Customer Reviews

To the King a Daughter (Cycle of Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan, Book 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Andre Norton and Sasha Miller deliver--again. It would be a pity to give away too much of the story, so I'll just say that you'll find strong female characters and a great story with original twists.

It's apparent that this book is the entry point for a new series, and my only criticism is that I really don't want to wait 18 months for the next book to be released.

I greatly enjoyed this book and tore through it in about two days.

Rendel seems to have always contained four major powers: Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan. However, centuries of endless war have devastated Ash and Rowan, leaving the King being an Oak and the Queen being a Yew. In reality, the evil Queen Ysa rules with a strategic objective to insure her throne remains in the hands of her descendants even if the magic she uses is malevolent.

Ysa knows that the only potential obstacle is the prophecy that a female Ash will rise to wrestle the throne from her. Already loathing that house for providing her spouse with a mistress and to insure that the prophecy never occurs, Ysa has committed genocide and wiped out the House of Ash. However, deep in the swamp lives a girl being raised by a healer. That girl is the biological daughter of the king's deceased mistress. Could she be the focus of the foretelling of the return of the House of Ash or is it too late since Ysa has control of the rings of magic?

TO THE KING A DAUGHTER, the first entry in a new fantasy series, is an exciting tale that brings to life a magical world. The story line apparently sets the tone for subsequent novels as readers learn about Rendel, leaving characters in the background with the exception of Ysa. The apparent heroine never slides into prime focus until the end of the tale. Genre fans will enjoy the opening gamut that sets the stage for the series, but future surfers may find it difficult to float in and out without this well written novel as a guide.

Harriet Klausner

I love Andre Norton. When I discovered SF, it was Norton who turned me on. Her collaboration with Sasha Miller hasn't diminished her ability to string together a fascinating world. The land of Oak, Ash, Yew, and Rowan has the potential to be as interesting as Witch World.

In this initial book in the series, however, we are treated to Ashen who never really takes the novel into her own hands. Instead, she reacts. Reacts to Zazar, the witch-woman who raises her, to the Bog people among whom she is raised, and to the man who captures her. Prince Florian (Ashen's half-brother) is not much of a character either. All he is is greedy. Although the Sea Raiders are set up as good-guys, their cold-blooded attack on the bog people put me off.

I liked Queen Ysa. Alone among the characters in TO THE KING A DAUGHTER, she knows what she wants and sets about getting it. The fact that Ashen is in her way means little to her--and why should it? Ysa believes she is doing what is right for the kingdom and there is every evidence that she is right. At least she is making decisions and moving the book forward.

The writing and the setting are too compelling not to look forward to the next book in this series. Although I had troubles with the novel, I still found it hard to put it down. Just don't expect a WITCH WORLD.

Some of Ms. Norton's collaborations "click" and some don't. This one really doesn't. There's the trademark cute and intelligent animals, the wisewoman (wysen-wyf, a title that kept giving me a mental image of one of those dried apple dolls), the Sulcar--uh, Sea-Rovers, and some palace intigue. But honestly there was too much happening and the authors did not draw it all together. The book lacked a sense of "place" which never happened with Witch World. It was very hard to get a sense of when the actions were occurring in relation to one another. And none of characters seem to come into focus.

I really had to push myself to finish this book, which has never happened with a book that Ms. Norton has done alone, and I really don't care what happens in the rest of the proposed series.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the second Edgehill/Norton book due out this month. I thought Shadow of Albion was a real feast and I'm eagerly awaiting the next one.

I was so disappointed in this book.

Ms Norton is the person who started me reading that "trashy science fiction" as my grandmother called it. And it is largely due to writers like her that science fiction and fantasy have a reputation for dealing with not just the nuts and bolts of science, but also the workings of the human heart.

