21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A mixed bag (three and a half stars), January 14, 2007
This review is from: The Queen in Winter (Paperback)
It seems that the people who read this anthology fall into either of two groups: romance readers who love Kurland's story and mostly dislike the other ones and fantasy readers who pick the book up for Shinn's story and don't know what to make of the rest.
The plots are neatly summed up in the book description, so I'll just give you my impressions.
"A Whisper of Spring": Sometimes the impossible is closer than you think.
I'm more of a fantasy reader, so Kurland's story was very nice, life-affirming, cozy, predictable and perfectly forgettable to me. No background building whatsoever. Maybe if it were a full-length book... Well, it's obviously a part of her Nine Kingdoms series, with another story published in the anthology "To Weave a Web of Magic" and a full-length novel "Star of the Morning" coming out in December 2006, so there's still hope. Three stars.
"When Winter Comes": Fight for the ones you love and you'll get rewarded.
I love Sharon Shinn, so I liked her story very well, though it started as slow as her novels tend to, which may be annoying to unaccustomed readers. The story is a spin-off of her novel "Dark Moon Defender", the third volume of her Twelve Houses series. Even though it can easily be read without knowing the series, I suspect that in order to get a better feeling of the political/social background it would be best to have read at least "Mystic and Rider" first. Four stars.
"The Kiss of the Snow Queen": I've no idea what this story was about.
Deveraux' story was the one in the lot I simply disliked and was bored by. It's not that it was badly written. I suppose that there may even be some readers who'll love it. However, the mix of Christian faith and Norse myths combined with the fairy tale of the Snow Queen and stuffed with both modern slang and medieval archaisms was... chancy, to put it mildly. I'm not usually bothered by such things (obviously, since I love Shinn's books), but some readers who are serious about their religion may even find it offensive. And if there was any romance at all, it was not between the hero and the heroine. Two and a half stars.
"A Gift of Wings": Love heals.
I've never read anything by Monette, so I was pleasantly surprised. The best story in the anthology, in my opinion. It was maybe too obviously a 'healing' romance, developed against a background of a 'whodunnit'. Intricate world building, very interesting characters. This story is a bit darker than the other ones. What some readers may not like about it is that the heroine is obviously the stronger partner and the hero does a lot of crying, sometimes coming across as seventeen rather than thirty, but, hey, he's entitled ;-) I think I'm going to give her novels a try. Four and a half stars.
In my opinion, this anthology is such a mixed bag that each person will find a different story to his or her liking, but never all of them.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
four fine romantic fantasies, February 8, 2006
"A Whisper of Spring" by Lynn Kurland. Lothar kidnaps elfin Princess Iolaire. Human Symon attempts to rescue the female who haunts his dreams.
"When Winter Comes" by Sharon Shinn. Sosie believes she needs to keep her numinous nephew Kinnon and his mother, her sister Annie, safe as many want to use the youngster for selfish gain. However, she soon needs help; Darryn provides that assistance though Sosie wonders about his motive.
"The Kiss of the Snow Queen" by Claire Delacroix. Gerta the seer sets off on a quest to rescue Cai the sorcerer from the evil Cath Pulag. She receives mysterious aid from a spirit.
"A Gift of Wings" by Sarah Monette. Agido the mercenary protects her former lover Maur, but soon needs his help when someone is killed at an inn as she is the prime suspect.
These four romantic fantasies are fine tales with delightful lead protagonists who depend on one another to survive their respective quests. However, none of the fantasy realms are fully developed in spite of some characters having paranormal powers and using them. Still this is a fun time for fans who appreciate romances of a different sort.
Harriet Klausner
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Queen in Winter, February 9, 2006
*** This collection is a very mixed bag. Though each tale is about a woman of unusual strength, in some form, each is quite different. In one, a Xena like woman travelling with a crippled magician finds that her greatest battle lies in healing him, so they can find love. In another an elf and human cross the barriers between their lives to discover one another and defy the odds to keep their love. In yet another, two sisters make a dangerous trek to try and save the weaker girl's baby, for it is a powerfully gifted child, even at his young age. In the process, the stronger sister finds a reward of love. The outstanding story in the collection is a re-telling of the Ice Queen. In it, the heroine is given a vision of the man she loves fighting a monster and being infected with shards of magical glass that will kill his soul. Only by joining forces with a fallen angel named Loki can she save him and her people. The winning aspect of this story is Loki's running commentary that is laugh out loud fun. Of all the stories, this one feels the most complete. The others tend to feel like a piece of a larger story we are jumping into the midst of. ***
Amanda Killgore
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