Customer Reviews

Grand Conspiracy: The Wars of Light and Shadow (Wars of Light & Shadow)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Grand Conspiracy is the fifth volume in Janny Wurts's The Wars of Light and Shadow series. It is also the second volume in The Alliance of Light, which in turn is the third "story arc" in the series as a whole.

Confused? I don't blame you. What it boils down to is this. The entire series will consist (according to Wurts) of five so-called "arcs". The first is Curse of the Mistwraith. The second consists of The Ships of Merior and The Warhost of Vastmark. The third is called The Alliance of Light and kicks off with Fugitive Prince, now followed by Grand Conspiracy. There will be two more books to go in the "Alliance" arc, (tentatively?) called Peril's Gate and Stormed Fortress. After that, there are two more arcs to complete. Neither need be (according to Wurts) as long as "Alliance". Still, at a conservative estimate, I'd expect there to be at least five more books to come, and that puts Grand Conspiracy smack in the middle of the series.

A good place to take stock, then. Should you be reading this book or, indeed, the series?

Well, I'm ambivalent. Wurts is clearly an intelligent and knowledgeable writer, but...her style is long-winded and rather pretentious. Worse, it can be awkward, with lots of unnecessary adjectives and convoluted grammar bogging down the story's progression...If Wurts had stuck to her basic story line and kept things sharp and to the point, The Wars of Light and Shadow might have been very wonderful. As things stand now, though, the series is in danger of drowning in its own verbosity.

Well, that was some read.

Mrs. Wurts fantasy novel have been a favorite of mine since I first encountered "Curse of the Mistwraith" and this book will not disappoint the fans of the series. Well... almost. Maybe it's the price of paper going down, maybe it's just a trend, but you get a feeling lately that fantasy authors who write series just let themselves go (Wheel of Time, for example). The whole series, and this book in particular, could use a serious tightening.

Because, all in all, while all of the old characters do all of the old things in this novel, nothing much happens. The whole book could be summed up in about 3 paragraphs. and it should have been.

So if you've got some time to kill, have fun. But I'd recommened speed reading it, and waiting for some more monumental things happening in future volumes.

Which I will no doubt buy.

have fun

I have been suprised to see the number of non-positive reviews of this book. I received my copy and devoured it in a day. Janny's characterization and storytelling pulled me into the story like an old friend. For those who missed the relentless action of the first two novels, I would advise them to think again. If these stories contained only action, I would think the characters less appealing and believeable, since they would all have collapsed in complete mental breakdowns as a result of their frenetic life-styles. Yes, the 12 year jump fazed me, but I understood the reasoning behind it. Previously, time passed mostly in between books, so it was a bit jarring, but not unpleasant, since waiting for Kevor and Fionn to grow up would have taken forever! Trust that the author knows what they're doing. As for the "Why hasn't this ended in 5 volumes," she didn't say it would. She said there were 5 story arcs. And she did write to the fans to apologise for the necessary splitting of this arc into three. How many authors do that? She's not trying to spin us out for as much as we'll give, like some <Anne MCCaffery comes to mind..>. I'm just along for the ride..it's her story, and my distinct honor to watch it develop. ()

Janny Wurts is a superb artist. I have read all of her books to date, and to my great disappointment find this book overworked, humorless and incessantly gloomy. The themes are well plotted and could be vastly more interesting if they went somewhere. It seemed as if one were reading a diary. The characters' motives except for the the Fellowship Sorcerers have become that of unremitting negativity. The analogies and grandiose adjectives at times border on the ridiculous. Examples: p. 128: "jewels like points of ice hung on a nerveless wax statue"; p.150: "sweat bathed his forehead in sliding drops, until his skin glistened like a burst egg white", etc. The stilted conversations by and between characters is unrealistic. This is so sad. I want to read the story of these characters. I want to care about them. I want to see movement toward resolution of their problems. Alas.

I'm a big fan of Janny Wurts since her Empire trilogy and I swallowed the first novels of this series in rapid succession so far. The tale of Arithon and Lysaer and the Curse of the Mistwraith that has doomed the half-brothers to eternal enmity proceeds after an interlude of several years. During this time Arithon has spent years overseas in the search of the lost Paravians while Lysaer has once again increased his political machinations to consolidate his righteous crusade against his hated brother. The relative stagnation of the feud is interrupted when Morriel, leader of the Koriani witches, employs the full power of her magic order to finally bring down Arithon.

Wurts' major strengths that I appreciated so far are her ability to spin complex and intruiging plots containing elements of high fantasy, politics and passionate affairs of the heart. And a willingness to let her main protagonists suffer and her knack in exploiting these small tragedies to further raise the stakes in the story itself while enhancing the emotional attachment of the reader to the protagonists.

