Customer Reviews

The Heart of Myrial

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fast moving and very intricate tale, this book is somewhat slow at the beginning but as you become acquainted with the main characters you find that it is almost impossible to put down. Excellent characterizations and good plot detail. I highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys Eddings.

This book draws upon a large cast of characters' view points to fill out its four hundred plus pages, making me wonder if some of them serve any greater purpose. But this is book one of three, so it remains to be seen. Even so, it builds very satisfactorily towards the next one, using Zavahl's escape from the sacrificial pyre as a closure. There was a bit of a black hole after the pacey Chapter One until Veldan and Kaz reappeared by Chapter Four. Whilst this left space to introduce the bulk of the other players it would have been more agreeable, for the sake of focus, to have brought them in and out briefly instead: after all, everything at that stage happens at much the same time. Nonetheless it all shoots along with good tie-ins between the characters, including details you think have been missed: Scall realising who Seriema's attacker is being a good example. I thought the prose style was better than most of the British fantasy stuff that I've read lately, though it is a little over extended in places, and a lot of the fancier words could have been replaced with plainer ones to better effect. (I'm not sure that `misanthropic' with respect to the donkey's character was really the best choice.) Neither J.R. R. Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, or C.J. Cherryh, for example, resort to such. Anyway, I'm keen to find out how Shree escapes from Blade's trans-dimensional black bag, and so on.

The back of this book was completely misleading. I assumed that this book would be centered on the three characters Veldan, Kaz, and Aethon, but boy was I wrong. The story starts off with them, sure, but then you are introduced to a slew of other characters, and the whole book follows each of their stories and how their paths cross.

This sounds like a problem, but it really wasn't. I did find myself frustrated occasionally when I wanted to know what happened to another character but had to wait and read a boring story of another. But after the beginning you do get interested in all of them, so the frustration ends quickly. If you read her Aurian books, this is a little different. In those there were also many subplots, but you could easily distinguish the main characters. This book is like one huge subplot though, and even though Veldan and Kaz are on the cover, I still don't get the feeling they are the main characters. I'm hoping that'll change in the next book.

This book moves very slowly time-wise. Everything occurs in about three days, and sometimes its difficult to line up what each character is doing in order. I'm sure thats on purpose though, and it definetly keeps you on your toes.

The characters are very likeable in my opinion, especially Kazail the firedrake. I've noticed Furey is very good at characterization, not making a person completely bad or good, and gives them the ability to change. One thing I preferred about this book over her last series is less wimpy characters. For those of you who read the Artefacts series, you should know what I'm talking about (I can't stand whiners). I'm crossing my fingers that it'll stay that way.

And for all you romance lovers, there isn't any in this book, although some future possibilities seem to be forming. Overall, I really did enjoy this book, even though it had a few flaws. I'm even more glad that I have the next two handy. If you did read her last series (and liked it), I would recommend you pick up all three. Otherwise, try the first one and see how you like it. I think all fantasy readers should give it a shot though.

This book sat on my shelf for almost two years before I picked it up. Than I read it over the course of a single day and I was mighty pleased to discover it! The story is told from the perspectives of many of the characters, good and bad, and this is the greatest strength of the book. It was extremely interesting how nothing and nobody was pure good or pure evil, and how all their motives were well justified. Some people may not like that, but it's real, and I was impressed by how well Maggie Furey pulls it off. It's very interesting when you see how two essentially good people could hate each other and each believe the other was of poor character when the truth lay somewhere inbetween. Whilst the world did not grip me, it is quite unique and different to the fantasy norm and there does seem to be plenty of potential in it. However, it is the characters that pull the story along at a ever increasing rate, especially as all their lives are intertwined in so many clever and surprising ways. The ending is a cliffhanger that will leave you wanting more, and I highly recommend this. As an avid fantasy reader, it is better than a lot of the tripe associated with the genre. Also, it's not too predictable, as I have far too many different ideas as to how the trilogy could be wrapped up! (Beware, the story does start a little slowly...)

