Customer Reviews

The Rose of the World: Book Three of Fool's Gold

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

 

 

Don't you absolutely hate it when an author takes perfectly good characters and ruins them? What is with the women in this story? More selfish people you could hardly find, and dumber than a chicken with its' head cut off. Lets take Katla, for example, a good, strong female character, talented swordsmith and rock climber, smart, well-liked by others, and since all the men are just dying to marry her one can only assume that she's very attractive. Yet, she has still managed to bumble her way through all three books. It's as if almost every trial she faces, she meets with success simply due to sheer dumb luck, and not terribly much skill or wits on her own part. She gets down to the bottom line, and then just can't hack it. OK, fair enough, she's young and naieve when she arrives at the Allfair. She lacks respect for societies and cultures outside her own. But hello?! After almost being burned alive for her own foolishness and overblown pride, you think she'd take a freaking hint, but no. She makes no real effort to learn from her mistakes, just blames them on someone else (the Istrians, her mother, her father, brother, etc.). She takes no real responsibility for her own actions. Ms. Fisher isn't a bad writer. But maybe this first attempt at an epic trilogy was overreaching for her. None of her main characters actually grow as people during her story, and are in the end saved only by their "gods", seemingly stating that people aren't really capable of making the right choices when left to their own devices, and it is only with the help of a higher power that they are able to. She seems to say that men are slaves to their desires, self-delusional fools, and even when forewarned by wiser people, turn a blind eye in the face of their greed. Aran Aranson chooses his great quest over his wife, his family, his very people. If I were his wife I'd have clubbed him over the head one night, tied him up and proceded to beat the stupid man senseless. I'd have burned the map, and the damn ship too. Then there's the King. King Ravn of the Northern Isles is a stupid little boy who spends all three books thinking with the wrong head. He resents that he is king, that he is responsible for so much, and most of all that he must give up some of his personal pleasures and freedoms for the overall good of his people. He's a whiney little boy, who needs to be put quite firmly in his place. Well, life's not fair, and sometimes we must give up our dreams in order to do the right thing. And damn! I think the only character out of the whole lot that even tried to do the right thing, make the right choices, even when the decision was not weighted in her favor was Hesta Rolfson, Katla's granny, and maybe her mother, Bera as well, and they weren't even main characters!
Then there are the women of Rockfall. What a bunch of ninnies! Most of them were only interested in getting and keeping a good northern man. Now there's nothing wrong with wanting a good man to start a family with, but one can't spend all their time either trying to impress the boys, or talking about trying to impress the boys, bragging and gossiping. Then they get so down on Katla for being such a wild little hoodlum. After all that talk about how bold and wild the women of the north are, the women of Rockfall as a whole are a rather large disappointment. They lack spirit, save the crazy old women, Bera and Katla herself. Wouldn't it occur to at least one of those silly little girls that obviously the boys don't mind in the least that Katla is a wild little terror, as there are more than a few of them who wish to marry her. In fact, maybe that is exactly what they like about her. Oh, I could go on and on and on, and that's not even taking into consideration Tanto, Saro, Virelai, Rahe, the Lord of Cantara, the Lord of Forent, or Fabel and Favio Vingo. Oh, don't even get me started on them.
All in all, a valiant effort by Ms. Fisher, but with some poorly developed characters (not all though, after all there was Erno, Joz Bearhand, and Mam <--I liked her too) predictable plot twists, and a convenient ending (what's with all this resurecting the dead at the end? Happy endings are good, but hello? It's a war! There are going to be some losses, and by bringing the characters back, the author takes away from the impact, the reality, and basically negates the worst of the consequences, and life just doesn't work that way. The basic story itself is still good, just don't look beyond it's surface, or you'll find it sorely lacking. The great sci-fi/fantasy writers know that to make a story great they must make the world in which it takes place as real to to the reader as possible. They've got to pull us into that world, and make us feel for the characters, make us feel as if the world they live in is as real as the world that you and I live in. This trilogy had the potential to be great, but sadly that potential went unrealized, and though I read the story still, and could somewhat picture it in my head, all I really felt for the characters, was a great frustration with them really. You know when you read a book, and it's ok, but you just know that it could be, should be better, and you think, "Damn! if I could just get my hands on the author right now... I'd ring her fricking neck!"

I am a big fan of Robin Hobb and G.R.R. Martin's type of fantasy novels. In short, I appreciate well-crafted prose, well-drawn characters, and compelling plots. In the first book of the Fool's Gold series, I thought that while in my opinion Fisher may not be quite on the level of Hobb and Martin, she still had a lot to offer the reader. By the end of the second book, I was no longer certain of that. I still looked somewhat forward to reading the third book, however. I had planned to buy The Rose of the World, but found it on the "new" shelf at the local library before I could do so. How fortunate! Buying the book would have been a tremendous waste of money. The writing is, for lack of a better word, clumsy. The dialogue is often painfully awkward. Whatever had made me interested in the characters had vanished. I found myself wondering if Fisher wrote The Rose of the World merely because she had to fulfill a contract.

I am a great fan of the first two books in this series and would rate both with 5-stars.

