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The Prophecy of the Stones

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The Prophecy of the Stones
Flavia Bujor
New York: Mirimax Books, 2004.
Pg. 288

The first time I saw The Prophecy of the Stones was when my mom brought it home and told me that it was written by a 15 year old girl named Flavia Bujor. I was hooked from that point on. Anything written by someone my age is worth a serious try. So I picked it up and started reading. Although the audience for this book was a bit below my reading level, the delightful story of the Three girls? adventures and the land of Fairytale kept me entranced until the finish.
Flavia Bujor is only 15 and has now written and published her first book in not only her native French, but also in many different languages, including English. She lives in Paris, France and goes to high school. Her second novel is in process. One of the things that I really like about the book is that fact that it?s author is so young. It inspires me to not give up on my dreams, because they really can come true with hard work.
This book starts out with three very different girls finding out on their mutual birthdays that they were not the children of their adopted parents. The girls then meet at midnight to find out and meet their intertwined destinies. They take out their stones and as they are holding them in their hands ?All three girls closed their eyes at exactly the same time, and bond formed between them.? Although Jade is snooty, Amber is emotional, and Opal is withdrawn and they seem to constantly be in disagreement, they are forced to work together. Within these three girls I see different traits that I can find in myself. Some traits I like, and others I don?t. The fact that I can connect so well to the main characters made the book more fun to read. The girls discover that the land they had been living in was not the wonderful thing that they had been taught. They discover Fairytale and to save Fairytale from invasion must risk their lives and fulfill a prophecy that has been around for years.
The book its self was not a shining star that I will treasure forever and make sure that all my friends read. On the other hand, it was not a horrid flop of a book either. Within it?s covers it holds a story that takes you through worlds of wonders and horrors. The fantasy aspect is very creative in finding new things instead of borrowing from others ideas. The three girls in it add the element of growing up to the whole affair. The learn how to give and take, work together, and find themselves in the process. The point that brought dulled the stories glow for me was the lack of interesting word choices. While the language got it?s point across, it failed to captivate me the way really good books do. I?m not sure if that was caused by the age of the writer or by the fact that it was written in French and then translated into English. The word choice problem that I had with the book could be solved by focusing the book to a younger age group. (...)This book was worth my time. I enjoyed the plot and the development of the characters. However, I thought that the vocabulary choices could have been a little different. If you have a child that likes adventure or fantasy, this would be a good choice. Perhaps the simple story would even appeal to an adult?s taste. Whatever the case, it is worth it to make a young girl?s dream come true.

I was surprised to see how harsh many people were when reviewing this book. As repeated many times, you do have to take in to account that Flavia was only 13 when she wrote this AND she wrote it over a 6 month period.

But, what most people have overlooked is that this book speaks of universal truth and is put on paper in a very simple manner. That's a good thing when speaking of universal truth to a young audience (this book is intended for teens). The reason behind writing is to write for MEANING. Flavia did this and she did it well. No, she doesn't have the complexity of Tolkien, but to even begin to compare ANYONE to Tolkien is unfair and uncalled for, especially a 13 year old.

Some of the critics failed to see the deeper meaning behind what Bujor was writing about. For example, one person criticized Bujor for not saying what Joa was dying of on her deathbed. But, in the other realm, they should of learned through reading that death itself is unimportant. What the girl was dying of was insignficant.

Some people said she wasn't even funny, but yet compare her to Tolkien. And Tolkien was funny?

The book is simple on the surface, but speaks a very deep truth that can't be spoken of here or it will wreck the book for you.

I'll be looking for her future novels and watching her as she grows in her writing.

I bought this book because I heard great things about it, and I was interested in what a teen writer had to offer. Now I really regret wasting my money on it.

The setting and the world itself isn't described accurately enough. It seems to be a medieval-type land, but one of the girls has a watch.

Death on strike? Death as a chubby woman weeping over ruptured self-esteem? It was original, I'll give her that, but...it just made me want to bang my head against a wall.

The romance was incredibly quick. Adrien barely noticed Opal, never exchanged two words, until she sacrifes herself. "Adrien realized he'd been blind. He loved Opal." Love at first sight only works in a Disney movie. It seems Flavia just didn't want to take the time to develop their romance or make them get to know each other before they proclaim love. And Amber and Elydor falling in love at eye contact? PLEASE. No more of that.

