Alain has met Adica and witnessed her death in the great weaving, but has been swallowed by the white fires of the crowns. Ivar dreams of Alain as he and his friends escape through the tunnels to elsewhere.

In this novel, two Eagles, and a young aspirant, meet in an old Dariyan waystation and exchange information. Hanna and Ernst have come from Osterburg and Hathui from Darre. When they leave, Ernst travels back to Princess Theophanu in Osterburg, Hanna goes to Henry's court in Darre, and Hathui travels to Sanglant in Ungria.

In Wendar, Theophanu holds Osterburg as regent while Henry is pursuing imperial ambitions in Aosta, but has few forces available to her and is beset with uprisings in Varre and civil war in Salia.

In Aosta, Henry and his new queen, Adelheid, have overcome the rebels in the north, but still struggle against riots, Arethousan invaders and Jinna bandits in the south. Hanna has been sequestered by Hugh, but is able to make contact with Rosvita's clerics. When a severe earthquake occurs, they use the distraction to rescue Rosvita and then flee to the Convent of St. Ekatarina, but with Hugh in pursuit.

In Ungria, Sanglant, together with Sapientia and Blessing, is moving east to the great grasslands hunting griffen feathers and sorcerers, with Bulkezu as his guide. While only three years old, Blessing is growing very rapidly in physical maturity, but not emotionally.

In the north, Stronghand is invading Alba and thinking Empire. Alain returns through the crowns from his sojourn in the past, grieving for Adica. Stronghand and Alain begin to perceive each other's thoughts once more.

Soon Anne and the other sleepers will begin the great weaving to forever sunder the Ashioi from the world. Can none stop them?

This volume was a long time coming, but well worth the wait. According to Elliott, the story just refused to stay small. Like the previous volume, this novel is almost 900 pages long. Hopefully, the next, and last, volume in the series will not take quite as long. Just remember, Tolkien worked on the Lord of Rings trilogy for decades; does anyone want to complain about that?

Recommended for all those Elliott fans who have waited patiently and for anyone who likes large-scale fantasy tales of war and intrigue.

-Arthur W. Jordin

The land of the elf-like Aoi was cast out from the earth into the aether with powerful spells in the distant past. Now the time for its return is fast approaching, and a cabal of sorcerers is determined to do anything necessary to ensure that the spell is renewed to keep the Aoi away, including controlling King Henry via possession. Prince Sanglant has led his army to the far lands of the griffins and centaurs to find allies with the necessary magic to free his father and confront the cabal led by Skopos Anne. After a long absence (that seemed quite short to her), Sanglant's wife Liath returns from the aether with new knowledge about her magical heritage and a grim determination to stop Anne's disastrous plan. But time grows short, and the political chaos that has descended on Henry's kingdoms makes everything more difficult. Wendar and Varre are falling apart under bickering rivals as he is off pursuing conquests in other lands. This leaves a door open for the lizard-like Eika invasion led by Stronghand - who plans not to raid and plunder, but to rule. Stronghand has a secondary mission as well, one that just might hold the key to surviving the coming cataclysm: to find the much-persecuted Alain now that their strange psychic bond has returned.

THE GATHERING STORM is the fifth volume of the Elliott's wrist-bending Crown of Stars fantasy series. It is not a stand-alone read; new readers will definitely want to start at the beginning with the first book, KING'S DRAGON. Fans of the series might want to skim through previous books before diving into this one, because there's not much in the way of a recap provided. I'm not a novice at reading long fantasy series, but it had been a year or so since I read the fourth book, CHILD OF FLAME, and I was feeling a little lost among the multitude of story lines.

This is a fascinatingly complex world, complete with religions, magic systems, and several different races of beings. Elliott could easily write other books set in this world without exhausting its possibilities. In fact, there is so much detail and such a large cast that at times it gets a little overwhelming to keep track of, especially without a character guide. It's also hard to see the significance of some of the minor plot threads and while they might make more sense in the sixth and final book, I found myself getting a little bored with some of them. Elliott has generally done very well in developing complex main characters in this series - both heroes and villains have mixed character traits and motivations. But while a couple of the characters develop and grow in this book, several of the other main characters seem to regress into shallowness.

Long series tend to get a bit bloated as they progress, and at almost a thousand pages, this is no exception. However, for the most part the plot advances steadily along without bogging down. But after such a long, patient build-up, the climax feels rushed. Still, all in all, I would recommend this imaginative and complex series to fantasy readers who aren't daunted by hefty, multi-volume series.

I've followed the Crown of Stars series from the beginning, and have enjoyed the world Elliott draws and most of the characters tremendously.

And so, it was a pleasure to immerse myself in the world of the Crown of Stars once again. From that perspective, I appreciated the length of the book.

More critically speaking, the book could either have been much shorter - though I understand the need to weave the various plot strands together - or the series could have finally been put to rest with this volume (however sad I'd be that it's over). Truly, can't imagine what happens in the final volume, other than a denouement for the climactic events of this one.

