A Shadow on the Glass (The View from the Mirror, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Ian Irvine (Author)

Book Description

Series: View from the Mirror | Publication Date: July 1, 2001

With this stunning and original debut, Ian Irvine begins the saga of The View from the Mirror, a brilliant epic fantasy that rivals the works of Robert Jordan and J. V. Jones. "Once there were three worlds, each with its own human race. Then, fleeing from out of the void came a fourth race, the Charon. Desperate, on the edge of extinction, they changed the balance between the worlds forever..." The Tale of the Forbidding In ancient times the Way Between the Worlds was shattered, leaving bands of Aachim, Faellem, and Charon trapped with the old humans of Santhenar. Now Llian, a Chronicler of the Great Tales, uncovers a 3,000-year-old secret too deadly to be revealed-while Karan, a young sensitive, is compelled by honor to undertake a perilous mission. Neither can imagine they will soon meet as hunted fugitives, snared in the machinations of immortals, the vengeance of warlords, and the magics of powerful mancers. For the swelling deluge of a millennial war is rising, terrible as a tsunami, ready to cast torrents of sorcery and devastation across the land...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

An ancient war closed the Way between the Worlds, leaving the four human races of Aachim, Faellem, Charon, and Santhenar to inhabit a single realm. Thousands of years later, Llian the Chronicler discovers an ancient and dangerous secret, while a young woman gifted with magic embarks on a search for a powerful artifact. Irvine's series opener promises a grand-scale epic fantasy that features a pair of unusual heroes and a complex world rich in history and variety. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Irvine has built a history and wonderful culture for his vivid world. His first novel vibrates with originality' THE WEST AUSTRALIAN 'The complex cultures, detailed geography, and the palpable weight of history provide a solid background to an intense story that ... becomes increasingly compelling. This stands out as a worldbuilding labour of love with some truly original touches' LOCUS --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446609846
• ISBN-13: 978-0446609845
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hunted., February 11, 2003

By 

Stephanie Noverraz "crooty" (Lausanne, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Shadow on the Glass (The View from the Mirror, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book of The View from the Mirror tetralogy (before The Tower on the Rift, Dark Is the Moon and The Way Between the Worlds).

A Shadow on the Glass opens with the story of Llian, a 28-year-old Zain Chronicler of Chanthed. His graduation telling, where he presents the Tale of the Forbidding, is a great success but Wistan, the college headmaster, realizing his student might inadvertantly have uncovered a deadly mystery, harrases him to retract his tale.

That day Karan, a young red-haired sensitive, is in the audience. After a week's walk she finally arrives home in Gothryme, only to be snatched off again by Maigraith, a woman to whom she owes her life. And when the latter asks her to go to Fiz Goro and help her steal a legendary relic, the Mirror of Aachan, from the hands of the powerful mancer Yggur, Karan simply cannot refuse.

But in the citadel, Maigraith is made prisoner, and Karan barely escapes. The book then describes Karan's flight through marshes and mountains chains, hunted by a band of alien Whelm, Yggur's servants. When Mendark, the Magister of Thurkad who is also Llian's former sponsor and Yggur's bitter enemy, asks Wistan to help Karan and bring back the Mirror to him, the headmaster is only too happy to get rid of the dangerous Chronicler and sends Llian.

But the young man is tremendously awkward, and obsessed by the secrets he has recently exposed and which could be the key to the discovery of Great Tale, and in the end it is he who becomes a real burden for Karan. It's only after several weeks of running and hiding that she faces the fact that he probably is her only friend.

A Shadow on the Glass is a bit shallower than what I expected. Although I can say I enjoyed it, I found it hard to concentrate on the story, which somehow failed to grip me, and I hope that in the next volumes it'll become a little more intricate, the characters better developed.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars World building at its best, July 30, 2001

By 

Eddie Clark (Wellington, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Shadow on the Glass (The View from the Mirror, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I just don't understand American publishers. First they split up Ash: A secret history (Another mighty fine book) into 4 novels, which totally destroyed the flow. Now, with Irvine's A View from the Mirror, they are doing something similar. Irvine wrote all four books before he approached a publisher, and when first published in Australia and New Zealand they were all released at essentially the same time.

This series works best when read as one. It is one of the most complete examples of creating a world I have ever seen. The detail and complexity of Irvine's Sathenar is astounding. Then there are the characters. One of my biggest problems with most epic fantasy is that the characters are almost always entirely unequivocal. The good guys are sugary sweet and nice and the bad guys are ridiculously evil (cue demented laugh). Irvine avoids this mistake entirely. All his characters are as deep and complex as his settings, the 'bad guys' are most often misguided or stupid and the 'good guys' are far from heroic. If you are looking for clones of Eddings or Brooks, come no further, this book is not for you. If you are looking for something different, something which requires a little mental effort, then dive in.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to a great series!, January 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Shadow on the Glass (The View from the Mirror, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book of a great quartet called "The View From the Mirror". If you don't know already, the rest of the books in this series are called: The Tower On The Rift, Dark Is The Moon and The Way Between the worlds.

The series is situated in a place where there are three worlds with their own human species. Then there came a fourth species who are desperate on the edge of extinction, therefore entering the other three worlds, changing the balance between them forever.

Then the female and male protagonists are called Karan and Llian. Karan is a "sensitive" who has unpredictable powers that hardly work for her, while Llian is a brilliant Chronicler whose curiousity forever gets him into trouble.

Karan is forced to steal this mirror that is an ancient relic, not knowing all the trouble that it would cause. Karan and Llian are thrown together by fate and are hunted across the world for the mirror they hold and the secret it possesses.

This is a great starting book to a great series. It's storyline is highly original and unpredictable, where the good guys don't necessarily win all the time. I strongly recommend this book, or this series rather, because the series gets better as you go along. This first book may be a bit slow to start, but it picks up!