Alas Wurts has reached a level where she simply starts to wear out these talents. Her style of narration in Grand Conspiracy is full of heavy flowery phrases that it just gets annoying. She looses herself in the complexity of her plot, wanting to follow too many individual yet somehow linked story lines with the same intensity (i.e. chars like Jieret, Lirenda and other secondary protagonists). Also I think that she exaggerates in showing the falseness of Lysaer's crusade and the way he and his minions use various instruments (one being the same black art of spell casting that Lysaer is accusing Arithon of abusing) becomes rather stereotype. But the most annoying factor has become the level of whining and self-pity shown not only by Arithon, something we're used by now, but also a large scale of other characters (Elaira, Jieret, Fionn Areth and even to some degree the Fellowship Sorcerers). The biggest disappointment is Elaira, who still fails to win free from the hold of her Koriani sisters on her life and soul. Instead we get to see her once again exchange "heartbreaking" scenes of longing and dispair and of course lots of forgiveness between her and her lover Arithon. Where has the innovative passion gone from Ships of Merior when Elaira and Arithon discover their love during a combined magical effort to heal a fatally wounded civilian (a scene which will probably be among my all time favorite episodes in fantasy/sci-fi literature).

Of course Grand Conspiracy has still its strengths. Wurts' application of various types of magic and the descriptions of spell casting as a delicte art are first class. And the long awaited appearance of Davien the Betrayer occurrs with such a careful and elaborately carved introduction that I'm really eager for more of Davien in the next sequels.

But as a conclusion these few highlights aren't enough to make up for many disappointments in the overall progress of this otherwise great fantasy series.

The Wars of Light and Shadow series continues with, in my opinion, by far the best work so far. This series has captivated me from the beginning: this book was one of the most compelling and intricately crafted works of literature I have ever read.

I think Janny Wurts has stopped pandering to the thrill-a-minute faction of her readership and started writing for herself. Her style has blossomed and intensified a thousandfold. This series began with a promising paradox and the cruellest of curses and has gone on to extend and explore the possiblities of those origins in devastating style.

The tormented exiled prince, Arithon S'Ffalenn, Master of Shadow, who is so utterly human and so desparately unlucky that you cannot fail to love him, is, as ever, in hiding, maintaining leagues of seawater between himself and the seeresses who hunt him by magical means and seek to bring him to his doom as a convicted sorceror. As soon as he sets foot on dry land they can track him, and should he disembark on the same continent as his brother Lysaer of the Light, curse-induced madness will fall upon him to the extent that he will let no-one and nothing stand in his way until his brother is dead. His entourage of swordsmen, seamen, and the Mad Prophet Dakar, are a motley crew. Dakar is drunk most of the time, but when needed to work a powerful enchantment he usually rises to the occasion. He must save the dark prince from himself as often as he has to guard him from his enemies, and this creates a perverse and abiding tension in the relationship between the unlikely duo.

Prince Lysaer of the Light, however, is loved by his people, would never stoop to sorcery and rules with wisdom, humanity and impeccable judgement. Only one problem: he is perpetually insane in his determination to crush Arithon S'Ffalenn at all costs. His abiding hatred of his brother poisons every decision he makes, and his apparent kindness, wisdom, humanity and judgement are all simply means of achieving this one obsessive aim. He needs allies, and he has the gift of winning men's hearts wherever he goes. He is probably the most evil character I have ever had the pleasure to come across in fantasy literature. More men, women and children die in his campaign to defeat his already defeated brother than have ever been threatened by Arithon's occasional fits of madness. And yet he plays those around him to perfection, seducing them with his charismatic glamour and blinding them to the terrifying truth.

Arithon just plays music, and this to ease his soul from the plaguings of a deeply troubled conscience and his intellect from the frustration of thwarted magical ability. One of the novel's chief ironies is that he cannot even practise magic: his powers have been blocked and no recent charge of sorcery against him can possibly be true.

I love the way Janny Wurts plays with your morals, preconceptions and affections in this novel. I love the grim and violent hopelessness of Arithon's existence and the allure this lends to his already captivating character. I love the evil shining compassion of Lysaer s'Ilessid and the spiralling allegories you can trace through history of men who stood for the Light and committed unthinkable acts of darkness in its name.

But most of all I love Janny Wurts's command of the magical. The Fellowship Sorcerers and the Koriani Sisterhood, practising two very distinct forms of magic, the Sisters influencing the course of human events to their own ends and the Fellowship magicians attempting to protect and maintain the balance of the ancient paths of power, do battle on a grand scale, in a power play that is much more than a sideshow to the main action of the novel.

I would wish to ask the author a direct question: why are all the bad witches female, and all the good magicians male? With her twisting of accepted norms and examination of every angle of preconception and prejudice I'm surprised at this. But it's just a thought. The novel's wonderful, and you absolutely positively have to read it. Be prepared to read it slowly, savour each phrase and shade of meaning, and use your brain. Nothing worthwhile ever came easy....

Wurts has created a work that transcends Fantasy. Her suberbly crafted writing stretches our vocabulary, weaves a brilliant imagery, and gives deep insight into the human spirit. The intricacy and scope of the plots and sub-plots leaves plenty to the imaginations of those who delight in unravelling mysteries and guessing future developments in the novel.