I've never - and still don't - seen the relevance of some of the characters that the author lavishes attention on, such as Ivar, his friends, and the 'heresy' they espouse. Hanna (though I like her much better than the heretics) is something of a red herring too. Perhaps it will at last come clear in the final volume.

On the other hand - and I disagree with those who compare her to Margaret Weis, Melanie Rawn, et al - Elliott does some characters wonderfully well. Her evil ones are among some of the best I've come across, if for no other reason that they feel so justified in their actions you sometimes wonder whether they are evil at all (of course results speak for themselves). Hugh and Antonia are great in this sense. And Alain has to be one of the most attractive, 'saintly' characters (without being a prig), I've come across in a long time. Gotta love Liath & Sanglant too.

'Nuff said. Hope the next volume comes out SOON, and that it's the LAST.

The ancient spell that exiled the Aoi from the planet is failing to hold. Thus the elven horde is expected to return soon, which means havoc and perhaps the final pandemic cataclysm. Also coming back to her home is Liath, after learning to use her powers while being away for a week in her time, but four years on her home world. While she was gone, her husband Prince Sanglant has raised an army and has tried to obtain the griffins as an ally in the upcoming war.

As Sanglant and Liath want to rediscover one another, the future of humanity will not allow them to linger together. Separately they must abort the efforts of mathematici Anne and Hugh and their supporters from recasting the original spell that displaced the Aoi over a millennium ago as success means most likely planetary devastation at a level never seen before.

The fifth epic tale in the "Crown of Stars" sextet, THE GATHERING STORM, is a complex exciting fantasy, but is also difficult to follow especially for newcomers. The action-packed story line includes numerous subplots and a cast in the DeMille numbers. Still, fans of the series will gain much pleasure from Kate Elliot's latest effort as the key players struggle in their own way with the almost certain end of the world.

Harriet Klausner

The fifth volume in the `Crown of Stars' saga, The Gathering storm, has been a long time coming (duly noted by the apologetic author) but the delay has been worth it. We find ourselves trailing two Eagles, Hanna and Hathui, the former riding to join Sanglant and Sapientia who have gone to Jinn trailing Bulkezu as their prisoner, the latter heading towards King Henry who has been possessed, the Skopos and the insidious Hugh. Amongst this the small fervent band of `heretics', numbering Sigfrid, Ivar and the beautiful Baldwin amongst them end up at the monastry where Alain is desperately attempting to forget who he is and seek peaceful obscurity.
It is 733, Prince Bayan and Margrave Judith are dead, Prince Ekkhard has now married the new margrave and all of Novaria is under constant siege and assailment from all sides. King Henry steps ever closer towards becoming emperor, attempting to achieve the glory of Taillafer, but is becoming increasingly controlled, suspicious and removed frm his subjects as he seeks to unite Varre and Wendar. We focus on events are Ivar and company struggle to understand where they lost three years, watch as Hanna rescues Ivar's half-sister, Rosvita, and flees with Sister Obligatia away from Hugh.
The bulk of the novel is given over to Sanglant's `taming' of the griffin, Bulkezu's death (surprisingly casually handled given the import ascribed to him early on), Liath's return and their subsequent use of the Crowns to race west to confront Anne who is using Henry's army to conquer all lands that possess what are in fact, henges in order to recreate the cataclysm and allow the Cursed Ones back into the world. Several sub-plots weave their separate paths: Alain and the Skrolin, Brother Zaccharias and his dicspla as a mathematica, Hanna and Sister Rosvita, the love triangle of Anna, Thiemo and Matto and many more besides, all the time shadowed by the revolutionary Eika, Stronghand who has conquered Alba and Presbyter Hugh whose insidious perfidy threatens far more than initially thought...
The early focus leans much towards the reconiliation of preceived `heresy', Elliott choosing to introduce the age old dilemma that widespread use of science can only reduce the spiritual power of the church and this latest installment moving more and more towards a religious commentary where inevitable parallels are intimated. Making heavy use of `portals' to get around with inconsistent time serves to speed up the action considerably as we track the momentous events that lead us towards the final volume. Elliot's series is, perhaps, not quite on a technical par with Jordan, or even Goodkind, but the depth of imagination rivals Donaldson. The unfortunate point is that the complexity of character and plot and the length of time it has taken Elliott to produce this fifth novel means that, to get the very best out of it, you need to reread the preceding novel, otherwise names and places and plots become faintly vague and difficult to recollect. Nevertheless, this is another excellent installment and a must for any fan of the genre

