7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable fantasy epic, October 11, 2004
Zindell takes the jump from sci fi epic to fantasy epic with mixed results. Fans of "Neverness" will encounter many familiar themes, and even some familiar characters. The hero is a bit like Mallory Ringess, but nicer and without the self-destructive streak. His chubby sidekick is Bardo all over again. This time they are questing for a magical object that will supposedly bring world peace. The book's biggest weakness is the plot, which feels too contrived, like a marathon game of "D&D." But then, Zindell seems to give a sly wink to the D&D crowd when he has his characters fight a dragon -- in a dungeon. There are also numerous references, both overt and covert, to heroic legends and fantasy classics like Gilgamesh, King Arthur, the Holy Grail, Tolkien, Ursula LeGuin, and probably many others. I started to wonder if Zindell didn't intend this book to be an homage or retelling of the heroic/fantasy genre itself. Overall, "The Lightstone" is an entertaining read, but I wish Zindell had spent even more time on the characters and their history and culture, which is where he truly shows himself to be a master storyteller.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich in prophecy, magic and darknes, October 7, 2005
In the land of Ea, wars are raging between the many kingdoms as its people allow old grievances to fester and mindlessly bicker amongst themselves. However a dark power is threatening to rule them all. Morjin, the fallen angel, seeks the Lightstone in order to release the Lord of Lies from his prison. King Kiritan of Alonia has called for a quest to find the Lightstone and, along with hundreds of other knights, nobles and would-be heros, the seventh son of King Shamesh of Mesh joins this mission. `The Lightstone' is the first part of the `Ea Cycle' and tells the journey of Valashu Elahad, son of King Shamesh, as he battles first to Tria in an attempt to join the quest and then on his path as he searches for the Lightstone. This is a complex tale filled with prophecy, magic and darkness.
I found this book very easy to get into as straight away we are pulled into the innermost thoughts and emotions of the main character. We see him struggle to decide between his desire for something more exciting than palace life and his duties as a son of the King, even if he is only the last in a line of 7 brothers. The many characters he journeys with, and those who he meets along the way are diverse. The author manages to carefully blend relatable traits with a unique twist to make them highly interesting people to read about. They all exhibit weaknesses along with strengths - this forms a perfect base to work from because as we watch the story unfold they must overcome these weaknesses in order to succeed.
David Zindell has created a rich fantasy world filled with many different people, customs and beliefs. His writing enhances these qualities by being descriptive and vivid without succumbing to overly complex and meaningless sentences. He uses minstrels' songs to provide the reader with history of the land as well as pieces of the Lightstone's prophecy. While most of these were very good, at times I groaned at seeing yet another verse and would have preferred the words to be plain dialogue instead.
I loved how the story progressed in the first half of the book; there was always a level of excitement or anxiety as well as numerous surprises that I could not have anticipated. However the second half of the book slowed down and everything seemed to come too easily for the hero. I think that perhaps the author became too obsessed with detail and felt the need to write everything that happened rather than focus on the important sections.
`The Lightstone' is part 1 of the book `The Ninth Kingdom' and it failed to have a proper ending which leads me to believe that it should probably have continued on with Part 2 in order to give a satisfactory conclusion. Overall a very good book set in a completely new and original fantasy world. I am going to overlook the slowness of the second half and read the next book to find out exactly how the seven gelstei are linked to the prophecy and the Lightstone. I only hope that the author can keep it pace up until the end.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, what the heck DID happen to Zindell?, December 4, 2006
One (why only one!?) of the earlier reviewers said this book was awful-- but that person thought Neverness was even worse, so I don't know where he's coming from. In my opinion, Neverness, and most of Zindell's other early work, was excellent, awesome, very original, downright significant. This book, on the other hand, is pretty bad, at least by comparison. It's a great disappointment to someone who who was blown away by Neverness and very impressed by War in Heaven.
There are a few fantasy authors that are original and outstanding, like Tolkien, Eddison, Le Guin; there's a lot of sheer garbage; and there are some in between, pretty good/not too bad, but not on the level of Tolkien or Le Guin.
In Neverness, I think Zindell was right up there (although it's not exactly fantasy, having a lot of hard SF elements). In this book, there are egregious elements of shlock, but he's basically a very talented writer, and he can still write sentences and paragraphs and dialog, so the book is borderline readable; it's kind of on the border between shlock and not-too-bad. But coming from Zindell, a really talented writer, it's pathetic.
It is very trite, formulaic and predictable, that's for sure, and many of the plot incidents are very contrived; for instance, the hero breaks his sword fighting a monster, he's all broken up about it, goes a chapter or two without needing a weapon, and then gets a magic sword from, guess who? The Lady of the Lake, I kid you not.
The characters are recycled from the Neverness series and LOTR (Grays=Black Riders, Kane=Strider, Rumbum or whatever his name is=Bardo), the story is a rehash of LOTR and King Arthur. Oh, and the lead character gets poisoned with a poison that burns and stings for the rest of his life, just like in Neverness. Most of the names are taken from Buddhism, Zorastrianism, and other wildly diverse sources. The plot is a mishmash of King Arthur and LOTR.
In two appendices, Zindell drones on about the (unillustrated, and irrelevant to the plot) heraldry of the Nine Kingdoms (which, no matter how many times I count them, on the map, or in the appendix, are only Eight!), and about 16 several sorts of magic colored gemstones (zzzz...). Better he should have put the energy into counting his kingdoms and developing some original ideas.
I don't know what Zindell was trying to do with all these borrowed names and concepts. I don't think it was just laziness; maybe he was trying to make some kind of parody or homage, as others have suggested. It doesn't work. It's NOT a "rich fantasy world"; it's like a Salvation Army store of worn-out junk and faded glories, all crowded and jumbled together.
One thing that could have been really interesting is that the hero is a warrior who, because of his empathic talent, can't hurt or kill anyone without being prostrated by the victim's pain, so he vows not to kill anyone, while becoming betrothed to a woman named Manslayer who has vowed to kill a hundred (honest!). But he kills people anyway, and pretty soon it doesn't even seem to bother him much anymore, a total waste of the one original idea in the book, and one that could have been very fruitful.
I have to think something HAS happened to Zindell--mental illness, drug addiction, something like that. Otherwise, I have to think he could at least get the count of kingdoms right (you may think I'm harping on this, but he mentions these Nine Kingdoms many times, even though only a couple figure in the plot, so I really think there ought to be nine of them). Or he could have come up with some original ideas and new characters.
I made it through the book, but I'm not going to bother with the others in the series. I hope Zindell feels better, and approaches his previous standards in the future.
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