But this book fails to deliver on the promise of the first two books.

It's full of headlong action, with characters being killed off relentlessly. I'm all for dark fantasy and have no objection to death in a series, but not when it seems to be used as a convenient way to tie up loose ends in the plot.

I expect great things from Jude Fisher in the future. She's shown that she has a wonderful talent for dark fantasy and for creating fully realized characters and situations. It's too bad that the ending of her first series is somewhat disappointing, but I can barely wait for the next one.

The first two books were good enough that I couldn't wait for this one from the library, but I should have. This book is long, complicated, and kind of depressing. There are about 6 story lines going on continuously, and characters sometimes move between them, so there's a fair amount of work remembering who's who, where we left them, etc. Characters are killed, then later brought back to life, which doesn't help the matter. This book is strictly for those who've read the first two and want closure.

I never post reviews normally, but I was so flabbergasted by the negative reviews posted for this excellent book, the end to what I think is one of the finest epic series I've ever read, that I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. I've passed The Fool's Gold trilogy on to my mom, my aunt, my cousins and lots of friends and they've all loved it, so I really don't understand where all this negativity is coming from. I like the way the story goes from character to character - it gives a sense of how huge this fantasy world is, and the balance Jude Fisher strikes between the cosmic and magical and the real human stories is quite breathtaking. There are flaws, sure: but there's no such thing as a perfect book, right? And I think the flaws (the end is just a bit too neatly done for my liking - I think maybe it should have been 4 books, not 3) suggest that when this interesting writer produces another book, she will be even better. If you like George RR Martin's Ice and Fire books, or Robin Hobb's Assassin series, you'll love this trilogy, I promise you. Don't take any notice of the reviews: get hold of a copy and make your own mind up. For me 5 stars.

I have never posted a review before, but then I'd never written to an author before to say how much I loved a book either - until I read the final part of the Fool's Gold trilogy, Rose of the World. I might still not have written a review had I not noticed the number of negative postings while I was searching for more by Jude Fisher - okay, we all have different tastes, but I was still amazed; after all, Jude Fisher had just joined my list of favourite authors, alongside Tad Williams, George RR Martin, Tolkien and Robert Jordan!

I'm not a literary critic and I struggle to explain why I was so enthralled by this story. I love remote Scottish islands and Norwegian fiords and perhaps I felt an empathy with the people and landscapes of Katla Arensen's world. But a novel needs characters who make that world come to life - and that's what happens here. I liked having characters who made mistakes; who sometimes survived more through luck than judgment, but who are infinitely more real than the chisel-jawed Robert Langdons of popular literature. Surely having less-than-perfect characters only adds to the unpredictability of the story? I suppose I'm saying that Jude Fisher's characters (both human and divine) have depth and, therefore, believability.

I also found it a refreshing change for an author to treat me like a grown-up. This is not a trilogy for children; if it was, the often graphic sexual references and the horrors of death and sadism would have been toned down into euphemism and goodies killing baddies who deserved to get their comeuppance!

So please, do not be put off by some of the other reviews. If you enjoy fantasy by the authors I've mentioned, and especially if you like Mary Gentle's `Ash' and `1610', then I'm certain you'll love this. Rose of the World is a brilliant book which concludes a brilliant trilogy. I, for one, want to read more about the adventures of Saro, Tam and Katla. A definite 5 stars!

Fool's Gold is not the most compellling trilogy I've ever read. But I did like the first book enough to buy the others. There are three major groups of people -- Scandinavian-like, Mid-east-like and Gypsy-like, who interact, fight and are mistreated. There is an awful lot of violence, as wars are fought for foolish reasons and unlikely quests are made from greed. The characters are varied and some are quite likeable. There are a couple of real meanies who seem to be completely evil. Sexual language and situations are rampant, but more amusing than anything else. The southern cities seem to be much the same in description. There is a lot of killing, but the resurrection rate is high.

This book sums up the trilogy perfectly. Captivating from the beginning to the end, I have to blame this book for 2 - 3 late projects, but at the same time thank it for one of the most captivating reads i have had yet. The story was well paced and delivered with immaculate style. The constant swapping between caricatures was a stroke of genius, I was never left waiting and wondering what was happening with the many other caricatures.
11/10, one of the best reads i have had for a long time

The first thing I noticed about this book is how much it jumps around. Jude Fishers first two books were pretty good, but you couldnt really understand where she was going in the first one. Sure, this book clears it up (sort of) and you know where shes going with the plot. However, by now about 6 main characters are spread out across Elda and she constantly is jumping between each one. Also, she makes some of the characters extremely unintelligent, such as Erno. Erno Hampton was overly obsessed with Katla (another reckless, not so smart character) and he stupidly didn't even think about what he was doing when he tried to spend all of the mercenaries money at the slave market where Katla was being sold. He didnt even stop to think that they could do something else, and he could have blown his cover and gotten himself in deep trouble. It was very very frustating to read about these charecters stupid mistakes that i dont think anyone of his age would make. Even 15 year olds could make better decsicions in those situations. All in all, this book was a dissapointment to the previous two and I was upset that this happened.

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