It's rich in character development. I have followed Arithon's development as a character with the same enjoyment as I did Ursula K. Le Guin's character, Ged. She has real skill with major and minor characters, using them to continually reflect new angles and interpretations of the themes and characters of the series.

Wurts harkens back to a time when the land was held as something sacred. The Paravians represent lost innocence, and the compact a reminder that we borrow the land from future generations. Her descriptions of magic are multi-sensory journeys that take us towards a more subtle understanding of what world consciousness is and touches on the oneness of everything.

What I found most valuable in these books was the portrayal of the causes of conflict, and the machinations of war. She puts war and greed under an unforgiving spotlight, but also refuses to typecast. Lysaer is portrayed both as liberating leader and protector of the people and deluded tyrant. Arithon is at once freedom fighter and terrorist. We are not asked to choose a side and blame the other, but encouraged to have compassion and understanding, and to see the whole picture. We are shown graphically that war leads to further wars, there is never an end to them, unless there is dialogue and an attempt towards mutual understanding. We are not allowed to give into euphoria after 'justice' has been served, but read on and discover the horrific consequences. It makes us question what is true justice, and whether there is a place for human compassion in it.

The curse itself is an accurate and menacing metaphor for blind, ignorant prejudice that has the same effect on the leaders and followers of this world, as it does on Athera. She powerfully describes the effects of illusion and delusion that create mobs and narrow-minded communities. She neatly portrays blinkered opinion and assumption and shows how they develop into reasons for wiping out other ethnic groups.

When you read her books, suspend judgement. Don't get lost in plot and in trying to interpret the Black Rose Prophecy. Use a dictionary for the more difficult words. Let her writing take hold of your imagination and leave youself open to seeing the parallels of Athera to Earth. Identify with the characters, experience them as aspects of yourself. Make it a journey of discovery. Read each book twice.

Although I must agree with some of the other reviews for this book, that find it slightly below the standard set by the other books, I must attribute that to the author's need to split this section of the story into four different sections. Grand Conspiracy is only the second, in what Janny Wurts calls a story arc, of this particular plot thread. For my own curiosity, I sought out Wurts' website. This site answered many of my questions regarding the series, and even gives some insight into backround history not included in the series at this point. Of course, this information has only set my mind spinning off in a dozen new directions, trying to fathom the next plot thread in the next book (something I should have learned long since not to try, because of my abysmal success rate in the venture). I encourage any and all to visit the site, as it will answer many questions you might have regarding the series, or the author's plan for its future.

This series is fantastic, and I would recommend it to any lover of SF/F. However, I do recommend starting with the first book Curse of the Mistwraith. It will save you much frustration, and increase your reading pleasure infinitely.

Wurts has done it again in my opinion. True, the book didn't have as much action as the others did, but it did hold enough to keep me wanting more and more...and to keep me reading it much as I have the previous books in this wondrous series: over and over again. I was quite satisfied at how this book turned out, and very glad that the series is still going. One of my favorite aspects of Wurts' writing is how she manages to put plots within plots and to make each book, though long, a very interesting one. Her characters are so vivid and real, one finds themselves rooting for some, and beginning to distrust another. You can find similar qualities as yourself in many of them, and then at the same time, dearly hope and pray you don't have qualities of the others. Her descriptions are exquisite...she paints the story as well as she does the cover art, mastering both in sweeps of the pencil or brush. She definitely has talent which is brought out by this series. And of course, this book helps serve to show that. Though she may not sometimes have every page filled with action, she fills them with scenes that help explain and keep the reader well-informed so there will be little to no confusion later on. Yes, it may be a bit of a filler until the next book, but I think it works very well at that, making "Grand Conspiracy" a very interesting read.

In some ways, Wurts' writing is excellent. She has created a reasonably well-drawn world, with a very original plot and characters. She makes an effort to write in an artistic, poetic way... and therein lies a problem. Apparently, nobody's ever told her that one should show readers things rather than telling them. Thus, every tiny detail of the book is explained over and over, exhaustively. Why use one sentence where three will do? Why allow inference when you can bludgeon your readers with words? Furthermore, her efforts at poetic writing sometimes trip her up. She occasionally uses words with no apparent understanding of their definitions, and spouts flowery phrases which, examined closely, make no sense. My favorite was "permafrost clarity". Think about that one for a minute... Add to this a plot with various holes and exceedingly slow action, much slower than in the previous books, which were not exactly fast-moving. On the plus side, the obnoxious Dakar does not appear until halfway through the book, and Arithon's endless whining seems somewhat curbed. One factor that I found troubling was the all-knowing, all-benevolent, all-male Fellowship Sorcerers... as compared to those nasty meddling female Koriani witches. If you're already immersed in the series, you'll read this anyway, and probably enjoy it to some extent. If not, you would want to start with the first book in any case... but don't say I didn't warn you.