The Pillars of the World (Tir Alainn Trilogy, Book 1) [Paperback]

Anne Bishop (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2004

In Sylvalan, a witch hunt is in full force. As witches and innocents are brutally murdered, magic is disappearing from the land, and the roads between the world of humans and that of faeries are vanishing one by one. This is a dark fantasy of a world in danger of being destroyed by those who deny themselves their heritage.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Sylvalan, a witch hunt is in full force. As witches and innocents are brutally murdered, magic disappears from the land, and the roads between the worlds of humans and of faery vanish one by one. Ari's family has tended one of the Old Places for generations, keeping the magic alive and the land lush and fertile. But with the midsummer moon, Ari's life changes dramatically. She unknowingly takes a Fae lover, the Lord of the Sun, and immediately becomes suspect to faery nobility, who neither trust nor mingle willingly with humankind, except for the occasional caprice. But Ari's life and the future of the Fae depend upon the nobles' willingness to change their elitist ways. For the inquisitor Adolpho--the Witch's Hammer--has come to Ari's door, and only the Fae and the secret of Ari's bloodline can save her and the magic she protects. Bishop only adds luster to her reputation for fine fantasy. Paula Luedtke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd (June 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0732279860
• ISBN-13: 978-0732279868
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,937,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Bishop is a winner of the William L. Crawford Memorial Fantasy Award, presented by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Amazing Book!, October 13, 2001

By 

Emily T. Heath (Hartford, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pillars of the World (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Paperback)

I've read all of Anne Bishop's books, and I've loved every single on of them. Sense this book is set in a different world then all of her other books, I was wondering if she would be able to create a world just as interesting and with characters that could live up to her previous work. Well, Pillars did. The details of the book were very solid and the characters were all very well written. The plot was also very well done. It was interesting even when they were only dealing with minor characters thinking. Ari the main character is a young witch living all alone after the death of her mother and grandmother. She gets intangled with the Fae due to a trick played on her by the local gentry that forces her to look for a lover on Summer's Moon. She ends up meeting one of the Fae in his other form. Eventually you also learn that there are Witch Hunters moving through the land, and they are slowly coming towards Ari. Eventually you do learn what the Pillars are and I promise that everything is wraped up very nicely. It's good from start to finish, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Anne Bishop!, October 14, 2001

By 

Dawn Smoker (Mechanicsburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pillars of the World (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Paperback)

First, be warned that this story is not set in the same world as the Black Jewels trilogy. It is much less violent and dark, and the characters are slightly less engaging. It is set in a new and unique world where the fae cross back and forth from their world to the world of men much like Greek Gods. But something is causing pieces of the fae world to vanish into mist, and all the fae who dwell in those places are lost. The remaining leaders of the fae, the Lightbearer, Lucien, and Dianne, the Lady of the Moon, are searching for the reason the bridges are being closed. The Muse and the Bard keeping hearing rumors of Wiccanfae, and the failing of the Pillars of the World, but the flighty fae have long since forgotten what these are or how to fix them.

Meanwhile in the human world, an evil man, called the "Witch's Hammer" has rapidly gained power by organizing witch hunts and destroying and perverting all magic in the land that he finds. The witches have power over the elements and he hates and envies them. He tortures them into making "confessions" of evil deeds and then kills them. All women walk in fear of him and his witch hunters.

But above all this is the story of the young witch, Ari, the young maiden witch, who has recently lost her mother and her grandmother, and now stuggles to carry on the rites to protect the land alone. She encounters the growing hostility of the townspeople. She must choose between her new careless fae lover, Lucien, who is just learning the meaning of love, and a young man who truly loves her selflessly, and wishes to take her to safety. Unknowingly, she also has the clues as to what exactly the pillars of the world are, but the witchhunters are coming and she may not survive to pass this crucial information on.

This is a good story, with a wonderful cast of characters like those that I have become used to seeing in Ms. Bishop's stories. While not quite as good as the Black Jewels Trilogy, it is still well worth reading.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars In a Word: Ick., March 25, 2005

By 

Eon (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pillars of the World (Tir Alainn Trilogy) (Paperback)

I loved Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy so much. But it took me a long time to pick up this book, because it just didn't sound terribly appealing.

And it wasn't appealing in the least. The one character I did like was portrayed as a cold, possessive jerk by the end of the book. The mysterious Lucien is shunted aside for the "sweet" Neall who has about as much depth as a puddle. And Ari, as a heroine, is a joke. There was nothing to like about her at all.

The Fae storyline was tragically typical. They're arrogant and uncaring, so now their world is disappearing. Can't we have some Fae that aren't high and mighty? The only thing truly interesting about them was their positions which coincided with gods of ancient Greek and Roman myth, and their ability to turn into an animal representative of that.

Anne Bishop is a great writer, but you couldn't tell by reading this book. It had none of the dark, edgy feeling of her first novels and feels like a cop out, as well as a whack over the head with strong feminist beliefs and the Wiccan religion.