Customer Reviews

HARP OF WINDS (ARTEFACTS OF POWER S.)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This the second book in The Aterfacts of Power series (following Aurian, and followed by The Sword of Flame and Dhiammara).

After their harrowing ordeal in the blinding desert of glittering gem shards where they recreated the Staff of Earth, one of the lost Artefacts of Power, the Mages Aurian and Anvar find themselves victims of yet another treachery.

Aurian, now several months pregnant and so bereft of her powers, ends up in the stronghold of the Tower of Incondor, prisoner of Harihn, Prince of the Khazalim, whereas Anvar is taken hostage by Blacktalon, High Priest of the Sky Folk, in the high-peaked city of Aerillia. Both are in league with Miathan, who covets Aurian's child, on which he's put a terrible curse.

Shia the great cat might be their only hope.

In this second volume, Maggie Furey takes the opportunity of Aurian and Anvar's confinement not only to develop background characters such as Vannor and his daughter Zanna, Parric, Forral's former horsemaster, or the Nightrunners, but also to introduce the reader with a whole cast of new characters, among which the winsome shapeshifting Xandim Chiamh and Shiannath, therefore letting the story unravel gently, without slowing the pace of action.

And all the while, the mountain is watching...

I never read the first book, so I like fell in the deep when I start reading the second part in the cronicles. It's very good.

The writer is good at pulling many threads and characters together to make a magical story that pulls you in and doesn't let you go untill you've read the last page.

I enjoyed it very much and can't wait to read the next parts :-)

I Never read the first book but got the second one as a present from my mom for christmas. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. The Story pulls you in. The power lies in the fact it spins so many character and character lines together in a beautiful webbed story.

Main characters are Aurian and her friend Anvar who struggle against the evil sorcerer Miathan and a terrible winter that was created by him to gain power over their entire world. Things look bad, because Aurian lost her magic, because she's pregnant from her old lover, but everything comes to an end in a Beautiful climax, which makes ur eyes glued to the last pages of the book, and make u feel sorry u finished the book.

I can't wait to go to the store for the other parts of this cronicle...

Maggie Furey has created a world that is so vivid the reader has no trouble being swept along with the characters and feel their emotions right along side them. I do not think this second book in the series is as engrossing as the first book, Aurian. However I had so fallen in love with the characters that I needed to obtain book three, "Sword of Flame," as soon as I finished "Harp of Winds."

I thought it was great by it-self. It shows how the characters feel and how they think. Although it was only part of a really big picture. I reccomend this series only if you can handle long stories and can peice together the plot.

Really, the title of my review says it all. I bought the book (actually, the books, since I bought books three and four as well) while browsing in a secondhand bookshop, and mainly because I liked the jacket illustration (I am referring to the English version, which personally I like better than the American one), so I had no preconception, and added to that had not read book one (and couldn't obtain it in France) so I was not in the best of minds to pick up in the middle of the story. Well. I did like the characters-most of them, at any rate.
But two things really account for the score. First, the story. It's not that it's particularly bad, but there's too much in it, too many subplots that get you confused, don't get you very far-when you think about it very little of import actually happens because the story is spread out between so many characters (add to that an annoying tendency of the author-but then it's almost inevitable when you deal with several strands of plots- to cut off at the most interesting moment. that's fine by me, keeps me reading, but the thought of having to wait for fifty to seventy pages before Mrs Furey gets back to them was almost more than I could bear).
Point two, the stereotypes. It's not enough that the plot is somewhat redolent of a typical quest fantasy, and that the main characters on the good side-particularly Aurian and Anvar-are so much the clichéd heroes that they become bland at times- but the villains are really too much of a caricature to be believable. And some scenes are so naive (like the one between Anvar and the Cailleach) that they make you shake your head.
I'd like to add that despite that, I'm in the middle of book three, and I must admit that so far Mrs Furey seems to have made an effort on the cliché side, at least as far as the villains are concerned, but this, coming after the second book, I am afraid, sounds even less believable than the Dark-Lord-villain.
The subplots problem has remained the same. I think it's a good light read, and she does have talent for creating memorable characters-but the ones you keep in mind are, I think, more the secondary characters than the main ones.

This was a classic tale of good over evil. It was a great read and I couldn't put it down. Now I'm searching desperatly for the third book so I'll have something to do over the holidays.

I could not put it down... it was almost as good as the first one, but still better that most other books I have read. I think I read this book in about a day, during summer vacation, because I could only put it down to eat and drink.. truly amazing!

Although this is not AS good as the first book Aurian, it is still a very captivating and a must read! I love how Maggie Furey illustrates the books with words, especially the part where Anvar hears the harps and when it builds a star road for him! Absolutely wonderful!

This wonderful fantasy book of magic and treachery is a must read. There is never a weak point in the plot, and the action never stops. You are drawn into Furey's magical world