Heart of Myrial (Shadowleague 1) [Paperback]

Maggie Furey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Shadowleague 1 | Publication Date: July 6, 2000

Ever since she burst upon the world of fantasy fiction in 1994 with her first novel, AURIAN, Maggie Furey has been one of the most rapidly rising stars in the genre. Her immense storytelling skill has caught the imagination of readers across the world and have established her as one of the most popular writers in the field. THE HEART OF MYRIAL begins a spellbinding new fantasy series which will take her to new heights. The magical barriers that have held things in place for aeons are beginning to fail, and the planet is subjected to great climatic upheaval. But it is not only a natural disaster. For the boundaries have also served to keep hostile nations apart. With catastrophe imminent, the only hope of salvation lies in the hands of the Shadowleague. But first they must learn what lies within the Heart of Myrial. More information on this book and others can be found on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This fast-moving adventure opens Maggie Furey's second fantasy sequence, "The Shadowleague"; her first was the "Artefacts of Power" tetralogy. The Heart of Myrial is set in a particularly artificial-seeming fantasyland, which proves to be not a world but a technomagical construct, divided into isolated regions by sorcerous barriers of force. Thanks to the machinations of a bad guy who may have good motives, these "curtain walls" are now failing--the first symptoms being clashes between the enclaves' different environments, leading to prolonged descriptions of truly lousy weather. In theory the barriers are guarded by and can be penetrated only by Loremasters of the Shadowleague, a secret inner circle of representatives from this patchwork world's various species: humans, dragons, centaurs, wind-sprites, insectile aliens, and more. In practice the Shadowleague is almost impotent.

Against this complex background, various characters struggle across the landscape through terrible weather. A woman Loremaster and her irrepressibly feisty firedrake companion play leading parts in the large cast (many of whom suffer death or worse). After tortuous regroupings and plot twists centered on a particular city that houses a key magical shrine, the book concludes with a gory invasion of nasties through the holed curtain wall. It reads well enough, and of course there's more to come. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Review

'This fast-moving adventure opens Maggie Furey's second fantasy sequence, "The Shadowleague"; her first was the "Artefacts of Power" tetralogy, published 1994-7. The Heart of Myrial is set in a particularly artificial-seeming fantasyland which proves to be not a world but a technomagical construct, divided into isolated regions by sorcerous barriers of force. Thanks to the machinations of a bad guy who may have good motives, these "curtain walls" are now failing--the first symptoms being clashes between the enclaves' different environments, leading to prolonged descriptions of truly lousy weather. In theory the barriers are guarded by and can be penetrated only by Loremasters of the Shadowleague, a secret inner circle of representatives from this patchwork world's various species: humans, dragons, centaurs, wind-sprites, insectile aliens and more. In practice the Shadowleague is almost impotent. Against this complex background, various characters struggle across the landscape through terrible weather. A woman Loremaster and her irrepressibly feisty firedrake companion play leading parts in the large cast (many of whom suffer death or worse). After tortuous regroupings and plot twists centred on a particular city that houses a key magical shrine, book 1 concludes with a gory invasion of nasties through the holed curtain wall. It reads well enough, and of course there's more to come.' - David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK Review 'Her twisting plot keeps the pages turning rapidly ... an enjoyable romp full of adventure, magic and courage' - STARBURST

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (July 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857239717
• ISBN-13: 978-1857239713
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,243,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and intricate fantasty tale, March 5, 2000

By 

Becky Poplawsky (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of Myrial (Shadowleague) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good start to the Shadowleague series., March 30, 2000

By 

S Smyth (Belfast, Co Antrim United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Heart of Myrial (Shadowleague) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whew..., March 13, 2005

By 

Jessica G. "lilac_jive" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of Myrial (Shadowleague) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.