Customer Reviews

Isle of Battle (Swans War 2)

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

 

 

This book is the second in the Swan's War Trilogy and should not be read without reading The One Kingdom first. Like the first book, The Isle of Battle follows the exploits of people in the mythical "Land Between the Mountains" as they try their best to deal with the resurgence of three ancient sorcerors who have all risen from the beyond to wreck havoc and discord upon the land. Or maybe not. The beauty of the story is that you are never quite sure who to trust or what their hidden motives are. The only sure thing is that the really, really bad sorceror (the others range from sort of good, to not so bad in some situations) is really, really bad and it is obvious that it will take the usual extreme effort of those involved to defeat him.

It's a pretty good book, full of adventure and a great deal of it takes place in an interesting enchanted swamp over which none of the characters have any control. While the book does not have a "cliffhanger" ending, it does sort of just stop as if it were the end of a chapter. I will look forward to reading the third one. The author has a nice writing style and his characters are interesting and believable. My only complaint is that toward the end of the book, the author threw in a subplot involving a fleeing noblemen which seemed unnecessary at the time and this story line was not brought to a proper conclusion in this book. I am sure that it will resurface in the next, whenever it comes out. Since the book is titled, "Book Two of the Swan's War", I was not sure if this story was going to turn into some Jordanesque neverending story, but the inside cover refers to the series as a "Trilogy", thereby giving me hope the story will actually end with the next book. Why don't more Fantasy authors try this approach?

I really enjoyed Russell's opening book in the Swan's War Trilogy, The One Kingdom. It had a meandering pace that paralled his water and river themes with action coming fast and unexpected like rapids, or twisting through a quiet backwater and reveling some interesting character developments. If book 1 is about the magical River Wynnd, then unfortunately book 2 is all about a swamp, the aptly named Stillwater. And just like a stagnanting swamp his plot goes nowhere, his character development is as stunted as the trees and you are left thinking did I really need to spend 400+ pages slogging through this morass?

For all that the plot basically goes nowhere, the book does read suprisingly fast. Quick shifts to multiple story lines and short chapters disguise the basic dearth of plot. His language and descriptions are first rate and manage to carry you, if not the plot, along. Still, characters so well drawn in Book 1, particularly the Valemen and Alaan, phone in their performances here. Russell basically appears unable to juggle his growing cast of interesting characters and rather then give a few top billing, gives everyone short shrift. Which is sad because I think Russell is one of the few original fantasty writers working today. Perhaps his biggest problem is he's always been a two-book writer. Having to expand his story into three may be why number two feels as if it's just a placeholder. Let's hope the third book crawls out of the swamp and moves on to, oh, let's say an ocean. Deep, vast, mysterious and mercurial. I'd like book 3 to be like an ocean. Here's hoping Russell is listening.

For the second part of a trilogy, this was really good. The second book is always the hump you have to get over before the ending and its understandable that its not going to be the best since it doesn't have a true beginning or end.
However, this book does a good job tying the first book up and leading us into the next one due out in nov 2004. Characters from the first book get attention but its limited, as now there seems to be twice as many.
Anyone who complains about this must have forgotten that Tolkien, the reigning king and standard of fantasy, did the same thing with having more characters than the bible.
But while there are a lot of characters, its also importatnt to say there are a lot of good characters. Prince Michael, Ravenheart, Elise, Tam, Baore...fantastic personalities. After reading the second book, the 'good' people didn't seem all that good and the 'bad people' didn't seem all that terrible.

the concept of the book is worth the read. I disagree with people saying it doesn't move the story forward. It might meander a bit, but its still a page turner. Besides, if you're going to read the trilogy you really have to read the second book and I think this is well worth what I anticapte as an exciting end to a well-thought out journey. Russell has outdone himself with this trilogy. I can just feel it!

I am a big Sean Russell fan. I have read all of his novels and really enjoy his writing. However, this book fell short of my expectations. The first book in the One Kingdom trilogy was fantastic - maybe the best he has written so far. In the second part of the story though, it seems as though Mr. Russell has bitten off more than he can chew.

The book feels both too long and too short. It is too short because he has added a bunch of characters to a story with already a large cast and it is impossible for him to really develop these characters to the best of his abilities and stay within the scope of the story.

The book feels too long because he spends many pages on sub plots with characters that are somewhat tangencial to the main plot and you don't really care about them.

Mr. Russell writes beautifully as always. His descriptions rival Tolkien like no other fantasy writer I have ever read, but this book is frustrating for the reasons mentioned above, along with the fact that I don't know how long I will have to wait for the rest of the story (I believe there will be one more book, making it his first trilogy).

I give the book four stars, but really I would rather three and a half. I give four because I love his writing and I hope he doesn't leave me hanging too long for the next part.