The plot holes. It's never explained why Jean Losserand was thrilled that Amber was alive, or how he knew her; it's never explained what Oonagh was or how she came to be; it's never explained what Joa is dying of; the ending was rushed and left no explanation. Why was Opal so distant in the first place? And the author was undoubtedly making things up as she went along. She suddenly decided to have the old woman play an important role. She suddenly decided to have Jade be skilled in swordsmanship. She suddenly threw in Ghibduls and a magic horse for the heck of it, both of which don't play an important role. She suddenly decided to have a mermaid help Elyador, though it's never explained how or why she gave him the casket. What about the mysterious horseman?

The characters. I very much liked Amber and Opal - Amber especially, because she's such a sweetheart - but Jade...Jade remained conceited, even though she came to care for "inferior peasants". Jade did have some admirable qualities, and she was insecure deep down, but I just wanted to slap her most of the time. None of the characters were developed beyond their one-dimensional (mostly) personalities. I related to Amber and Opal, but that's about it. All the rest of the characters barely appear. At the end I felt cheated, like the book was incomplete. Amber became braver, Opal became less introverted, Jade broadened her emotional range just a little bit, but character development was overall incredibly weak. Flavia wanted to make Jade the most flawed character and ended up taking those flaws to excess. Like her needless hatred of Opal - WHY? She hated her for no reason and couldn't feel real sorrow over her momentary death. Elforys was incredibly harsh and disloyal to Elyador, blaming him for something in the past when he was obvious not the person he used to be.

The plots were all cliches, every one. Armies of Light and Darkness - done, in Sailor Moon and Digimon. Magical creatures seeking their own peaceful land away from mankind's destruction? Done, in Wolf's Rain (fabulous series, by the way), Halloweentown movies, and countless books and fairy tales that would take forever to name. Constantly bickering protagonists? Done, in Sailor Moon, Digimon, and Totally Spies. These are just some of the several places she got her ideas.

The hype is only because the author is so young. So what? Age has nothing to do with the quality of the book. A teen author may be brilliant or decent or terrible - beyond terrible, in this case. The book did have a deeper meaning to it, but one that's been done so many times before. And the way she presented it was so incredibly corny I was wincing in some parts. The near-sacrifice at the end was poorly done, and the prophecy was weak and short. The happy ending was painfully predictable. All in all, an unbelievably poor effort.

Recommended Books: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Eragon (now there's a good teen author), Elsewhere, Wolf Moon

I have come across bad books before but none of them has ever left such a horrible taste in my mouth as The Prophecy of the Stones. I don't know ever know where to start. The one thing I will not criticize is Ms. Bujor's writing style. I'm not saying that it wasn't horrible, but I'm willing to be a nice person and blame every mistake on the chance that it was badly translated. But if you'd like an idea about here writing style let me put it this way. People have criticized books written by young authors such as Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and Christopher Paoloini but let me tell you, their prose is Shakespeare compared to Ms. Bujor. Bad translation is no excuse from the horrible plotline. It's you're typical sheroic fantasy story line, three girls discover they have magical gifts that can save the world. Jade, a spoiled daughter of a local duke; Amber a naieve but sweet peasant girl; and Opal a stony intellectual; are given beautiful stones on their birthday, each one the same as their name. They learn that they are part of a prophecy and their connections with these magical stones will help them save the world. How? They are not sure? But Jade's noble father, Opal's elderly grandmother, and Amber's dying mother, tells them to meet the other two girls at a large tree. They warn them that they will be their enemies and they must be careful. What they're supposed to do, well that's up to them to find out. Meanwhile in modern day in Paris, France, a depressed teenager named Joa lies dying on a hospital bed. The only thing keeping her alive is the dreams she has of three girls, Jade, Opal, and Amber.

My first complaint is the characters themselves. All three of the main characters are incredibly stereotypical. Jade is the basic spoiled rich noble who is quite pretty and whines until she gets her way. Amber is an ordinary, simple but caring peasant who is also pretty. Opal is a emotionless intellectual who, before the novel, spent most of her times with books. Also, she has a unique beauty. Notice a trend here? Unfortunately it's not just them who are horrible characters. The Nameless one is your typical tragic warrior with a sad past that for some reason he can't remember. Adrien, who looks to be one of the few decent characters in the novel, all but vanishes after they first enter fairytale. The setting is a disappointment as well. We know little to nothing about the world that Jade, Opal, and Amber grow up in. We know a little more about fairytale, after all that's where most of the story takes place, but the author describes the area very sloppily. We don't much of a picture of the area except for the City of Thaar and where the Ghibdul's live. But moving on...

