Customer Reviews

Griffin's Daughter (Griffin's Daughter Trilogy)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a science fiction/fantasy fanatic since falling in love with Andre Norton in the early 1960's, I've developed a strong sense of what characteristics various writings in this genre must have to hold my interest. First, they must have well-drawn characters, each with a unique personality which clearly distinguishes one from another. I don't have to like them all, but they must each be unique and interesting. Second, the environment, settings and mood must be described richly and clearly, with well-developed and consistent history and culture. Third (and perhaps most important) interpersonal relationships must be realistic and varied, and the story should be told from more than one clearly distinct perspective. In addition, there should be topical themes which relate to the reader's own experience and observations. This novel easily lives up to my expectations.

Griffin's daughter is imaginative and beautifully written, with elements that parallel events and concepts in our own modern world. For example, tolerance/intolerance and the influences that breed each (in the novel, border communities are more diverse and more tolerant compared to the more central and homogeneous regions).

There is warfare and violence in Griffin's Daughter but it is not too graphic for young adult readers. There is also romance, most of which can be characterized as wistful longing. Although the primary romantic relationship is eventually consummated, it is tastefully described and lovely, not raunchy and graphic. Suitable for both adult and young adult readers.

Personally, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to mature teens, who might find ample food for thought in the recurring themes of duty, responsibility, tolerance, respect, women's rights, freedom, politics, etc.

I can't wait for the sequel to find out what happened to Magnes. And the bombshell in the last sentence has me wanting more.

"Griffin's Daughter" is that rare thing - a fantasy novel that doesn't scream "Tolkien carbon copy". I won't reiterate the storyline, which is in the editorial review. What I want to comment on is the quality of the writing and the story's originality. Leslie Ann Moore has brought solidity and reality to her fantasy world. Her heroine suffers racial prejudice in both the human and elven societies, and this is an important sub-theme running through the book. It is deftly handled and never becomes in-your-face or preachy, but is a hard fact of Jelena's life. It is also a hook for the following books; will she be in a position to fight it?

The other aspect which I found refresingly different was the avoidance of the standard fantasy mock-European-medieval setting. While Soldaran society is a blend of classical-medieval, the elven kingdom is drawn from early Japanese society, and this gives an interestng resonance and feeling of "otherness" in many ways to the Western reader, as well as to the displaced heroine.

The characters are well-drawn and have depth. Ashiinji and Jelena are sympathetic and engaging, and the villains are not one-dimensional, all-bad characters, but are allowed moments of humanity. The dialogue strikes a good balance between modernity and a sense of another time, and the descriptive touches - clothes, places, and particularly meals - add colour and a sense of place.

This book is the first of a trilogy and essentially sets the scene, characters and conditions for the battles to come. It is a fine work and books two and three promise to be even better as the action intensifies. I highly recommend this work to any readers of good fantasy.

This was a light read. Prose was simplistic. Story was not very original- the concept of a nameless evil emerging to conciousness was similar to the Green Rider series.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
The hero falls in love with the heroine at first sight and they are predestined to be together- not much romantic tension in this approach.Our lovely heroine is predictably destined for greater things and is the illegitimate child of the Elf king working as a scullery maid,ie,Cinderella.However it was quick to read, an easy way to pass a Sunday afternoon as long as you don't expect too much from this book. Explicit sex scenes so I would not recommend it for younger readers.

It's poorly written. There are no surprises, there is no suspense; and in a romance novel, suspense is the end-all be-all. Jelena (main character) also ends up with a bunch of irritating friends who hover around, their only purpose in life seemingly to make jokes about how she's going to get together with the elf-man. So in case you hadn't already noticed, it basically gets rammed in your face.

I was bombarded with explanations. Rather than letting events unfold or using any kind of subtlety, the author will simply describe every hint and character motive. There's also a lengthy prologue describing events a thousand years prior that really have no place at the beginning of a book, since most of it probably won't come into play until the two sequels (I'll never know because I'm not going to read them).

Everything felt really flat, and overall the novel lacked a distinctive 'flavor.' It was more like a bunch of paper cutouts were placed on a stage and then dragged about, because that's how novels are supposed to go, right? I guess the moral of the story is I'm actually angry that I spent money on this book, because the author doesn't deserve any. Don't let this happen to you.

This story is not poorly written, but could be better. I was actually looking forward to the story, but was disappointed that it cut off in the middle! It is clearly only half the book and the author's entire purpose for offering this "free" books is to get you to spend the $4.99 to purchase the rest of the book or series. Save the time and money and skip it.

I wanted to like this book. The use of Japanese traditions for elvish culture was original, and the description made it seem like the story would be a good meditation on bigotry and racism. It's not.

