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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Fantasy Tale! (A Grade), September 21, 2008
C.L. Wilson has a lot to live up to with, King of Sword and Sky, the third book in this fanasty saga and the continuing tale of Ellysetta Baristani and her soul mate and husband Rainer vel'En Daris who must save the Tairens from extinction. Ellysetta is the key to the Tairen's salvation and if she fails, both the Fey and Tairen will fall victim to their enemy, the Mages of Eld. King of Sword and Sky begins where Lady of Light and Shadow has left off. Rain is taking Ellie to his home, the Fading Lands, along with her father, Sol, and her younger twin sisters, Lillis and Lorelle. Ellie's family will not be traveling on to the Fading Lands, but will be protected and guarded by the trusted Fey warriors who follow Rain. Ellie is not just a simple woodcarver's daughter who has fallen for a mystical man, but a very powerful being who is also Fey and has mage powers.
The reason Ellie also has the marks of the Mage is due to Vadim Maur, the High Mage of Eld. He rules over all the Mages and is so, so evil. He has made Ellie's Fey parents, Shan and Elfeya, his prisoner for five hundred years and has used horrible tortures on both. Vadim wants Ellie because he was able to give their daughter some very dark mage powers. She is his ultimate perfection, a possible tool to destroy those against him, and a way for him to rule the world. Ellie was his first experiment and since then he has gone on to make more just like her. And Ellie just may be the most powerful of all. Vadim is able to kill the unborn baby Tairens by taking their souls and life forces, and using them to make future powerful Mages. The Tairens are totally clueless to what Vadim is capable of and because of that he is winning. All hope seems lost, that is until Ellie and Rain arrive.
Ellie and Rain have a lot of work cut out for them because the Fey senses that Ellie has dark magic within her. They know she has these mage powers and they feel she is an abomination, that Rain has been tricked into believing that Ellie is his soul mate. The Fey Rain thought would welcome his new bride, turn against Ellie, and soon Rain will have more problems that just the Eld Mages who are planning an attack on the Fey again, after a thousand years. Rain and Ellie are basically on their own with only a select few by their side to help them. Ellie will try to find out why the unborn Tairen are dying and save them. Rain will begin to ready his troops for battle because the Mages are on their way to destroy both the Fey and Tairen for good.
In all honesty, my review does not do King of Sword and Sky justice. It is so easy to say, "You must read this book!". As for the reasons why, that is a bit more difficult. C.L. has written another complex story, as in, complex being the key word here. And, let me tell you, this is one book that you cannot speed read through or lose your concentration with. Each page should be savored as you read, every character and their actions should be paid close attention to, because there is a slow build up to the final battle between two powerful enemies. I am not even sure if Rain and Ellie will survive because each day brings them, their friends, and loved ones closer to possible death. This is not a happy go lucky read, but a very dark, dark book filled with death, murder and torture, both physical and spiritual. And the culprit? That nasty piece of work, Vadim.
Oh how I hate Vadim! Let me count the ways! I wanted him to die a slow painful death with disembowelment and any other painful torture I can think of. What he inflects on Ellie's parents and even Ellie herself is so horrible. I have read many villains in my lifetime, but Vadim takes the cake. He is the total opposite of everything that is good inside of Ellie and Rain and I cannot wait for him to get his just desserts. If you are one who enjoys having such a visceral response over a character in a book, Vadim just may be the one.
Where as Lord of the Fading Lands and Lady of Light and Shadows was a start of a journey and more of a romance with fantasy elements thrown in, King of Sword and Sky is the opposite. The fantasy and magic is more upfront and Rain and Ellie are now a team who understand each other. They are still very much in love and there are some nice scenes of love making between them, but really, their romance is a secondary one to everything else that is going on.
C.L. Wilson's Tarien Soul series just may be the closest one I can think of in comparison to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books. And, King of Sword and Sky is no exception. I found myself unable to move away from reading, wanting to get to the end to see how things will continue into the fourth and final book, Queen of Song and Souls, set to be released in June 2009. This is one book that everyone must read and if you haven't read the first two in this series, you are so very much missing out. The world that C.L. Wilson has created does not just make for good reading but brings to light an incredible vision that doesn't happen all too often. Take my word for it, the Tairen Soul books are cherished reads that should be passed down to each generation of readers. If there is one book you read this year, it must be King of Sword and Sky.
