Customer Reviews

Ring of Lightning (Dance of the Rings)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rhomatum/Mauritum seems like its going to be a fascinating world. The history of the two cities, the difference in philosophies of the Rings, the mysterious other races-- it's a good set-up. The exploration of the world happens through the eyes of the three brothers of the Rhomatum ruling family, driven by their conflicts with each other and with their Aunt (the villain of the piece).

The book was a slow start, at least in part because the author seemed determined to get all the elements of the world in at once. While the interaction between the brothers is well-written and fresh, some of the plot points are rather hackneyed and the motivations of the other characters don't seem nearly as considered or complex.

Despite the flaws, the book has a lot of potential, so really call it a 3+. I plan on reading the next.

I have read all three books and they have been among the best I have read. But whether or not you will find it just as good depends on what you're looking for. For those of you looking for a quick, light, and amusing read, these books might not be what you're looking for. The plots in this story are extremely intricate, and the characters even more so. This isn't to say that the plots develop slowly. Although they are intricate, they aren't inappropriately long or drawn out. Fancher paces the changes in the story perfectly - she waits long enough to allow anticipation to build up, but doesn't wait too long. Even so, someone who is looking for a quick and dirty read may very well loose patience with these books. And these books are definitely not recommended for those who like simplistic, black and white characters and plots.



But for those of you looking for a dense and profound read - one that will draw you in and absorb you completely - then the Dance of the Rings series is highly recommended for you. The depth of the characters in the story is astounding, and their personalities are so unique and different from one another that it is hard to believe that they were created by the same author. This is no fairly tale story with clear boundaries between good and evil either - Fancher seems to revel in presenting complexities and ambiguities, and these weave into the story in interesting and unexpected ways. The world Fancher presents is well illustrated, but she won't bore you with the overly-detailed political intrigues of an unfamiliar fictional world like some fantasy authors do. She puts just as much time into developing the personal lives of the characters, which many readers - like myself - find more interesting.



Overly simplistic stories bore me, so I was delighted to finally find a story which had plenty of substance for me to munch on. The only thing which confused me at first is that one of the characters is ambiguous in gender (which is where the gay theme comes in), but I caught on as I kept reading. But overall, Fancher blew me away. When I finished the last book the only thing I could think was *Wow*

(I am not a native speaker, please overlook my style)

If you survive boredom, this book will cause you much anger.

The plot is good, an intricated dynastic struggle set in a strange Renaissance-like world where guns and a sort of magical electricity coexist with a rather primitive economy based on agriculture and commerce. As a matter of fact the setting is one of the main assets of this book, especially for readers who like long complex stories. Many realistic details are given about an economy which counterposes educated and extremely selfish and short sighted merchants, living in the big cities and matter of fact, loyal farmers.

All the main characters, not only the three brothers, are well rounded and interesting, even if I feel like complaining about their being -just a trifle too- much bigger than life: the Rhomandi brothers quarrel like teenagers and their aunt is an old unbearable harpy they should have learnt to avoid since childhood: no sensible person, having enough wealth as they have, would be willing to endure her.

If the development of characters is a little flawed, a problem shared by many fantasy authors who seem incapable to develop an entertaining story without exaggerating and one rather easy to overlook, Ms Fancher achieves her worst with her writing.
Many pages are well written, fast, thrilling or hilarious: the author clearly knows her job. Unfortunately she decided her volumes had to find a second use as bricks: of the 560 pages, at least 200 could have been cut with no prejudice for the quality of her work.

Have you ever tried to pour tap water into your favourite drink, let's say a costly french wine? Ms Fancher did exactly this. Enjoy...

Jane Fancher's RING OF LIGHNING is a promising start to a potentially thrilling trilogy. Not content to mine the usual territory found in today's fantasy novels, Fancher has come up with an interesting blend of historical fact, speculation, science, other-world theories and -- yes, the civilization draws great power from nature as found in ley lines, using it for power, transportation and industry. But developmentally, the land could be seen as a somewhere-else version of Regency England. Carriages are lightened by ley-powered balloons but drawn by animal power; medical advances are limited and not out of line with the kind of one-on-one warfare practiced; and politics wear a courtly smile on the sleeve but often have a poisoned dagger of the tongue lurking.

