Customer Reviews

The Outcast: Book 2 of the Time Master Trilogy

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In this second book we find Tarod 'prisoner' in a castle with the time stopped, he himself provoked this stasis. His soul is trapped in a jewel and he waits...

Until Cyllan, the drover girl he had met in the first book is caught by a warp and ends in the shores of the castle. Tarod and Cyllan get to know each other, but mainly they discover Tarod, his true nature and what a startling nature that is! Cyllan becomes very loyal to Tarod, and eventually the stasis is broken and they are again loose in the world...

This book is more fast paced than the previous and the relations between the characters are very interesting. We begin to see that it's wrong when only one side rules (in this case order), there needs to be an equilibrium.

Louise Cooper is a great author, I'm in the process of reading all her books (to bad they're so hard to find). But I think The Outcast will always be the best. It's fast paced and the plot is spellbinding. I read this book before the Initiate but I still caught on to plot okay, yet its not redundant. The character development is so good that it makes you fall in love with the good guys(Chaos) and forever despise the bad ones (I can't even make myself type the evil -O- word, that's how much I hate them). This book brings out the best and worst in a person's emotions, at times I wanted to cry and other times I wanted to kill. The plot revolves around Tarod, who in the previous book, was almost executed before he stopped time, living soulless, timeless, and alone in the castle while the rest of the world lived on, until Cyllan and the Heir Margrave, Drachea, broke through the barrier. A barrier of mistrust, misunderstanding, and dislike quickly arises between the three of them. Until one of them (I won't say who) breaks through it so they can work together to restore time and Tarod's soul then leave the castle and live together and not bother anybody. But something interferes (I won't say what) and screws up their plan. You'll just have to read it to find out.

Tarod has lost the soul stone and is trapped in another demention. Then Cyllan and Prince Drachea come to that demention. Cyllan must deside if he is really evil and helps him try recover the stone but what will happen? I love this series. This book took me a long time to find but it was worth the wait and I didn't put it down until I'd read it three times the same day.

I never read trilogies in order; I stumbled onto this one as the first book that I read of Louise Cooper's stunning Time Master trilogy, and I still believe it to be the best. Cooper's Tarod is a fascinating anti-hero, evolving throughout the series from a loyal disciple of Order to the God of Chaos that is his true heritage, with the repeated examination of his humanity thrown into the mix.

In this second offering of the trilogy, Tarod, one-time Initiate of the Circle, an order of sorceror-priests devoted to the service of the ruling gods of Order, has been betrayed by friends and lovers and his own nature. Having been revealed as a creature of Chaos born in human form, the ring which contains his powerful soul has been stolen from him and is locked away in the mysterious Marble Hall of the Castle of the Star Peninsula. The Castle itself is lost in a timeless limbo in which dawn never completely breaks and days have no meaning, thanks to Tarod's sorcerous attempt to save himself from the Circle's exorcism. Alone and soulless, Tarod has been swiftly losing any semblance of human behavior and seems to have finally become what others have called him: a demon of Chaos.

Enter Cyllan Anassan, the peasant girl he met briefly in book I. She and Drachea Rannak, the spoiled heir to the Margravate of Shu Province, have been cast on the shores of this haunted castle, and must uncover the mystery of Tarod in order to escape. Along the way, Cyllan, the primary narrator of the story, must make her own personal exploration of good and evil, love and hate, fantasy and reality. Cooper explores again the themes of dichotomy between Chaos and Order, the greater dichotomy of social class, and the difference between appearance and substance of truth. It ends in a stunning climax that is only the beginning of the greater climax of the series that culminates in book 3.

This is the one. I've been in love with this book for years. Right now, if I could I would read it one more time. Unfortunately, it's in my house back in Spain so I'll have to wait until September... sigh...

Nevermind that, let me tell you about this book. I'll do my best to let any spoilers out, ok? So, in the last book Tarod is forced to stop time in order to evade his death in hands of the people he thought were his family, friends and love.
Feeling their betrayal break his heart he hides himself in this "space with no time" where he is unable to feel anything without his gem. And he is willing to stay there for all eternity, he just doesn't care about the world anymore.
But the gods of Chaos have different plans. Two strangers arrive to the Castle where he is: Cyllan, who he met before, and Drachea, the son of a High Margrave and a very annoying and spoiled boy. (Yes, I don't like him at all, but I'm sure that was the idea, hahaha).

