Hawkspar: A Novel of Korre [Hardcover]

Holly Lisle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Novel of Korre | Publication Date: June 24, 2008

Stolen away from their families, they are slaves, women with no names and no futures. Every moment of their days controlled by the avatars of the stone Eyes--Obsidian, Emerald, Raxinan, Ruby, Windcrystal, Sapphire, Sunspar, Tigereye...

 

And the most powerful of them all, Hawkspar, the eyes of time. Kings and despots come to her to know their futures, and she wades in the river of time, pulls apart its sticky threads, to arrange the world to her satisfaction.

 

But she too was once a slave, plucked from her home, chosen by the Eyes to live in service to them, as much a slave now as she ever was. And with her sight into past and future, she can see the secrets of the Eyes--and the evil of the Eyes.

 

Before the death of Hawkspar, another must be chosen by the Eyes--but the avatar has her own plans, and chooses a slave for her courage and rebelliousness, rather than her dedication to the goals of the Eyes.

 

This slave is put to trial, but time after time, she is protected by forces unseen. Once she has swallowed the bitter liquid and has her eyes pulled from her head and replaced with the Eyes of Hawkspar stone, she can slip into the streams of time... and use time to her own ends -- to free the slaves once and for all, and destroy the Eyes, even if it means destroying herself in the process.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lisle's unengaging second novel set in the fantasy realm of Korre (after 2005's Talyn) revolves around the mystical bond between Aaran, a veteran tracker of slaves on a quest to find his long-lost sister, and a nameless female slave whose unlikely ascension to oracle has made her all too aware of a plot that could wipe out an entire race. The young slave's transformation into Hawkspar, a demigoddess who can rearrange the flow of Time's river, requires replacing her eyes with magical stones, but her newfound abilities let her see a way to avert the deaths of thousands, although that path also means her certain death. Lisle's return to Korre is plagued by a glut of two-dimensional characters and a decidedly uninspired story line. Despite plenty of action—battles with sea beasts, cannibals, wizards, etc.—the lack of substantive characters and complex plot makes for a flat and predictable read. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Set in the same world as Lisle’s Talyn (2006), Hawkspar offers another perspective on the struggle of the Tonk against the conquering Feegash. The avatar of Hawkspar, the most powerful of the stone eyes used to alter time, has done what she could against the vicious slavery that brought her to her post but death to her Tonk peers. Now she must choose a successor, and she chooses for courage and defiance. Her choice and a sea captain who has sworn to find his stolen sister tell of their rescue of many captives and exposure of the plotters who would destroy the Tonk. Serious, very readable fantasy. --Frieda Murray

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765309947
• ISBN-13: 978-0765309945
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,773,151 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Escape into an epic, August 8, 2008

By 

Galora_K (Central NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawkspar: A Novel of Korre (Hardcover)

Set in the world of Korre, same as her novel Talyn, but the book is able to stand alone.

Honestly, I was not impressed with this cover. If it hadn't been Holly's work I would never have picked the book up. It's lackluster, dull. Tor did not do her work justice with this cover art. Actually Tor didn't do much right with this book at all. Out of curiosity I looked up the artist who did the cover and he's capable of much better work. Such a shame.

The novel itself is amazing. Classic Lisle with a return to the richly developed and many layered world of Korre. Well fleshed out and believable characters and a killer story. A young woman who was taken as a slave now lives among the Osselene Order, an order that gets their power from stone eyes created by a power hungry Prince. Chosen from the ranks of the acolytes because of the strength of her secret Tonk magic the girl rises to power as an Oracle. Her eyes are removed and replaced with Hawkspar stone - destroying her natural vision and giving her the ability to not only 'see' but manipulate the rivers of time.

A young Tonk man named Arran is the best magical tracker of his kind, hunting slaves stolen from the Tonk and on a quest to find his sister who was taken years ago.

Hawkspar's magic reaches out and Arran is the one who picks it up.

There are two distinct story lines with Hawkspar and Arran and Lisle weaves them together beautifully, like an intricate dance. Point of view changes from 1st person (Hawkspar) to 3rd person (Arran) as the story progresses but it's done well and does not interrupt the flow at all. Evil is monstrous and seemingly insurmountable and the love between the two seems doomed.

Hawkspar knows she needs to sacrifice everything to save the world. Arran can't turn away from his quest to find his sister.

