The House of Gaian (Tir Alainn Trilogy) [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne Bishop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2003 | Series: Tir Alainn Trilogy

In the conclusion of the Tir Alainn Trilogy, the uneasy alliance between Fae and humans may not be enough to defeat the Inquisitors-leaving them no choice but to seek out the witches of the House of Gaian. But can they be trusted?

Editorial Reviews

Review

A vivid fantasy world...Beautiful. (BookBrowser)

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Roc (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451459423
• ISBN-13: 978-0451459428
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Bishop is a winner of the William L. Crawford Memorial Fantasy Award, presented by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT QUITE THE SAME, October 13, 2003

By 

Phillip B. Spotts "cintibookworm" (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The House of Gaian (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

When a new book comes out in a series I have particularly enjoyed I await it with feelings of both joyful anticipation and dread. Why dread? In the past I have found far to often that it is difficult for sequels to match the excellence of initial volumes and this has a tendency to taint the entire series for me. Unfortunately in the case of THE HOUSE OF GAIAN this dread was well founded.

Not that HOG is a particularly bad book, it is in fact a genuinely average piece of fiction given the profession standards of today, but it pales in comparison to the first two volumes in this series, PILLARS OF THE WORLD and SHADOWS AND LIGHT. Touted as the final volume in the Tir Alainn trilogy you would expect it to bind all the treads of the first two books into one grand finale of the story. Close but not quite. It does indeed end the saga of the Blackcoats in a final battle that unites the Fae, Barons and witches but the story line is so disjointed as to make it difficult to follow. If fact there are as many unanswered questions at the end as there were at the beginning. In stead of coming to a tightly woven conclusion it seams to unravel like a pair of frayed jeans.

Problems it has in spades. Numerous new characters are introduced adding story line threads that seem to just petter out leaving you wondering just what was their purpose. They add nothing to the original story line, which didn't need help by the way, and made the reading disjointed, jumpy and a little difficult to follow.

Character development, one of the strong points of the first two volumes, is sadly lacking. Not that this is necessarily bad in a final volume but with the numbers of new characters introduces too many become mere hollow shells with little apparent purpose. Also a good number of you old favorite characters seem to fade away or are brought in for cameos again with little or no relevance to the overall plot.

If you enjoyed the romance infused throughout the first tow, forget it, there is almost none here. There is a little bit between Breanne and Falco and a weak attempt to associate Liam with one of the new characters but in all it falls fairly flat. Romance was one of the strong points of the first two volumes but here the rambling, disjointed nature of the storyline precludes actually developing any real connections between the characters

Let's leave it at this, HOG is good, but nowhere near the same quality as the first two volumes. Maybe it was written too fast, maybe she just ran out of ideas. Whatever, fans of PILLARS OF THE WORLD and SHADOWS AND LIGHT will want to read it, but be prepared for disappointment.

I RECOMMEND it, with reservations.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent end to a decent series., April 26, 2004

By 

cymraess (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House of Gaian (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

I think Bishop got a little carried away by the end of this series. Adolfo did not have enough motivation for the horrible things he did, the witches were way too powerful and way to perfect and all of the most intriguing characters died. Well, that's not entirley true. Murtagh,the Lord of the Selkies lived, but he barely appeared.

In the second book I was impressed by the power of the witches, and the obstinancy of the Fae annoyed me, but by House of Gaian, I was so sick of those supremely perfect witches that I wanted to kill them myself. The whole premise of the story was that witches are all-powerful, the fae should be humbled and anyone who opposes the witches is wrong and ignorant. And yet these incredibly powerful women did nothing to spread their knowledge or to help thier fellows in the previous books. I got tired of the constant lectures on witch power and fae ignorance. If the witches refused to tell their story how can they blame others for not knowing it? That bothered me a great deal.

I can't say I was pleased, either, that Bishop turned Lucian into such a horrible villian. In my mind he was one of the most intriging characters in the first book. He had a great deal of potential to develop, but Bishop took the easy way out and he remained exactly as he was. A great pity in my mind.

I fell in love with the characters of Breanna and Liam in the second book- they are quite perfect but utterly charming none the less, and I enjoyed their presence in this book. I cannot say the same for Selena however. She was too all-powerful and holier than thou. It was rather alienating. Also, I was a little curious as to why Ashk was so powerful. As far as I could tell, all she could do was turn into a Shadow Hound and shoot a bow well. So why exactly did Aiden keep getting chills whenever she said something ominous?

Compared to the previous books, House of Gaian is considerably darker, but it didn't bother me too much. It gets a little gory near the end, and some of the character die, but it only alleivates the sense of loss that one gets when reading about the witch-hunts and the battle. Overall I think the book rounded off the series quite well, and though it had its flaws, I enjoyed it a great deal. I shall certainly continue reading Ann Bishop's books.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An action filled ending, October 9, 2003

By 

Katrine Berg "book addict" (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The House of Gaian (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book starts right where "Shadow and Light" ends.
The Hunter is making ready to leave the west to gather an army that can fight against the Master Inquisitor. She has the power to force the fae into the fight, but there is a new Lady of the Moon, who might use her power to oppose this. And what about the Daughters and Sons of the Mother, will they leand their aid to the course ? Because the Master Inquisitor has found a new way to twist the magic he steals.
The story includes all the characters we already know (and love) and introduces a few new important ones. The pace of the story is stunning, and it can at times be hard to follow because it jumps between people and places. So it thakes some concentration.
But I like the story and you get the answers you have been waiting for: The story about the beginning of the fae and the witches.