Now the plot. There is nothing original in this. It's almost as if Ms. Bujor, while writing this, simply thought of other things used in other fairytales, fantasy books, and fantasy movies and just stuck them in. There are parts of the story that make no sense at all. For once, why did the three girls' parents tell them they were enemies? Never explained. What is Joa dying of? Never explained. It appears to be a broken heart or something of the like. I often found myself putting down the book and saying, "what!" in some areas. One seen that I found almost laughable is the scene where they rebel against the Armies of Darkness (I'll get on that one later) near the beginning of the book. Adrien, a rebel they met only a chapter before, is leading the charge. The three girls have no real place in the battle until hark! Jade remembers that she studied about warcraft in school. She warps into a warrior maiden who is an expert fighter. She takes out members of the Army of Darkness, soldiers who are probably seasoned fighters, easily and has no remorse over their death. When all seems lost Opal speaks out against darkness in a dramatic speech (at least I think it was a dramatic speech. Most of the dialogue in this novel is overdramatic and preachy so I'm not sure), and is stabbed as a result. Adrien, thinking her dead, screams in horror declaring that "I loved her!" even though he had just met her the chapter before and had barely said to words to her. It was at this point I seriously considered putting the book and I kinda wish I did.

A couple more problems I had (these are more nit-picky things than anything) were the very stereotypical names for places and groups. The bad guys have the "Armies of Darkness" (Evil dead anyone?), and the "Sorcerer's of Darkness" while the good guys have the "Armies of Light." The Chosen One, is a powerful man who is, according to legend, supposed to lead the good guys to victory against the dark and become king (Lord of the Rings rip off right there).

It just wasn't a good book. There are more things I COULD complain about but I'd rather not. [...]

I suspect a lot may have been lost in the translation because I cannot see what all the hype was about. True, this is a completed publication by a teen, but I can tell the book was written by a teen. The writing style is immature, and the story does not flow. I wish I read French so that I could see how this translation compares. This is NOT a good book for adult readers. I had a hard time finishing it. However, my pre-teen Godchild enjoyed it.

This is one of those rare books in which the description is better than the book itself. The Prophecy of the Stones is one of the worst books I have ever read, for three reasons:

1. The character act like puppets who cannot do anything for themselves. In the beginning Jade, Opal, and Amber hate each other, and are always arguing. Then it's like the giant puppeteer says, "Let's all be fiends now and fight the evil people! No, now let's fight again!" This happens throughout the entire book (at least in the part that I managed to read). With some editing and a much better author it could be all right, but unfortunately this is not the case.

2. Fairytale did not contribute to the medieval setting. Outside there are regular people who live normal live - and in Fairytale our puppeteer friend is inserting mythical animals, unbelievable events, etc. Wouldn't some of the magic rub off on the people outside? And why do you even have to have a Fairytale in the first place?

3. The ending was forced. It's like the author was thinking, "Must have happy ending. Must have happy ending." From what I've read in other reviews it seems that the girls sacrifice themselves to save everyone - and then, oh, they're alive, yay! No laying in a coma for hours, no consequences, nothing. It's like the book was written for a seven year old.

There are some good things. The plot was creative, and with a lot of developing and editing it could be a great book. Not a bestseller, but people would read it.
Now, however? Don't even bother picking it up.

Usually I am the most forgiving reader, naively liking the books everybody hates, and casually ignoring the books' fault. But I can't really do that since this book's errors are practically shouting in my face! Okay, first the characters have no depth, none at all. There's Jade, the snotty rich daughter of a duke, who happens to be pretty, and Amber, the thoughtful, caring one, who also is very pretty. Then there's Opal, the emotionless rock who is also pretty. Do you just *happen* to see the pattern here? And then there's Adrien, who thinks he likes Jade but after Opal dies, he declares he loves her and goes into whiny angst mode even though he has only known her for what, one day? That part is just a peice of saccharine tripe. Then there is the side story of Joa, who is dying in modern day Paris but there's really no connection besides her dreams. This author bases her entire plot on coincedences, which I found quite annoying after Death just *happens* to be on strike after Opal dies.

I know that there is probably many 1 or 2 star reviews here with similar comments but I'd still like to state my opnion. I do not meant to seem overly critical, but I have never read a worse book. This was suggested to me by a friend because I myself am in the process of writing a fantasy novel and I thought to myself "hmm another young author...lets see what quality of work can get published". Ai yi yi...I should not have wasted my money. Actually, that can be taken back, because it is inspiring for this reason: if Flavia Bujor can become an international bestselling author, then I'm certain that I can get published. That is the only upside to this book, and now for my reasons.

