Customer Reviews

The Granite Shield

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

 

 

This review is actually for all three of Fiona Patton's books, since it's hard to consider them separately, since FP does such an amazing job of blending history and story backwards in time and space.

The Stone Price lacks some of the sophistication of concepts and writing that her latter books have, although in other ways it is the best of the three, especially in terms of gay relationships (in Granite Shield there are few prominant long-term gay relationships, and in Painter Knight, one of the guys is dead, which puts a damper on things).

Granite Shield excells in setting the scene for a lot of the Triarctic/Essusiate conflict, as well explaining the hints about Gwyneth's more rebellious past in the events to come. The only problem I had with this book was that, even by FP's standards, this was an extremely dense read, and the names and titles were enough to make your head spin without careful attention to who-goes-where-and-why.

Painter Knight is, of the three, the best blend of the two most attractive aspects of the universe--the romanticism of Stone Prince, and the politics of Granite Shield--but I think it makes a poor first read in the universe; too much is assumed, and the death of a major character 20 pages in (and of a family as prone to tempermentalism and misunderstanding as the DeMarians) tends to distract the reader from the action, which requires a clear head to follow.

Finally, a word on the gender politics of the books; in this universe, bisexuality is the norm, unquestioned, and gay relationships are uncompromisingly as common as straight ones, with stigma attached to neither--very refreshing, especially when combined with the completely non-gender-bias of the universe. Many fantasy universes that preach gender equality have a "aren't we liberal, look how liberal we are" quality to them; FP doesn't even bother to justify her equality, and simply makes it a non-issue. It just *is,* and even titles such as Prince, Abbot, Knight, Duke, and so forth are non-gender specific; you're as likely to have Duke Kassandra as Prince Demnor, for example. When I finished these books, it took a minute to remember where I was, and how much our world is different from FP's, and when I did remember, I almost cried. We've got a long way to go.

All in all: five stars, each and every one, each with different strengths and weaknesses. I thoroughly enjoyed all these books, and can't wait for the next one. Strongly recommended! :)

I highly recomand the book to any fantasy reader and anyone else. This book is even better than the Stone Prince with complex characters and great storyline. The events are fast paced and ever fascinating.

This book is about religious conflicts between the Essusian and the Triach which is the Living Flame housed in each of Aristok of Branion. The storyline begins at a time when of Essusian kings who, for the past 150 years, has denied the Living Flame inside them which gives them the right and power to rule Branion. The present monarch, Marsellus DeMarian is another DeMarian Aristok who has denied the Flame.

So now, Llewellynne ap Rowena, the fighting Prince and a Seer in the neighboring kingdom of Gwyneth was given a vision by the Flame which instructs her bearing the first child of the Aristok, a child who is willing vassel of the Living Flame and who can lead the Triarctic forces back to victory in Branion.

Thus, Llewllynne succeeds in her mission and gives birth to a son named Rhys, who grew up, together with his brother Llewen (Llewllynne's son with her husband) to wrestle back the power of the land.

Having read the first two books in the series, I was terribly disappointed with this one... I can't even get myself to finish it after two weeks, and I burned through the first two in a couple of days!

A major issue for me, which other reviewers have also acknowleged, is the sheer volume of detail and data. Despite the chapter-by-chapter list of Dramatis Personae, I still found it frustrating to try and keep track of who was who. While true historical politics are certainly as convoluted and complex as events in The Granite Shield, I prefer to be able to get through a fantasy novel without having to refer to an appendix after every paragraph. In my opinion, the plot just got bogged down by too much information, making it a struggle to read.

My second issue is simply that, at the mid-point of the book, I still have not developed any affinity for these characters. Maybe it's a side effect from the info overload discussed above, but I just cannot get attached to the characters in this book, whereas I felt connected to Simon (The Painter Knight) and Demnor and Kelahnus (The Stone Prince) from the very first page .

Gripes aside, however, I remain appreciative of Patton's egalitarian society where gender and sexual orientation are complete non-issues. But for my money, The Stone Prince and The Painter Knight are much stronger works with stronger, more memorable characters.