Katiebabs
Lord of the Fading Lands
Lady of Light and Shadows
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This rates up there with Anne Bishops Black Jewel Trilogy, October 8, 2008
As a bookseller, sometimes we get advanced copies of books from authors that are not well known. A little over a year ago I found a copy of Lord of the Fading Lands that we had received. And while you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, that's what drew my interest to pick it up. So glad I did!
C.L. Wilson is an author to watch! She has an artist's way with words. She's created a truly magical world filled with Fey, evil Mages, wonderful creatures called the Tairen and spun her own special weave of love, friendship, honor and sacrifice.
Her characters gain more depth with each new volume of the series, and while I love the main storyline of Rain and Ellysetta, I also have to admit her other characters have me hooked as well. Connecting the dots between the supporting characters, both Fey, Celerian, Eld, and the Tairen is a fascinating puzzle. Galen is my favorite secondary character. Why do I always like the 'bad' boys? :)
This third installment of the Fading Lands does not disappoint. It picks up right where the ending of Lady of Light and Shadows left off with Raine bringing Ellysetta back to the fading lands. The lovers face numerous challenges: The Mages of Eld are planning another war, Ellysetta still doesn't understand her vast powers nor how she will help save the Tairen. Not to mention the High Mage is trying to claim her soul.
And just HOW are the Fay going to react when they see Galen, the former dahl'reisen Dark Lord returning home? dahl'reisen are considered 'lost souls'...those who have strayed from the Fey path of honor due to killing so many others (in battle, etc) and the weight of those souls becomes too much for them to bear and they are banished from the Fading Lands. The Fey do not look kindly upon their 'fallen' brothers. Now Ellysetta is bringing one of them, the most notorious, home with her. But first they have to get through the Faering Mists that guard the Fading Lands.
The Tairen are counting on her to save them. The ferocious winged felines (the size of Clydesdales) are the source of the Feys magic, and are connected somehow to the life force of the Fading Lands. The kitlings are dying in the eggs and no one can figure out why.
If you like Fantasy stories with strong female characters (as well as compelling male ones), stories that bring the Fey out of legend, the creation of fascinating creatures like the Tairen, Good vs Evil on an epic scale, and a true love that lasts no matter what, then you will love this series. I guarantee it.
Lord of the Fading Lands
Lady of Light and Shadows
King of Sword and Sky (Tairen Soul)
And don't miss the next and final chapter of Raine and Elly's story, The Queen of Song and Souls, due out in March of '09. I can't wait!!!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The third book in this series is another triumph for the author, April 3, 2009
The first two books in this series, "Lord of the Fading Lands" and "Lady of Light and Shadows", were well wrought by the author, C. L. Wilson. One can make some sense of this book without those, but it would be a struggle. Best to read the earlier volumes--in order--first. But the effort at getting up to speed will be well with it.
The two key characters are Rainer vel'En Daris, the Fey King, and Elysetta Baristani, purportedly a woodcutter's daughter but, actually, much more than that. Indeed, her parents, with the intervention of the evil High Mage of Eld, Vadim Maur, have created a powerful woman, with magic of great depth.
The first two volumes showed the growing relationship between the two and began developing the story that (I am sure) will lead to a final conflict between the Mage and the Fey (with allied forces). This volume gets to a key mystery--why the Fey and the Tairen (giant cats might be the best way to describe them) are not breeding. Elysetta (Ellie) has been identified by a mysterious source as the person who can end the slow death of the peoples of the Fading Lands. But the conflict by which Elysetta is able to save the "kitlings" (offspring of the Tairen) leaves her even more compromised by the evil Mage, raising questions about her loyalty to the Fey.
And the other characters. . . . The great warrior Bel, whose soul Elysetta restored; Gaelen, the great warrior who had gone to "the dark side," only to be cleaned by Elysetta's magic; the Tairen; Ellie's family; and so on.
And there are those throw away vignettes which make us wonder what the dynamics will be in the fourth volume. The child who says of the High Mage--"Kill him"; the two captive Fey, held in Eld by the High Mage who still possess enormous power; the politics of Celeria, the home land of Ellie's family and a bulwark against Eld; and so on.
All in all, this is a fascinating novel, and once you start (if you like the genre) you will be hard put to set this book aside. Lots of fun, and I can't wait for book # 4.
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