1. The plotline is shallow and very unbelievable. I'm not exactly sure what audience and age grouping she was targeting...but I'm around her age and my goodness. One thing that I've learned from all the books or articles on writing that I've read is this: coincidences are the easy way out, but that does not make them the best way. That shows the inability of the author to be creative and to come up with a detailed and believble plotline. Ms. Bujor obviously has not aquired that talant just yet. She not only uses the "technique" of coincidence, she bases her entire story around it. Also, the plotline is entirely too overused and I havn't the slightest idea of how something so farfetched and unbelievable as this can be interesting.

Another reason it is not interesting is that the characters are not people that can be identified with. As many reviewers have previously said, they are stereotypes. One is a snobbish member of the nobility, another the withdrawn and intelligent antisocial girl, and the other a poorer person who is the perfect person and has no...character flaws to speak of. None of their emotions were conveyed well, and were therefore not moving and yet another reason not to be able to identify with them. In addition to this, people are falling in love with people I believe a day or two after they have met. And if I am mistaken (it was awhile ago) then it just proves that she cannot convey the sense of time. I believe several days passed yet I felt as if it were only minutes. Another thing about characters: they do not change. Ok, well maybe Jade becomes less snobby, but they don't really change. Their experience did not change them. And in the world of characters, that defeats the purpose of events.

The setting, or what of it the readers can scrape up, is again, overused. The concept of their being a world of "Fairytale" is interesting and could have been made into a readable story, but this was not that story. The world was not described as much of the rest of the setting and I havn't the slightest clue of what things looked like, smelt like, felt like, sounded like, you get the picture. I do not know the world in which i have been (reluctantly) thrown into. I cannot visualize the story.

If Ms. Bujor was going to make a story out of this (why? i have not quite figured that out yet) then there is one thing she did very wrong. This book is 386 pages: a decent size for a book alright nothing long or short but right there in the middle. However, it also has huge margins and is double spaced. Alright so its double spaced; cut that in half. It is 193 pages long with huge margins. Hmm....193. Now that's a very different number. Not to say that short stories cannot be good, because they most definitly can, but this is not a short story. The plotline has the potential of being a full length novel (even if it is a bad one). You cannot fit this much material into 193 pages with huge margins and have it be any good. There is no way that you can have all of those events, work any sort of backstory in to give your characters depth, gradually explain the settings, develope your characters, show how any of your characters have changed, give the reader enough to have suspense build within them, have enough time to spend on emotional things such as grief (she seemed to try to tap into that...it did not work it made me feel angry that human emotions are so easily written about...its just not possible to do it this way), I could go on...but I think I've already taken up enough of your time so I'll move on.

I know another reviewer touched on this, but her overused phrases such as "The Chosen One" and "Light" and "Dark" just don't work for me. They make it even more the childish book. It also makes me want to believe its a child's game of there's a big bully on the playground so we're going to turn into heroes and conquer the playground...that's about how much victory I sensed in the end. They had not accomplished anything in my mind. One reason may be that the opposition and "evil" was not enforced enough, but there you have it.

Now as for her style of writing, there is not emotion. In order to draw a reader in, you must say "AMBER REMEMBERED it being so and so and looking like so and smell and the smells and all of that" instead of "it was like this" you have to make references to your characters. It just has no feel otherwise. I suppose a very good author could get away with it, but Flavia Bujor certainly does not fall under that catagory. Just to give you some examples of bad writing or what have you -

the first paragraph "He had been awake all night, thinking. He had gone without rest or nourishment. He did not need them. He had to devise his plan - that was the only thing that mattered. At dawn, he had once again summoned the Council of Twelve telepathically. The session had been breif. He had simply informed them that the matter was in hand, that the project could not fail, and that he would soon put it into execution. The council members had not dared to ask him what his plans were. They had complete faith in him. After all, he was their superior. He had ordered them to return at noon for a meeting of the utmost importantce."

Alright there are numerous things wrong with this. Every single sentence has the same sort of opening, he was used about 5 bgillion times, this person who is supposively the villain seemed entirely unvillain like, "utmost importance" overused and not a good way to start a book, "telepathically" again not good, no drawing the character in and making the words come ALIVE. Again, I could go on, but for the sake of time I will not.

And may I say now that one of her charactes (he's minor but still) is named Theodon? Hmmm....now what does that remind me of...I really can't think of it...oh yes only the book that every fantasy fan has read and that is so widely publisized that it would not be in your interest to copy it. Oh well onto the writing.

"Amber!"

Startled from her reverie (overused), Amber gave Jade a puzzled look.