I was riveted and in no way, shape or form does this review do the book itself justice. Looking for a deep read that you can escape into? Hawkspar is for you!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chosing the Dark Path as the Only Hope..., August 29, 2008

By 

A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawkspar: A Novel of Korre (Hardcover)

Taken as a young girl by slavers, a nameless Tonk girl faces a hard choice. Risking punishment and death she has secretly been fighting the order of Ossalene Priestesses who purchased her and countless other girls, bringing them up under a harsh rule that leads to obedience and the eventual taking of their eyes and humanity--or death or being sold off to an even worse fate. But the most powerful woman of the Ossalenes, Hawkspar, Eyes of War, has picked her as her successor, to have her eyes torn out and replaced with stones of Hawkspar, created by an ancient sorcerer, which will confer upon her the ability to see into the future and the past--but with darkness, pain and madness as a reward. This is a fate she has fought against, building up a secret association of rebels among the order, but the old Hawkspar reveals that the girl must take the Eyes, for the fate of all Tonk people rests upon her, as well as the success of the escape of the slaves held by the order. The Tonk people are less than a distant memory to the girl, yet... she knows she must try to free her fellow slaves... AND keep others from falling into slavery, which means saving the Tonk as a people from the enemy that works to enslave and break them. With her secret friend, Redbird, she agrees to take the Eyes and become Hawkspar after the present one dies, and Redbird will take the Obsidian Eyes, as a fighter to protect her.

In the meantime, the Hawkspar-to-be, has been secretly sending out magical pleas for rescue for many years, using her own Tonk magic. Aaran, a Tonk who hunts with the Sea Wolves, sailing to take slaver ships and free their captured people, senses the distant pleas for help. Aaran will stop at nothing in order to help free the hundred or more slaves kept by the Ossalenes. He will be sailing through the unknown and hazardous Islands of the Fallen Star, farther than the Sea Wolves roam. The plight of the unknown girl has captured his soul. His young sister was stolen by slavers long ago and he and his cousin have sworn to never rest until they find her, so he has added incentive to look farther away and to risk much more than others.

I loved the story of Hawkspar, who has fears and regrets and yet still knows someone has to do what is necessary to save others. The life and hierarchy of the Ossalenes is also fascinating, if dark and disturbing. Their magic, seeing the future (Hawkspar), healing (Moonstone), fighting (Obsidians), etc., is very cool.

Aaran and the fiercely free, but beleaguered Tonk people are also involving. Aaran also does what he has to do, despite all odds and despite horrible set-backs and difficulties. He, like Hawkspar, is someone who merely asked for a basic life with family and hard work--but were denied it totally. And yet they still keep hopes alive, even in the darkest situation. They face impossible odds and need to succeed or lose everything--along with a whole nation of people who depend upon them.

We experience sea adventures, cannibals, powerful and cruel tyrants, centuries-old conspiracies, cultures of cruelty and magic that will do anything for power and riches, bizarre creatures, battles to free prisoners and battles to free entire cities and plots and trickery in order to win free from a horrible destiny.

And through these epic battles and adventures the focus is kept on Aaran and Hawkspar, since their personal battles are also the larger ones. Their tale is handled well, and is very moving, amidst all the action and adventure. This is definitely a world and people worth reading about.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hawkspar: The long awaited return to Korre!, July 30, 2008

By 

D. Fusari "Citizen of a thousand worlds" (Olympia, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawkspar: A Novel of Korre (Hardcover)

I was introduced to Holly Lisle's writing with the first novel of Korre, Talyn. I loved it! It had richly developed characters exploring challenging(read: not for the faint of heart) themes in a well realized world...everything you might want. Since then, my wife and I have searched out and found nearly everything Holly has had published.

Hawkspar raises the bar! The Order of the Ossilenes is terrifying. Poor girls. They desperately need to be rescued. And Arran is absolutely determined to do so. What a wild ride in the attempt. Believable, perfectly consistent, or all entirely necessary for the story? Probably not. But this is fantasy. Fun, compelling, and engrossing? Yes!

I know some people will have a little trouble with the 1st person, 3rd person switching between the chapters. I didn't, though. I especially enjoyed moving back into the internal, personal viewpoint of the penitent(acolyte, etc.)

I would have liked to see the battles at the climax to be more difficult and elaborate. After all the obstacles that led our heroes into the most dangerous, hopelessly outnumbered situations (both of them), I felt like they went too quickly and easily. Of course, I didn't want the book to end, so that could be a factor.

I cried at the end...even though I knew it was coming. Ahhh...Holly!

Hawkspar is very good. It has joined my short list of favorites (Robin Hobb's Assassin series and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series are at the top). Pick up Talyn if you missed it, then get Hawkspar!