I'm having trouble understanding the poor reviews that some readers have posted here. This book was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. The characters are both interesting and believable, the dialogue is realistic (as opposed to the mechanical sort which I come across far too often in this genre) and the story becomes more engaging with every chapter. This book contains all the elements of a first rate fantasy. Intrigue, adventure, betrayal, love and war, magic that is both subtle and original, a vivid and wonderful cast of characters, a plot that is neither too complex nor too simple, a lively pace, and all of this in a mere 451 pages!! How does he do it? I've read entire trilogies where less happens! My advice to you is to simply ignore the three star or less reviews that this book has received and go out and buy it for yourself. I promise that if you are a reader with any sense of taste you will enjoy it as much as I did. Well done S.R. Well done!

You're driving down the road, heading into some of the most beautiful scenery you've ever seen. It's fall, and the trees are gloriously orange, brown, and gold, the colours vibrantly hitting your eyes and washing over them. You think to yourself, "I could travel through here forever and it never would get old." Then, you hit the state line, but that's ok. The author of such beauty doesn't need to worry about arbitrary boundaries. He will continue to produce this breathtaking sight despite that. And sure enough, as you keep going down the road, the trees are the same, the mountains in the distance are the same, and you are content. Then, you start to notice something strange. The trees are cardboard cut-outs. The beautiful prairies surrounding you and leading up to the distant mountains look pleasant, but are really mud-filled and don't bear up to closer examination. As you drive along, you notice that this is seeming more incredibly fake with each passing mile, and all of the cut-outs are the same. Before, each tree was its own creation, but now it's not even a reasonable facsimile.

Those are my feelings in a nutshell about The Isle of Battle, by Sean Russell. It's the second book in the Swans War trilogy. The first book is beautiful, full of wonderful metaphors about stories and how we create them. The second book, however, loses almost all of the magic of the first, abandoning the metaphor except for a few token references and concentrating on a war between ancient beings who have come back as avatars, inhabiting people in the present to continue their battle. This book starts right where the previous one left off, and I was enthralled. I even commented as such. But then, everything started feeling the same, Russell started using other characters that I didn't care about, and most of the main characters are stuck in one locale for almost the entire book. It started getting tedious, and the story metaphor that I so enjoyed seemed to have disappeared. What could have happened to cause such drastic changes? What's so different?

The more I read of this book, the more I missed the characters I had grown to love in the first book. It's not that Russell does a bad job of characterization. He doesn't change the characters without them learning something or being changed by events. However, what he does is uses the surface of the characters that he had made so rich, making them part of a plot that doesn't really involve them, and doesn't make them grow. They are fairly stagnant in The Isle of Battle, and Russell concentrates on this ancient war. He doesn't neglect the situation between the Renné and the Wills, however. They still go to war over the Isle of Battle, and there is a battle scene or two. Lord Carral, Elise's father, is fairly well-characterized, as a blind man who has forsaken his duty to his family for too long, and is trying to make amends however he can. He had voluntarily relinquished the leadership of his family to his corrupt brother, and now his daughter is dead (he doesn't know she survives). He is forced to make some hard choices and do some things he has never done. He is one of the few characters who I actually liked more in the second book.

Most of the action between the characters we know takes place in a stagnant swamp, with constant descriptions of standing water, fog, beasts, and character wandering fill the text. A lot of the time is spent despairing that they will get Alaan out in time, as they must get him to the river Wynnd to save him, and he's the only person who can get them out of this land. More seemingly immortal characters show up, some interesting and some not, who have been involved with this war between the siblings for generations. These sequences became repetitive very quickly, and the oppressive atmosphere that Russell describes becomes the mood of the reader as well. That's not a good thing when an author is trying to capture his readers and make them wonder what happens next. I got to the point that I didn't care.

It's too bad that Russell abandons his story motif, because it really made the first book interesting. Lip service is given to it, as Cynddl repeatedly talks about the land they're trapped in, and how "so many people's stories have ended here." It's too little, however, and what there is of it also becomes quite repetitive as well. In fact, that's the main problem of this book: repetition. You start to feel like you've read the entire thing before, just a few pages ago. The plot is so obvious (Hafydd is going to let them rescue Alaan and then follow them out so he doesn't get trapped there as well), that even the characters constantly remark on it.

There are two things that make this even remotely worth reading. First, it's a continuation of what could be an interesting story, and there is hope that he can make the third book more interesting (though I haven't heard of a publication date, so who knows how long you'll have to wait). Secondly, Russell still has a way with prose. Even as he's battering you with the dreariness of the swamp, he's describing it so well that you feel like you're there. His prose is a joy to read, it's just too bad that he had to wreck the story that went along with it.