"AMber havn't you noticed that something's wrong with Opal?" (my goodness)

Amber turned toward Opal, who had stopped a little way behind them: her face was frozen in frigh (ahem), her eyes fixed and vacant.

"I tried to shake her - she didn't move," continued Jade. "And you just kept walking!"

....blah blah blah I am lazy and don't feel like typing out the whole conversation....on to important things that follow..

The two girls spoke to Opal and tried to rouse her from her trance (mmm hmm). In her distress, AMber felt overwhelmed with remorse (really I don't feel it...wasn't she just spaced out a second ago?), even though Opal's plight was hardly her fault (of course I forgot she's the noble heroine). THen all of a sudden (gasp the suspense!), Opal seemed to come to (really now). THe mask of terror (hackhack) vanished, but when she tried to say something, she abruptly fainted.

....blankly stares at the page......righto you get my drift.

Alright so by the way four lines later she is up telling them about this vision that she had.

Well I'm sure that you've heard quite enough from me. I urge to please walk by this book in the bookstore (I found it in a young adults section...hmm) and do not give it a second thought other than to think "boy I'm sure glad I'm not wasting my money on that!". I believe that the only reason this sells at all is because she is 15 or so now. Well, guess what, I'm younger than that I can write a whole lot better. I am...appalled at what goes on the bookshelves. I mean, I'm not too fond of Eragon either (I don't think the style is anything special) but the plotline is wonderful, the characters are at least developed, there is a backstory, I feel emotion, I am interested enough to finish it for the sake of reading...not inspiration to do better. So there is my opinion, and I am in no way trying to insult Ms. Bujor. Anyone should be able to write anything they want; it is her editor's or agent's or publishing company's fault. Alright...I'm done now.

You thought Eragon was a rip-off of Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, Earthsea, and so many others? Prophecy of the Stones is even worse. There's a plot hole for almost every chapter.

Why does the Council of Twelve have 13 members? What was so important or unusual about the 13th member? It said that he wasn't human, and it was never revealed what on Earth he was. Why did Amber's friends and brothers call her Briette? What was Amber's mother dying of? Why did Opal's stone cause her to get sick? She said it wasn't really a stone, then what was it and how did it come from? Why the the 3 girls' guardians say that the other two were their enemies when that was obviously not true? Why did Jade hate Opal so passionately? How did they so conviently come across a peasant woman who happened to be the mother of a guy who was active in preserving the three stones of the prophecy? Why was the Prophecy depicted as a really large book, then turned out to be a couple bland lines long? Why did the girls, out of all people, were the only ones who could put an end to the war? What was so special about them? What was Oonagh and how did she exist? How was Opal able to predict things? What does Joa have to do with the story? Was the other world just a dream? How did the mermaid obtain the magic casket meant for Elyador? Why did she appear out of nowhere? Why did Elforys stick around Elyador for a while even though it turned out he wasn't the guy he was searching for? What was so special about the Chosen One? Why was Elforys so harsh even when he saw how how sorry Elyador was? Why did the evil soldiers leave without hurting anyone else when they saw Adrien holding Opal's dead body? Why was Adrien so quick to forgive the ones who killed the girl he supposedly loved?

There was love at first sight, no descriptive setting at all, and downright idiotic scenes with problems that are solved in the blink of an eye. That brat Jade needed a good slap and a live lobster up her nose. And there's so much dramatization and overstating things, as if the author was desperate to make things more interesting. The plot changes whenever the stupid author gets bored. HATE IT.

I hated this book. The whole time I was reading it, I was mentally staring in open-mouthed disgust at the idiocy of the French publishers.

I'm not trying to insult Ms. Bujor, but this book was HORRIBLE. I could practically predict each character's next move. Jade is the spoiled rich girl. Opal is the cold, intellectual one. Amber is the sweet, innocent peasant girl. Together they gradually form a lasting friendship and go on a magical journey.

YAWN!

Quite honestly, I could write a better book myself. Ms. Bujor's ONE part where I thought she might actually have an imagination was her portrail of Death. Death wasn't an old crone, she was a pretty young woman. I was interested for a while, but then she lost me.

Meanwhile, in the modern day world, a girl named Joa (Jade, Opal, Amber) is battling for her life. It isn't explained why she's sick, or why she doesn't have parents, or who the young man is who comes to see her at the end of the book, or what her connection with Jade, Opal, and Amber is. She distracts from the main point.

The idea with Joa is strangely reminiscent of Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza series. When Joa is asleep, she can see what's happening with Jade, Opal, and Amber.

Don't waste you're time or money on this book. Instead, read the afor-mentioned Stravaganza series.