The loyalty of Cyllan and her uninterested love breaks the walls that Tarod had created and now he wants to recover his soul to love her in a complete way. But getting his soul back means he has to break the spell and return to the moment he was going to die...

The develop of the story in just wonderful, Louise Cooper wrote an amazing story for this trilogy and I'd be first in line if someone decided to make a movie *crossing fingers and looking to the sides*. The book has a moral to teach -a really good one-, the love between Tarod and Cyllan is rather inspiring and the way Tarod struggles between what he thinks is the right thing to do and what his heart is trying to tell him is marvelous. The anxiety I felt reading this book was great -in a good way-, I smiled, I laughed, I cried and I even wanted to write to the author and tell her I was in love with her book (at that time my English was horrible so I didn't do it^^U). I can't really compare this book to help you get an idea of how good it is but if you like Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings this is the book for you. And even if you haven't read these books, give it a try, you won't be dissapointed, I promise.

Wonderful fantasy writer Louise Cooper really holds my interest with these interesting settings and characters. I read these long ago, and had to hunt them down on an auction site so I could read them again and hopefully pass them along. A great read and satisfying trilogy. Worth your time.

Reviewed by Stefannie Vaughan for Reader Views (5/07)

Tarod, a former adept with incredible powers locked within his soul, is neither man nor a demon. Inhuman. He is a man who stopped time alone in one place to save himself, and live alone. Shunned by the Circle and all those he knew except for one girl. Her name is Cylann Anassan, an outcast drover-girl with an open mind and very stubborn attitude. Cylann had some talent herself when it came to powers which helped her out in the long run. She was sucked into a dimension where time no longer existed, along with her conceded tagalong, a boy named Drechea Rannak, heir Margrave of Shu Province, from Shu-Nhadek. He, on the other hand, had no talent except for being vane, dependent, and pampered.

With every man for himself, clues were unlocked and secrets unfolded, then time was restored, and the Circle of adepts brought back, but all was still not well.

Louise Cooper has a remarkable technique of writing, sucking you into the story, with vivid details, making it a real page-turner. She gets right to the main points, keeping your full attention and keeping you on your toes.

"The Outcast" was a book about loyalty and what really goes on behind closed doors, a mystery that takes place in a fantasy world, and a book that you won't want to put down if you like suspense with a new twist lurking in every corner.

I did not want "The Outcast" to end. The ending was left open, leaving you wondering what happened to everyone. What were all their troubles for? Was it worth it? Did everyone win? A great book makes me want to read the next one in the series to answer all my questions.

Book received free of charge.

This is the second book in the Time Master Trilogy, and could very well be the best of the bunch. The pace picks up in this volume from the first book, and has romance thrown in for good measure. Actually the romantic angle is very believable and very well-written. Cyllan is a character who is simple, and as a result is genuine, The other female lead, Sashka, introduced in the first book, is also deceptively simple, yet also genuinly believable. To have so many strong, well-crafted characters who aren't the main heroes of a story is a risky move, but Louise Cooper pulls it off with no problem here. In what seems almost impossible, Tarod seems even more interesting and believable here, even though the story is getting more advanced, and his ties to normal humanity are getting severed. This is a solid second chapter, and sets the stage perfectly for the third and final book, The Master.

I found this book absolutely fantastic. I read it about ten years ago and lent my whole set to somebody who never returned them. I'd love to read them again but have only been able to purchase the first and last one as 'The Outcast' is out of print at present. Please, please, if anybody out there knows where I can get a copy, please let me know - I'm desperate! I can't wait to get back into the story of Tarod and after reading the reviews above, I want to read them even more.

babs@phil57.freeserve.co.uk

I stumbled on this book quite by accident, and could not put it down! A very good read, and I am now looking forward to reaiding the other two books of the series!