Family relationships are vital here, and Fancher gives them a good, sometimes unsettling, very occasionally rather convoluted play. Three brothers stand as potential heirs to their grand great-aunt, who controls the tower and fascinating Rings that harness ley power -- science mixed with psychic skills. The old a combination of the harridan, raddled old Countess in Pushkin's QUEEN OF SPADES and an aged but unrepentant Lucrezia Borgia. That her poisons are of the mind, usually, doesn't mean they're any less compelling. She loves power and means to hold it as long as there is breath in her body and perhaps even after. And she can strike with all a snake's power and swiftness, as when she throws one of the brothers to hell and gone with her ill-used powers, out of the city and into terra incognita.

The brothers themselves are an interesting trio - Deymio, Khyel and Nikki. Their mother and father are both dead, and we soon learn that their thoroughly confused psyches and between-bro relationships are very much due to dear old but not so dear Dad ... and that mother was as much a victim as they. Working out their destinies is uphill work, despite all the good will they may have. But then, aren't family troubles always the worst and hardest to negotiate?

Within this setting of power, intrigue and policy, of communications between citystates and political bravos, there are unsettling hints of other powers at work -- and they may not be at all human ...

A good read, a well-written book and a fine character study, RING OF LIGHTNING is for the thinking fantasy fan.

Fancher's book suffers from its excess mental intrigue. While ordinarily a book uses people's thoughts to help readers become more engaged with its characters, this book tries to move its story along by throwing heaps of semi-relevant thoughts at its readers. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a very slow book with plenty of extraneous writing. Perhaps its most irritating facet lies in the continual mental posing of its three main characters, whose interests consist of mostly petty hatreds and fears that continually get rehashed just when it seems the dynamics of their relationship have moved on to a new stage.

Other parts of this book are also pretty awful. When the oldest brother finally has his confrontation with his crazy aunt the verbal exchange between the two comes off as an argument between a couple of 8 year-old kids in the schoolyard.

While I had no expectations of this book, somehow it still managed to really disappoint me. Very little about this book is worthy of praise as, added to the failures I have already mentioned, it fails to resolve any of the conflicts which drive the story and has absolutely no sense of closure at all. I give it two stars because it develops an interesting world and has a few moments that are actually engaging, enough that I finished reading the book despite its many, many failings.

The Ring of Lightning was built on a potentially good premise- a dysfunctional family using Rings of Power to remain in command. Unfortunately this potential is largely squandered in the book's fluffy and unexciting subplots and lack of a coherent vision.

The portrayal of character relationships among the Rhomandi is the best part of the book. The rest of the plot doesn't have much to it, including an unexciting subplot about a 'leythium' creature (leythium is an electricity-like energy that is the basis of the Ring's power). The deux ex machine ending also disappointed.

All in all, there are much better fantasy books to read (eg LOTR, EarthSea series, His Dark Materials by Pullman). You could possibly buy this book, but don't expect too much.

This is the first book in Fancher's second trilogy, Dance of the Rings. These books are fantasy, and are just the kind of book I like. They are well-written, which is of fundamental importantce. They are character-driven, focusing on the relationships among three brothers - all well-conceived, distinct individuals with strengths and weaknesses. They are tightly plotted, and well paced. Throw in a society powered by ley lines and people trying to discover electricity in competition with the ruling class, and you have enough conflict and dramatic tension for any purpose. These books are out of print and thus available only from used book sellers, sometimes at very high prices. Fancher is, however, in the process of making them available as ebooks at very reasonable prices through Closed Circle Publications, an internet site she runs with C.J. Cherryh and Lynn Abby to reintroduce their back list into the market.