Buy this one in paperback or get it from the library. Read it to continue the story, but that's it. What a disappointment.

David Roy

A decent 2nd book in this trilogy.

While I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first, I'd still recommend this series to any serious fantasy genre lover. Plenty of intrigue, betrayals, magical happenings and unexpected twists and turns.

However, I have a couple of complaints for this book.

1.)Most annoying, there is no map: this story covers a huge geographic area and a map would have added so much to the overall quality of this epic fantasy. Hard to believe that the author didn't include one.

2.)Without giving spoilers, there was one locale in this book that seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to get through.

All in all, a good second book in this interesting and well written fantasy series. Recommended. 4-4 1/2 Stars.

The first novel was so much better than this one. Like others, I was very disappointed. The plot was set up so well for an Elise versus Hafydd blood match, leading armies and kicking butt all over the place, one with the Wills, one with the Renne, while Alaan is working the middle of the game trying to bring them both down. Maybe its base of me to want that plot line. Very male at the least. But how much more would it have rocked than what we got? Especially with metaphor and stories exploding all over the place.

Instead, this book plods along slowly, unveiling another layer of the past that isn't exactly needed. The Renne and Wills battle royal is pointless without the main characters involved, and the main characters are stuck behind a wall, cut off from the huge battle that has been set up. In fact, most of this novel is just our main group asking if they are close to Alaan and if Hafydd is closer, over and over and over. It was like reading the famous car ride with the children asking if you are there yet. If it wasn't for how interesting the three river children were, then it would have been pretty horrible. Alaan, Elise, and Hafydd actually save the novel, though they are underused. Also a high point are the Carrel and Llyn scenes.

The famous Russell, "this way and that" pops up a lot here as well, so often that it gets annoying every time. "All about" would have even been better, especially if they were mixed together. I just don't understand how as an author or an editor you read that and flags don't pop up, maybe not just at the wording but how often.

What really hurts more than anything, however, is that characters just disappear within the group. Unlike David Eddings, who is famous for making a party of ten people interesting, the wit and banter flowing, Russell is just unable to manage it. It would have been better if some characters had just died out right than die the slow death of the forgotten...poor poor forgotten Cynddl. Not only could their deaths have been emotional, but it could have stimulated plot among the characters that weren't sacrificed to the writer's lack of ability in that area.

Final Thought: The first novel was great, I loved it. I only liked this one. The Swans War is a song of unrealized potential.

Sean Russell's second book in the Swan's War series is a good sequel. It keeps the momentum going from One Kingdom, but it does not deepen the story by much.

First the good stuff: Russell's writing is very descriptive, and you get a good sense of place thoughout, whether castles, swamps or islands. In relation to most fantasy series, Russell's character's are fairly multi-dimensional (not Tolkein, but a good deal better than Robert Jordan). The pace of the story was also good, with the chase through the stillwater keeping me absorbed throughout. I even liked the side stories, (which some have said detract from the overall plot).

My main problem with this novel is not in the writing style, but rather in the concept. In the One Kingdom, it was refreshing to have only a few characters with powerful magical abilities who, while pivotal to the plot, did not take center stage in the story. This allowed for a view of Russell's world from the perspective of more human characters. In the Isle of Battle, the highly magical characters take center stage, and most of the others characters, who, having swelled in numbers since the first book, are shunted to the side. Basically the whole menagerie are swept along on the coat tails of the three least interesting characters in the book. Unfortunately, Russell has allowed his concept, a constrained system of magic (the three children of wyr, the greatest magician who ever lived, returning to life), to force the plot into a one dimensional course. While he does expand the magic system to some degree in this book (Sianth's friends, and wyr's brother), it is not enough to save the story. Russell seems to have forgotten that powerful characters can be central to the plot without taking over.

If you like the idea of constrained systems of magic... but DON'T like the magicians taking over the story read Guy Gavriel Kay's book Tigana (the magicians are pivotal to the plot, but are NOT the focus of the story).

All in all Isle of Battle is a good book, but not a great one.

The reviews of this book may sound like a broken record. I loved The One Kingdom. I liked The Isle of Battle. The One Kingdom felt as though it was a breath of life into a overworn genre. The Isle of Battle feels like a reasonable bog standard entry in the same genre. Too bad, but it left me feeling quite a bit of regret for what could have been.

Most of the focus in this book is not on the Valemen, but instead shifts to be much more about the war between the Avatars. I found that I cared much less about the Avatars-- they were mostly interesting in the last book because of the impact that they had on the main characters. Great powers are a lot less interesting than people as characters in and of themselves.

The biggest shame is that The Isle of Battle makes me almost forget exactly what I found so fresh and wonderful about The One Kingdom. If things don't improve by book three, then most of the good momentum of the series will be wasted.

Fingers crossed.