Glenraven [Mass Market Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author), Holly Lisle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Glenraven | Publication Date: September 1997

Sophie had lost a child. She was looking for peace and rest. She didn't know what it was, but Glenraven promised her that. JayJay had bad luck with husbands -- a three-time loser now, all she wanted was to be a million miles away from her small North Carolina town.

Glenraven seemed to be an Alpine principality somewhere in the neighborhood of northern Italy -- according to the unique guidebook advertising Glenraven's charms, obscure, almost non-traversable Alpine passages constituted the only way in. But in reality it was a magic kingdom detached in some strange dimensional way from our world. What the people of Glenraven wanted was a couple of heroes who would free them from a ruler who was quite literally a monster in human guise. What the people of Glenraven got were JayJay and Sophie.

They could have done worse.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Unhappy with her life, Jayjay, accompanied by her friend Sophie, vacations in Glenraven, a tiny country between France and Italy, "the last gate into Europe's mystical forgotten past." Their visit changes both them and Glenraven. Bradley and Lisle expertly juxtapose contemporary women and a medieval, magical culture. Recommended for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671877992
• ISBN-13: 978-0671877996
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,009,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Holly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She is currently working on the second book in her Cadence Drake series.

Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer...which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:

"So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we'd tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children's Home, where we lived.

"My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.

"It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, "That's a bear footprint. From the size of it, it's a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear's still around."

"Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.


" 'I don't have the gun with me that will kill a bear,' he told me. 'I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I'm going to shoot him so he'll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.'

"The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I'm sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.

"We were not eaten by a bear that night...but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I'll ever forget.

"I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I'm putting on paper isn't at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn't make my cut."

Cheerfully,
Holly Lisle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Don't Think We're in Italy Anymore..., December 6, 2000

By 

AllieKat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glenraven (Mass Market Paperback)

When JayJay Benning picked up a book in a bookstore, she thought the book was a travel guide to a small principality in Italy called Glenraven. Glenraven had supposedly been sealed off from the world and was for the first time opening it's borders to a few select individuals. Since she needed some time away from her husband, JayJay thought that Glenraven sounded perfect. After getting her friend Sophie to agree to come with her, they started on their trip. When the book starts rewriting itself before their eyes, seemingly talking to them, they realize that they're not where they thought they were. The people of Glenraven needed was a couple of heros to save them from a thousand year old ruler that feeds on the souls of Glenraveners to keep herself alive. JayJay and Sophie are not quiet what they had in mind. The pain of the Glenraveners can clearly be felt, and Sophie and JayJay's misery with their husbands is palpable. This book was touching, interesting, and well written.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty (...)good, January 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Glenraven (Mass Market Paperback)

i love marion zimmer bradly and really enjoy her writing style and glenraven was no exception. while this book may not be for hard core fantasy fanatics this is really a very entertainable book with witty, charming characters that often had me laughing and thinking "that's just what i'd say."

jayjay is a woman watching her third marriage fall apart when she finds a fodor's guide to glenraven, supposedly a small country in europe, and decides that's just the place for her much needed get away. her friend sophie who is still reeling from her daughter's death asks to come along. but glenraven is no small, obscure country in europe, it's another world that's dying because its thousand year old watchmistress is sucking the land dry. these unlikely heroes are like your best friend from high school and you find yourself smiling often throughout this work.

it's not a fantasy epic but instead a light hearted read that's just pretty damn good and begs to be read. there is a sequel which i am currently on which follows the same pattern of witty characters. i would definetly advise anyone to give this book a try for something alittle light and fun.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, June 7, 2000

By 

Robin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glenraven (Mass Market Paperback)

This, I must say, is one of my favorite books. I loved the characters and the actual land of Glenraven. It seemed like an actual place that could have exsited (well except for all the magic stuff). The plot was great and the characters were interesting and realistic. It's a fabulous book that I would suggest to anyone.