The first paragraph of this book is a forewarning that history is a recording of two steps away from the facts through a narrow perspective. And wow does this book throw bunch of perspectives into your face. Okay, maybe just three, and then four by the end, but I have never read a book where you really get into the eyes and mind of the focal characters. Most 3rd person narrations skims the ego and id of the various characters but in Ring of Lightning you are privy to their thoughts, angsts, anger, helplessness, desperations, uncertainties, suspicions, and deepest regrets. The story is of three brothers who are political heirs to a powerful city and its satellites. The two eldest, Deymorin and Mikhyel, are estranged while both loving the youngest brother, Nikaenor, to the point of suffocation.

The story starts out told from the perspectives of Deymorin who view Mikhyel as prudish, priggish, and puppet of their great aunt, the powerful "ringmaster" whom the city depends upon to control the "leys", a source of energy aka oil/electricity. Mikhyel has essentially raised Nikaenor since their parent?s death. Both Deymorin and Mikhyel can't see Nikaenor beyond as a child and treats him so despite his protest. Nikaenor loves both Deymorin and Mikhyel and tries to be peacemaker between them, desperate for a "family." When their great aunt decides that none of the brothers would make adequate "ringmasters" she takes a different course of action and thus setting into motion of point of no return for the brothers; either they work together or be permanently splintered from one another. We are then allowed into Mikhyel's perspectives which are devastating and sad. Ring of Lightning is essentially a character study of all three brothers and their relationship to one another. It is rather intense.

Right now I'm having a difficult time finding the sequel Ring of Intrigue. I can't wait to read the continuing saga of the brothers and the feisty Kiyrstin, her impromtu assassination attempt is one of the funniest I've read. Still, I have a sinking feeling that the author is far from done when it comes to Mikhyel's emotional pain.

This book's focus centres on the three Rhomandi brothers Deymorin, Mikhyel, and Nikaenour and how they eventually - by way of a burgeoning psychic awareness of one another and their animosity towards their great aunt Anheliaa's plans for extending and maintaining the city of Rhomatum's influence upon neighbouring satellites of the Ley-web - discover that their suspicions of one another have been ill-founded ( due to a long term communication breakdown ), and that all three working together are a living Ley-node.

The bedrock of this narrative is the usage of intense viewpoint to convey the psychological and motivational aspects of the brothers' concerns. Much is made of the Nikaenour character in respect to his own view of Deymorin and Mikhyel, and as a hub by way of which Deymorin and Mikhyel consider each other and Nikaenour, in conjunction with Anheliaa's influence on all of them. But in the end though, Deymorin's misconceptions about Mikhyel are probably the most poignant, as they have been the seed of the brothers' mistrust of one another to greater and lesser extents.

As a backdrop to all this is the city of Rhomatum, which was founded by the brothers' ancestor Darius some three hundred years previously. A city born from Darius' vision: `Today I looked into the rings and saw a new and better world'. And so it was that Darius built a tower upon a leythium-node wherein he set in motion a set of giant rings composed of leythium and silver from which the power of Rhomatum was established: a power that is the source of conflict between the resident ring-master Anheliaa and everyone else.

A lot of the interconnections in this book are quite understated by conventional standards, making the wheels-within-wheels elements of the story a little hard to keep track of as the story evolves and unwinds. I found it really had to be read at least twice to get a better impression by way of hindsighted forewarning. Which for a book of this length is saying something, since from my point of view, it takes an interesting and engaging one for me to read once.

Not everything is what it seems in Jane Fancher's Ring of Lightning. The first point of views you experience is that of the oldest and the youngest Rhomandi brothers. Their thoughts give you two colored perceptions of their city and their middle brother, Mikhyel. However, as the story unfolds and you see their world through the eyes of other characters, your perceptions change. You find yourself sympathizing with Mikhyel. I found him becoming my favorite character in the book, followed closely by Dancer, the mysterious protege of Mother. And who is Mother? A creature who has taken an interest in the Rhomandi brothers. This is fantasy as it's meant to be written. No elves, no magic spells or wizards, no dragons. Just a character driven piece with attention to the small things that make you feel this place exists, these people exist. If you like CJ Cherryh, or Siege by Lynn Abbey, you'll like Jane's Ring series. Pick up the first book and you'll be hooked. Oh, and tell Mother I sent you!