My first disappointment with `Gathering Storm' was the lack of character guide or re-cap of the previous books. It's been a while between drinks and, if you're anything like me and read widely and often in genre fiction, returning to a series where each of the previous books is complex and very, very fat, a brief reminder of just what has gone before is kinda necessary. Sure, it's easy to keep track of some of the narrative arcs - Alain and Stronghand, Sanglant and Liath - but other threads and character's political, religious and familial alliances are a little fuzzily played out. Some are just too minor to remember, but oft times it's hard to work out whether they might be important in the context they are mentioned in. After a while it's just too hard recalling exactly who Prince Ekkehard is as against Prince Balan, or Lavinia from Lavrentia or Theophanu or Sabella.
Of course Tolkien has a lot too answer for in terms of world-building and pushing out multiple story arcs to drive the narrative on, but the reality of that series was (1) it was a darn slight shorter and (2) it only really followed three groups of characters. George R.R. Martin's series - equally large and equally medievalist - has chapters focusing on one character's viewpoint at a time and fairly consistently at that. There are ways to simplify the complexity of multiple characters and stories.
Good though this series has been, this was a bit of a struggle. I hoped that everything would make sense eventually (it did), but it was uncertain whether it ever would for much of this long novel. And there is just way too much dialogue, much of it used in an explanatory fashion rather than for real character insight or as a building block towards some emotional release - although the handful of such peaks in this book aren't too shabby.
All in all, here's hoping that the final book in this series steers itself back to a simpler, more direct narration, one with more emotional impact and more time invested in the characters rather than in trying to cover as much plot as possible.
In fact here's to more fantasy fiction that doesn't continually cut between the adventures of many characters in different places, but that follows a linear fashion with just a few characters and doesn't take a half dozen or more books the size of bricks to complete its journey. I like long stories but I am getting a little tired of waiting to see the conclusion and of endless fantasy series that start promisingly and then fade out. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth starting a series - I might shuttle of this mortal coil before ever seeing its completion!
All in all - the previous four in this series were pretty darn fine books. This may have just been a case of needing to tie a lot together so I remain excited and still looking forward to the conclusion - hopefully not too far away!!??

I'm not a big fan of the long, drawn-out multi-multi-volume fantasy epic, but the first two novels in this series drew me in enough that I'm slugging through each subsequent novel. Time for the story to be wrapped up, though. Elliott has created an interesting world, although her parallel story lines told from the point of views of multiple different chracters can get distracting at times and has a tendency to interrupt the flow of the novel (granted the technique was used successfully by Tolkien but here she's juggling nine or ten different, albeit intertwined, storylines). The series seems to be losing its passion, too, as it continues to unfold. The italicized shared consciousness/dream sequences are used a little too liberally for my taste--they feel too artificial. Although decent, this was not my favorite volume of the series. Alain's story has become the most interesting of the lot; Liath and Sanglant's relationship seems more perfunctory than anything now and makes less sense to me as the story progresses (although I'm still hoping they live happily ever after...); and I feel like the villains in this volume have become caricatures of evil. I will likely stick with the series until the bitter end, although I'm really hoping for resolution in the next volume, and soon (and hopefully in less than 900 pp.!)

In a time where too many writers cannot continue the momentum of a well-started series, Kate Elliott continues to write excellently. She creates a fantastic world that draws from many different medieval legends-it is only too obvious the tremendous amount of research that went into this novel. The conclusion to the novel is stunning as well, tying together many loose ends in the series. As other reviewers have written, though, it is difficult to keep track of the different characters in the book. I would highly recommend reading the other books in the series before picking this one up. My only complaint is that I need to wait two years before the final novel comes out!

It's a relief to read a fantasy epic that actually seems to be staying on topic. After reading the ominous pre-release previews for a Feast of Crows, and enjoying the reviews for Crossroads of Twilight far more than the book itself, its a relief to find a long series that keeps to the same characters for its duration.

I fear it's not fair to compare book 10 with book 5, or even book 5 with book 3. The bottom line: keep this series to 6 books or less, or it too will devolve from series to "damn series."

The cataclysm long foretold has shaken the world. King Henry's obsession with uniting the warring kingdoms of Wendar and Varre has left his people destitute and vulnerable to attack. As earthly and supernatural forces gather to overthrow all Henry has fought for, Alain and Liath come to realise their twin destinies. Between them they hold the key to secrets which could yet save Henry's realm, but even they may be powerless should the Cursed Ones return.

It has been quite a while since I read a series and thought "damn, it's over!" at the end. The author has built a vast number of interesting characters but, despite the number, one is able to know and relate to each. Each of the characters has their own remarkable flaws and imperfections, and you actaully have opportunities to sympathize with each throughout the series (even the remarkably "evil" ones you think you would never agree with). Unlike the Robert Jordan WoT series which seems to go on and on and on without resolution, Elliot has squeezed a sweeping epic into a (mere) 7 books, and I found myself disappointed when I finished the last of the third book. Fortunately, there are enough open issues, unanswered questions and unresolved conflicts in the end that Elliot could forseeably write another series to "fill in the blanks". I, for one, sincerely hope to see more from this author in the very near future.