I tend to go through reading cycles. Until very recently I was firmly stuck reading historical fiction-and I didn't want to read anything but that. But then one night I picked up a fantasy book instead and ever since then I've been on a hunt for great fantasy novels.

More than anything I liked the concept of Maggie Furey's "Shadowleague" series. A world where each species has its own little country with the perfect climate for it and landscape, bordered by energy walls that keep weaker species from becoming the pray of stronger ones. And a league of telepathic warriors-from all the different species of the world, who keep the diverse occupants of the world in check.

But something is very wrong. "The Heart of Myrial" starts off with impending calamity. The curtain walls that separate the realms are failing and the different weather systems mixing has caused havoc nearly everywhere. The Shadowleague is planning a conference of the most senior Loremasters to decide on a course of action-but they can't start until the dragon representative arrives.

Veldan, a human, and Kaz a firedrake (a large, fire breathing lizard) who is the only one of his kind every found, are charged with bringing the Seer of the dragons to the home of the Shadowleague in Gendival. But the long trek through the human occupied country of Callisoria has been hard on all three. Veldan is still recovering physically from a brutal wound and emotionally from a failed mission and is lacking in confidence. And Aethon, the dragon needs sunlight to survive-and it hasn't stopped raining in Callisoria for weeks.

A mudslide takes out all three and more loremasters are sent to help. But there's bad blood between Elion-who lost his beloved partner in the same fight where Veldan was hurt so badly, so Shree, a wind-sprite who is partner to the head of the shadowleague goes along to mediate. At the same time the ruler of Callisoria is preparing to be sacrificed to intercede with the God Myrial and save his people from starvation, illness and floods. And a mysterious man lurks in Callisoria-a man with a plan that could end up destroying the whole world.

This is one of those books where there's no good place to stop reading for the night because it is quite literally, from page one, non-stop action. There are way too many characters and storylines to go into here so I'll keep it simple. Bands of people are thrown together as things get worse-and the most unlikely combinations of creatures may be what saves the world....

Great plot right? The only real issues I have with this book is that the author really over thinks a lot of the writing-the detailed explanations of people's feelings can get annoying and pretty fake feeling. The other problem is that there are a lot of made up fantasy creatures in this book (most are old school but there are new ones) and whenever Furey is trying to list their capabilities is comes off like a list of powers on the back of a super-hero toy box. but it wasn't bad enough to make me stop reading.

Is you don't like complicated plots, lots of characters and lots of storylines then you shouldn't read this book. If you're looking for something really fast paced then this isn't for you either-the whole book only encompasses about three days. If you do like these things though, this is a pretty good, but not great, way to spend a couple of afternoons.

Three stars.

The Heart of Myrial is fairly well-written, with interesting characters and an intriguing plot. At the beginning, the tie-in between most of the characters seemed nonexistant, and I was concerned about the pacing of the action. However, the characters come together--in sometimes unexpected ways--and the action picks up well.

Furey's descriptions are beautiful and (mostly) not overdone, not getting in the way of the action, while still making a nice impression. It helps that the descriptions are often colored by a character's thoughts, instead of just having bland narrative.

The characters vary in temperment, intelligence, and species. Many of them develop in interesting ways, and even characters that I initially disliked usually turned out to have likable aspects. This actually annoyed me slightly, because it's hard to change your opinion of a character from 'bad guy' to 'kind of an okay person' or from 'good guy' to 'despisable bad guy.' Still, it's true to life in that first impressions aren't always perfectly accurate.

I very much enjoyed reading this book & highly recommend it, especially to fans of Furey's previous books. I recommend reading at least the first page before buying it if you haven't read Furey before, for her style doesn't suit everyone. Still, it rates among the best books I have read, and I'm eager to read the sequels. This was a great book.

