A Shadow of Gulls [Hardcover]

Patricia Finney (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Putnam (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399119795
• ISBN-13: 978-0399119798
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,324 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 This is a Wonderful Story!, July 4, 2002

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Shadow of Gulls (Hardcover)

The first book in the double-book series of Lugh the Harper is quite wonderful. The detail the author offers is remarkable. The story is a fantasy in some respects, but it is also realistic. It's a story of love and vengeance, honour and cowardice, treachery and bravery quite like none I've read before. If you would like to know what this very distant past was like in the island of Ireland, you will certainly get a good idea by reading this book.he incidents and battles that occurred are remembered from legend and they are very carefully and completely described by this very talented author. Because the story is told in the first person by the narrator, who is Lugh, it gives a really personal slant to these events, and we as readers become directly involved. Luckily I have the sequel The Crow Goddess waiting for me to read right away. I truly want to find out what happens after the famous battle of Erin and Ulster in the second century AD.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Patricia Finney's first book a brilliantly realistic fantasy, November 6, 1999

By 

dfmac "DFmac" (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Shadow of Gulls (Hardcover)

The Shadow of Gulls is Patricia Finney's first book, written while she was still a teenager. As such it is an amazing achievement. She has managed to blend celtic mythology and with realistic characters to produce a book superior to most in its genre. The plot centers arround Lugh Mac Romain, a harper and warrior in 1st century Ireland. Lugh is unwittingly made King of Connaught but escapes the inevitable ritual death by being lamed in battle after fleeing Connaught. However he earns the implacable hatred of Maeve Queen of Connaught and her persuit of him drives the plot of this book and its sequel ( Crow Goddess). Only bettered by its sequel, together they make a superb read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A realistic fantasy, May 17, 2002

By 

Andrew McGrory (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Shadow of Gulls (Hardcover)

An historical novel with more in common with fantasy than is usual, though mercifully free of the more annoying cliches and assumptions of that genre. Patricia Finney creates a realistic feeling Ireland at the time of the Roman Empire and weaves her story around Irish myth and legend to stunning effect.
One hesitates to mention her age at the time of the writing of the novel (she was 17) as one does not wish to add a novelty value to what is a unique and exciting novel that will stay with you. The sequel "The Crow Goddess" where the protagonist, Lugh MacRomain, travels to Roman occupied Britain is, if anything, better. Buy both immediatley.