The problems:
--The writing! Rather than showing, the author hits us over the head with telling, over and over again. And she's overly fond of adverbs.
--The plotting! There was no subtly in the writing, so sense of surprise as the story unfolded. The prologue pretty much laid out the series' entire story arch, and jumping into Ashinji's head early on made it very clear that Jelena was going to end up with him. No slow building of feeling or a coming to an understanding, just BAM! They see each other and fall in love, and the only thing keeping them apart are rank and filial responsibility. Very unrealistic and disappointing. Even her father's identity isn't a surprise; the prologue kind of ruined that.
--The characters! The characters are just black and white; once again, there's no subtly. Jelena and Ashinji are completely good, no significant personality issues resulting from their troubled backgrounds (Jelena treated as a servant by her own family and experiencing extreme prejudice for being a half-breed, Ashinji being constantly tormented by his older brother and forced into a career he hates). The bad characters are completely bad (such as Ashinji's older brother), with no redeeming qualities. The author tries to make gray areas (some good characters who hold prejudices against half-breeds but who aren't mean about it and who learn to see the errors of their ways, good characters struggling against their station in life and accidentally committing horrible acts in the process, etc), but her efforts, at least in my book, fall flat.

These issues are the big ones that stand out to me a day after reading the book. Maybe I wouldn't have had such a problem with the book if I hadn't been reading fantasy novels for half my life, but I've read enough to know good and bad books when I read them. This one is definitely bad. For some good fantasy books that tell the kinds of character-driven (and well-plotted!) stories that this one tries but fails to do, read some Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, Andrea K. Host, or Sherwood Smith.

This book tells the story of Jelena the disowned half human-half elf niece of a human Duke. She's grown up as a scullery maid, taken care of by the mid-wife and pretty mistreated by everyone else. She eventually ventures out into the world in search of her elf family due to some unfortunate situations she's put into by the Duke.

I'm really torn on reviewing this book.
First the PROS:

Over all I enjoyed the story. I liked that there are two or three different things going on, IE: her love interest, the spark of power she discovers in herself, the possible war between humans and elves... etc.

I like the majority of the characters even though they're not overly dynamic.

I see a lot of good life lessons that the author appears to be trying to relay in the story (IE: we're all the same underneath the looks, showing that many times racism and hate are products of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge.)

The CONS

There were some areas where it appeared that the general time line of the story really made some major jumps or backtracks when the author shifted between chapters/locations making some things a bit confusing. A bit of editing and this could have been cleaned up.

The story skipped some areas that could have been very interesting if included. When Jelena and her cousin make their initial escape to look for the elves, the author chose not to really describe any type of search or reaction by the Duke and his family. There was a lot of opportunity to add to the story line and make their escape more exciting.

As mentioned... the characters were a bit simple. They all seemed to have the same problems with their social position causing them problems in their love life.

Jelena, at times became a bit annoying. There were way too many paragraphs of her internal dialogue concerning how she's not good enough for the guy she loves, she's doesn't deserve people that lover her, blah blah blah. It was ok at first, and I thought that when she first stood up for herself she'd start getting over it, but when she did the same thing again during her own wedding I was just over reading the same thing over and over..

Overall, the author managed to write a story that kept me entertained enough to keep reading the book and possibly spend the money to find out what happens in the next two. I really hope in the future Jelena matures dramatically and stands up for herself more and that in general the characters become a little more complex. I wouldn't say this is the best book written, but it's not bad, and I think with the general positive messages that it contains it may be a good book for young adult/teens. Given a good edit and a bit of a rewrite the over all story could have been quite a bit better but I think the author definitely has promise.

Not horrible, not great. Kind of juvenile. After you've read books by Carol Berg, Terry Brooks, Patrick Rothfuss, or Patricia Briggs, this kind of effort pales considerably in comparison. It really is written more for a juvenile audience, even though I didn't get that version. I got kind of tired of the characters tearing up and crying all the time. I got this free, so it was ok, but won't spend money on the rest of the trilogy. The writing just isn't that great.

What a wonderful and entertaining story! My only disappointment is that the sequel isn't out yet. I, like others, found the Japanese influence on the elf culture to be a refreshing change to the usual medieval/Northern Europe model. The contrast of the human and elf cultures was interesting in and of itself. The characters were vivid and I felt for Jelena as she struggled through both cultures. The language was vibrant and the story gripping. I can't wait to see what happens to these characters next!

This is not a very good fantasy novel. Theres very little depth to the world building. The plot is so linear its hard to ignore where the story is obviously going. Very little conflict seems to actually touch the characters, the main character annoyingly seems to have a victim mentality. At one point the main character is almost raped, then passionately loses her virginity in the next chapter. She then proceeds to conceal the attempted rape.

I found the writing style very dry. The over-use of adverbs in particular throttles the authors voice. Reminded me of "twilight" a bit. Needs an editor.

So, again, not a good example of fantasy. It is however an adequate romance novel.


I have a poorer opinion of the award this book received after reading it. Especially considering all the wonderful new authors I've read this year.