Her stories, whether written for young adult readers or older adult readers were clear, nicely plotted and could usually be read on two levels, one a simpler level of adventure, the other a deeper level for those who wanted more. That being said, WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

I read the book first, then the reveiws. I went back and re-examined the points in the book that I felt were unclear. Then I had to admit-- the faults were in the book, not my reading. The role of the author is to communicate. If there is a failure in basic communication, in story telling, to the point where numerous literate individuals, many of whom have loved Ms Norton's other work, are wondering "What is going on here?" then it isn't the reader's fault. There's a failure on the part of the authors. As I said in the title to this review, this is an adventure story, it's not Ulysses so it should be accessible and pleasurable to read not a chore.

The book is derivitive of Ms Norton's other work, but lacks its virtues. There is no strong sense of place or plot. The characters are cliched and one dimensional. In other books by Ms Norton the hero or heroine is very often out of place or time, must overcome some perceived physical or mental obstacle to find his or her place. In this book Ashen seems to be just going through the motions. There's no real sense of urgency about her situation, even when the villagers turn against her.

Compare this for instance to the situations that Tritha and her Falconer find themselves coping with in Ware Hawk or Kaththea in Sorceress of the Witch World and you can see how weak this book is compared to even minor efforts written by Ms Norton alone.

Please don't form any opinion of Ms Norton based on this work. Try The Zero Stone or Witch World instead of this one.

This was the first Andre Norton book I had read in many years and I was very disappointed in it. I had much higher expectations.

What really annoyed me about it was the highly mutable geography and timeline. The map was nothing like the geography described in text. The Bog was north, west, or south of the kingdom depending on what paragraph was being read. A teenage girl could cautiously walk through the dangerous bog in a few hours but it took a week for sea rovers to sail around the edge. The antagonist could magically scry upon the protagonist, spend several days doing other things then scry again and only a few hours would have passed in the life of the protagonist.

There was no thought, logic, or consistency to matters of time, travel time, and geography; and I found that very aggravating.

To the King a Daughter (2000) is the first volume in the Cycle of Oak, Yew, Ash and Rowan trilogy. This new fantasy series describes the history of Rendel during the period after the strike of the great thunder-star has freed the Great Foulness. Once there were four great powers in the world -- Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan -- but time and war have reduced these powers to shadows of their former glory. The King of Oak is a drunken lout, the Queen of Yew is a magical schemer, and Ash and Rowan are nearly dead.

In this novel, a woman pregnant with the King's daughter, and Ash's heir, flees to the Bale Bog, there to give birth and die. The newborn is named Ashen Deathdaughter by Zazar, the Wysen-wyf who delivers her. Ashen is raised as Zazar's apprentice, doing lessons and chores and running through the boglands. Since she is an Outlander, the bog-folk would, by custom, have tossed her into the nearest bog, but Zazar protects her. As she grows older, the young men are somewhat ambivalent about her, both attracted and repelled.

The soldiers of the Yew who have followed Ashen's mother's party believe that the pregnant woman has been lost in the mire, which would surely please the Queen, for now there would be no others to dispute her son's right to the throne. Of course, the young prince is only concerned at this time with bargaining for a pony of his own and, as he grows older, he learns that visits to his ill father are worth plum pudding for desert. So like his father, Queen Ysa thinks, but there is still time to train him to loftier pursuits.

In the far north, the only city of the Sea-Rovers has been destroyed by the tsunami following the thunder-star strike. The surviving ships rendezvous with their High Chief, Snorri, in the land of the Nordens, but then sail on to establish a new city on some hospitable shore; to repay the kindness shown them, the Sea-Rovers transport a Norden emissary, Count Bjauden, to Rendel. Unfortunately, after near three years of battles, the Sea-Rovers are driven out of their new lands by a enemy from the northern ice regions and they have to flee again, this time to the Ashenhold in Rendel. Snorri's son, Obern, is sent ahead to scout and to find a safe harbor.

In Rendel, Queen Ysa spins her webs and, after she gains the four great rings of Oak, Yew, Ash and Rowan, uses their magic to forward her plots. She has virtual control of everyone in Rendel...except her own son. Indeed, the young Prince, out of spite, commissions one of the house servants to assassinate Count Bjauden and leave his body in a ruined city in the Bog.

