Sword-and-sorcery meets hard sci-fi in C.J. Cherryh's epic story of a woman's mission across time and space to preserve the integrity of the universe.
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
I've written sf and fantasy for publication since 1975...but I've written a lot longer than that. I have a background in Mediterranean archaeology, Latin, Greek, that sort of thing; my hobbies are travel, photography, planetary geology, physics, pond-building for koi...I run a marine tank, can plumb most anything, and I figure-skate.
I believe in the future: I'm an optimist for good reason---I've studied a lot of history, in which, yes, there is climate change, and our species has been through it. We've never faced it fully armed with what we now know, and if we play our cards right, we'll use it as a technological springboard and carry on in very interesting ways.
I also believe a writer owes a reader a book that has more than general despair to spread about: I write about clever, determined people who don't put up with situations, not for long, anyway: people who find solutions inspire me.
My personal websites and blog: http://www.cherryh.com
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore
http://www.closed-circle.net
I believe in the future: I'm an optimist for good reason---I've studied a lot of history, in which, yes, there is climate change, and our species has been through it. We've never faced it fully armed with what we now know, and if we play our cards right, we'll use it as a technological springboard and carry on in very interesting ways.
I also believe a writer owes a reader a book that has more than general despair to spread about: I write about clever, determined people who don't put up with situations, not for long, anyway: people who find solutions inspire me.
My personal websites and blog: http://www.cherryh.com
http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore
http://www.closed-circle.net
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable Mythic Fantasy,
By "reedekullervo" (Edina, MN United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Morgaine Saga (Daw Book Collectors) (Mass Market Paperback)
These books have shot to the top of my all-time favorite books list because of Cherryh's wonderfully controlled and spare writing style, her complex and interesting characters and a story that has all the grandeur and tragedy of myth. I remember seeing these books many years ago and shying away from them. Morgaine, the main character seemed too much like a cliche of the female sword and sorcery genre (perhaps it was the cover art) and so I passed these by. I'm only sorry that I waited so long to find these wonderful stories, whose characters, good and bad are so compelling you want to reread whatever has been written about them again and again. Not to mention, like all classics, the story never gets old. Each rereading revels a nuance that I missed before and thus every time I've gone back for another drink at the well, I've been amply rewarded with new insights as well as the joy of visiting an old friend.In three short, fast-paced novels (Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan and The Fires of Azeroth) we meet the principal characters, Morgaine, a dreaded figure out of legend whose sole mission is to close and destroy world- and time-spanning gates and who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She is neither human nor qhal and her origins remain shrouded in mystery. Nothing about her is soft or feminine. Her goal is noble but the means she uses to achieve it are horrible. She wields her gate-sword Changeling much as she wields whatever people are convenient, ruthlessly and without mercy to the purpose that she serves. Nhi Vanye is a bastard, an outcast warrior, and kin-slayer whose path accidently crosses Morgaine. Swept unwilling into her service he becomes her liegeman, bound to do her bidding while fighting to preserve his personal honor. He knows that he is simply an means to end with her, and that she will sacrifice him without hesitation. Yet whatever her crimes, past and present, Vanye finds with her a place and purpose that he could never find within his family. No matter how terrible the price may be. Interwoven through all these stories run tangled themes of honor, duty, and trust, family, good, evil, right and wrong and every shade of grey in-between. Morgaine does murder, betrayal and worse yet her purpose is good. Her qhalur nemesis through the books has undeniably done evil, yet in the end it is possible he will be redeemed. Cherryh wastes no words, action compelling the narrative at an often times dizzying pace. The reader is kept waiting and watchful for whatever scraps of dialogue or insight that is doled out. The many mysteries that surround Morgaine are only obliquely hinted and thus careful reading and rereading are rewarded. Although on each world Morgaine's and Vanye's purpose remains the same, each novel explores a uniquely different world, from doomed, drowning Shiua to fair and prosperous Azeroth. All the people, human and qhal are memerorable and distinct characters, fair or foul. In all cases we see the careful unfolding of Morgaine's and Vanye's relantionship, the strength of which just might see them through to the end of their mission and the ultimate gate itself. When they eventually ride through Azeroth Gate, leaving behind Morgaine's enemy and Vanye's cousin, your sorrow will be tempered with joy since you know that their adventures yet continue on into Exile's Gate and that your final farewells will thus be delayed a little while longer.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
some of the finest heroic fantasy ever penned,
By
This review is from: The Morgaine Saga (Daw Book Collectors) (Mass Market Paperback)
If you're ready for a real heroine--not someone in a chainmail haltertop and g-string, but a warrior haunted and driven by a mission that possesses her very existence, it's time you met Morgaine.Cherryh's well-known economy with words means that dull spots are rare to non-existent. Morgaine's vassal Vanye is a great character, human idealism juxtaposed against Morgaine's grim practicality, with both ultimately influencing one another. And when Cherryh describes Morgaine's weapon, if you close your eyes, you may well feel an icy chill down the back--that's how talented Cherryh is with words. Recommended to any lover of good fantasy, but most especially recommended to fans of women's heroic fantasy who are tired of stereotyped and lame portrayals. Morgaine is efficient, intelligent, and quite feminine (assuming one's definition of same isn't too narrow). Don't think of Xena--think of Honor Harrington, another of the great heroines conjured by an author's talent.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A True Saga,
By Purusha Nsadi "phyrephoxed" (Christ Church Barbados) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Morgaine Saga (Daw Book Collectors) (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm an avid reader at roughly a book a day and I remember the books I've read, so finding literary entertainment is difficult. A book must keep me fascinated on myriad levels to warrant a second read. For a book to reach the status of "keeper", it must have that 'magical unfolding thing' going for it. Morgaine and Vanye have occupied a space on my shelf since I bought a ratty copy of "Exile's Gate" several years ago. I was captivated by the character, the story, everything that existed between the covers of the book. And each time I read the book it gave me a slowly changing understanding of the characters. I would very much like to see another book about Morgaine and Vanye, Maybe something exploring the whys and hows and circumstances that created the ice and steel in Morgaine's character. I will not try to influence a potential reader for or against, suffice it to say that the characters have stayed with me for years, the story has given me countless ways to view my fellow human beings and I consider myself the richer for it.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