I've gotta say, as a series starter, this first book shows alot of promise, particularly by way of plot twists and character development. Although I found some of the characters shallow- with the exception of Toulac - there is room to build them up, particularly in relation to Valdan and Elion, and Blade. In the beginning there seemed to be alot of fast-paced meandering, but it levels out and concludes nicely towards the end with Zavahl's rescue. One thing I liked about this book is the way Furey artfully weaves the stray ends together to intertwine all the seperate characters into the plot. The part about Blade's romance especially threw me off. It's only the first book of the series, and after finishing it, I find myself eager to read the sequel... I only pray Furey doesn't let me down!

Something I noticed with "The Heart of Myrial" was the similarities that linked this series with the Artefacts of Power, Furey's previous series. Blade's (the misunderstood bad guy) mysterious parentage to Veldan, is similar to Anvar and his relationship with the Archmage Miathan. The lifemate/soulmate as a means of marriage is present. Scall and Anvar are also similar in the way that they both begin as runts. By the set out of the Myrial map, it looks that the characters are in for lot of back-and-forth travelling, likewise in "Artefacts". The crusty-old-warrior- stereotype is present in Toulac as it was in Forral, etc etc. I could name a few more, but there's too much to write. Furey writes with great style, and her attempt at mixing an ambigious (as yet) Ancient technology with fantasy looks to be a risk. Only time can tell if she'll pull it off!

Maggie Furey has created a world whose premise is inherently interesting. Myrial is an artificial construct world created by a mysterious people called the Ancients, about whom little is known. It is a world populated by many differing races, each separated from one another by magical "Curtain Walls" which cannot be passed through by any known means. Only her Shadowleague, a clandestine group of telepaths known as Loremasters, drawn from each of the various races, have the knowledge to pass through the walls, and their knowledge and existence is jealously guarded from the outside world.

Furey's writing style is quite readable. Her descriptions are quite vivid and excellent in helping the reader to "set the scene" and visualize the world she has created. Her choice to use many multiple viewpoints to describe her world, some of which only last for a single chapter, is an interesting one--in fact she probably could have gone farther with this than she did--and it really helps to make her world feel like a fleshed-out, real, thriving world.

However, there are several amateurish touches that get in the way. Her characters' use of the word "lifemate" instead of "husband/wife" seems jarringly 21st-century in her medieval-themed world dominated by sword and sorcery. Her various races include such exotics as centaurs, wyverns, solar-powered dragons, air-elementals, insect creatures, demons and angels, and yet somehow every race talks, thinks and acts exactly like humans do. Kaz in particular seems to be inspired by Steven Brust's jhereg Loiosh. (This is a pet peeve of mine in fantasy, btw--nonhumanoid characters should *not* act exactly like humanoids, or else they're just humans in a different shape.) The revelation of Elion's past trauma was clumsily handled by info-dumping, as was the revelation of the nature of the world and its current problems -- although part of the reason for this may have been the shifting viewpoints; she jumps around so much that it would be difficult to give us the whole story from any one character. So far it's good enough that I'll probably finish it out, but I don't know if I'll pick up the rest of the series.

Of all the D and D books I've read, I've never taken a liking to anything really. No books were able to capture my attention, but oh dear lordy, Maggie Furey had me at hello. LoL, for real though, this book is a definite must for hard core Dungeon and dragon's type people, or those that just want something fantastical.

As soon as I saw that Ms. Furey had written another book, I bought it. I didn't read the back, I just bought it. I have been avidly awaiting any new books written by the author of the Aurian Saga. This book was everything that I hoped it would be. The characters are extremely realistic, the plot is excellent and you get drawn into the story on the first page. I can see in my mind the plights of these people and how the author is drawing them all together in what will be a magnificant climax in a future novel. My ONLY complaint is that Ms. Furey is known for writting multiple novels to finish one story and I hate to wait. I give this novel 4 stars because I'm bitter about having to wait another year or so before I can read the sequal. Oh well, anticipation makes the story twice as good.