This series is based on an archetype in many religions, the weavers of lifelines, who have been known in various times and places as the Fates, the Norns, Brigit, and other names. Certain trees are significant to most of the Western European religions, but the mythos of the Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan is specific to the old religions of the British Isles and France, particularly to what is now known as Wicca. Thus, the background of this story is drawn from the mythology of Pre-Christian Europe that has figured so prominently in other Norton stories. However, the story overlays this religious context on the architecture, dress, customs and mores of Western Europe of about the 14th century CE, yet with neither the influence of Rome nor the competition between England and France.

Sasha Miller has previously contributed a story to Norton's On the Wings of Magic anthology in The Turning series of Witch World related writings. She has also written Ladylord, a fantasy novel similar in plot, but not treatment, to Moore's Jirel of Joiry. Insofar as I am aware, this is the first novel that she has co-authored with Norton.

Recommended for Norton fans and anyone who enjoys war, magic and feudal politics in a fantasy setting.

-Arthur W. Jordin

As other reviewers have reported, this book is not up to Andre Norton's standards. Its characters are somewhat sketchy (especially the latecomer character "Marcala," really the Queen's spymistress). Zazar seems intriguing; there are hints about her past, but little attention is paid to her in the text. The emotional focus of the book is clearly on Ashen Deathdaughter, so I was disappointed that so much of the book was spent examining other characters -- Ysa, the Queen, for example, gets chapter upon chapter of page-time, though her character seems forced and stiff.

The physical environs and cultures described in the book are somewhat better treated. It seems clear that the kingdom of Rendel is meant to resemble medieval French culture, with its intricate politics and emphasis on grace and beauty. The "Sea-rovers" are rather less convincing as Viking analogues, but nonetheless rather interesting. The Bog-culture I thought poorly handled, particularly the habit of the Bog folk to speak in ungrammatical "ugh ugh me savage, kill you good" fashion. It goes beyond the point of adding regional flavor and well into the realm of caricature.

The book's single biggest flaw was its pacing. It took an AGONIZINGLY long time for all of the disparate characters to meet one another. If you think of Ashen, Obern, and Ysa as the three main characters, I'd say about two thirds of the book passed before any one of them met any one of the others.

That said, the series might have potential. Now that each of these characters has been introduced, in the next book the authors can roll up their sleeves and get down to some actual story with all the elements that have been set up. This first book seems to me to be mainly a way of setting the stage for things to come, though it certainly could have been better done in about half the space.

I mentioned above that this book is not up to Andre Norton's standards...

I am somewhat doubtful of Ms. Miller's abilities based on this book; but you have to start somewhere, so I would be willing to buy and read one or two more books of hers before rendering a final judgement.

Ok, this book reminded me of one of those stories you tell around a campfire where one person starts and then you pass it along to someone else and they have to add to it and so on and so on. There were quite a few small flaws in the story that just irritated me. One the minor characters seemed to total change personalities three or four time. At one point she was spy pretending to be a noblewoman, then she WAS the noblewoman, then she seemed to be a noblewoman pretending to be a spy. It was implied that another character killed someone then he simply denies it and the incident is ignored. It's like one of the authors writes the character, the other takes over and does something totally different with the character then passes it back and leaves the first author to try and get things back to the way they were. Then there's the location of the Bale-Bog. Throughout most of the story it is well established that the bog lies to the north of the country of Rendel, but somewhere toward the end it suddenly picks up roots and moves south. Now don't get me wrong all these things could probably be overlooked if the story was better, but the characters seem to lack an identity of the their own. The most well developed character in the book is Queen Ysa, so much so that I find myself almost cheering for her, after all, all she wants to do is what's best for the country, even if she is blinded by jealousy. Between the authors that can't seem to get in sync and the weak characters and plot line this book was a real disappointment.

As an avid Norton fan for more than thirty years, I was extremely disappointed in this story. It led one to believe a major confrontation between good and evil was about to take place any moment yet nothing ever happens. The ending was a complete let down. If I had picked up this book thirty years ago, I would have miss out on some of the greatest works of SF ever written. This simply is not up to Norton's standards and cannot compare to the Witch World series.