If you've read other books in the Branion series and enjoyed them, then you're most likely going to enjoy this one, too (surprise!). You've got the Living Flame, Essus, the infamous "gender-free" society, hotheaded red-heads ... what more couldja want? :)

The development of relationships in this book - and all Fiona Patton's Branion books - is appealing. In The Granite Shield, I'd say the most interesting (and most focused upon) is the relationship between the two main characters, a pair of (half-)brothers with intertwined destinies. Another fascinating feature in the series is the conflict/relationship between Essus and the Living Flame. In this particular book, you get an interesting vantage point into that relationship through the eyes of a powerful seer.

As one reader noted, you probably won't see any great reason to choose one "side" over another ... and I think that's part of what Fiona Patton does very, very well. She doesn't give you a "good guys triumphing over the bad guys" plot - instead, you get what I'd call a more realistic view of conflict.

This book was awesome and the only reason why I didn't give it full marks was because the titles of the characters did get a little confusing and at times i found getting them all straight was very confusing. I noticed that once i got into the book it got easier to understand,but i think that i missed part of the magic of the book at first. Young Lyewen was an awesome character he kept his wits about him and his story was a really fascinating one to follow. Overall this book was great and i would recomend it to anyone who loves stories from medivial times!

I enjoyed this book a great deal, it was more dense tha I had anticipated but very entertaining, with three-dimensional characters.

My one problem was that, in all honesty, I didn't particularly see why I, as a reader, should be more in favor of Gwyneth over Branion, when Rhys didn't seem like a much more favorable choice than his father. The theocratic aspects were very interesting, but on a personal level, I thought that the main characters had something lacking. Ms. Patton's minor characters and adversaries were far more compelling. I found myself hoping for Drusus and Calliston to be victorious instead.

Even so, I enjoyed the overall tone and feel of the book and look forward to reading more of her work.

Fionna Patton has done an excellent job once again. After reading "The Stone Prince", I could not wait to find more works by her. I was easily pulled into the world of the characters, and found myself reading for hours. The book is filled with all the components that make for an excellent story that anyone can enjoy, whether you like fantasy or not.

maybe i was spoiled since my frist fantasy books were marion zimmer bradley's "the mists of avalon." and george r. r. martin's "a song of fire and ice" series but i found this book written on such a base level that after about five pages i was bored. though like everyone else i found the non-gender based society refreshing and interesting i quickly began to ignore the lengthy titles and descriptions of every minor character. the plot and many of the aspects were intrigueing but i felt like i was reading a book for some junior high school student. to many things are blatanly pointed out and no subtley is afford in mrs. patton's work. instead of easing observations into the context of the story she stops everything to describes the page boy who just walked in down to his shoelaces. though from the other reviews i have read i am led to believe that the "painter prince" and her other works are much better i was sourly dissappointed by this work. i will give her credit though before i leave off for her original and highly detailed concepts, though by the second half of the book i just stop trying to figure out who the hell was who. one last note is the that though i am all for the bisexuality and gay reltaionships the casual but yet almost forced way they are placed in the book is irritating. mrs.patton mentions how the meeting with so and so went and the last two lines go something like..."oh yeah and the two guys had sex." i say if you are anything near a sophisticated reader go for bradley or martin but if you are just exploring the genre this is still a fairly descent read.

Tediously slow. The details are details for the sake of being details. The details in this book do not enhance and bring forth an awesome plot or anything like that. They're just there. Like great blocks of granite thrown by a giant's child, they're just there. They don't form a pyramid, a great monument, or anything. They exist just because--there's not much of a reason for such excessive detail. It's kind of like Stone Prince. Barely better. I had bought three of the Patton books because the covers looked interesting and the details, when skimmed, looked ok. However, after I read these, I couldn't stand them any longer and gave them to Pocketbook so they could deal with these things.

Superbly written and plotted. The characters are engrossing and develop fully through the story. A most excellent read! Highly recommended.