Customer Reviews

Shattered Dance

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

 

 

At the bottom of the Mountain live the horse mages and their horses who are really gods. Valeria is the first female horse mage and one of the most powerful as is her lover First Rider Kerrec. After giving birth to their daughter, Kerrec and Valeria ride to the capital city of Aurelia so the riders and their horses can dance theCoronation dance, a magical spell that shapes the future. Once they arrive in the capital, they sense the foulness of the One God and the Empress falls into the trap of one of her priests.

The Empress is rendered sterile which means that Kerrec's children will be her heir, but first he must marry a noble woman. Although she understands why this has to be, Valeria leaves the city to go to the outlying edge of the empire where the barbarians still rule. The Ard Ri is Euan, the barbarian prince she loved and whose life she saved twice even though she stopped him from toppling the empire. He wants to make her his queen and she agrees not realizing that if she goes through with the marriage she will destroy all she holds dear.

This romantic fantasy will bring tears to the eyes of the audience as two lovers put the needs of the empire before their own desires. Caitlin Brennan has written a fabulous adult fairy tale in which the audience wonders whether hero and heroine will live happily ever after. The characters are well developed and the setting is reminiscent of the Roman Empire with the barbarians at the gates temporarily restrained. SHATTERED DANCE is a very special story and this reviewer hopes there will be more tales starring these remarkable characters. This is one fantasy readers will hate to see end.

Harriet Klausner

*Here there be spoilers*

Ok, so honestly I was really disappointed with this book. I had enjoyed the previous two books, but just found the characters to be utterly irritating and foolish. Maybe that was just an attempt to make them more human, but I found myself wanting to throttle them more often than not. First off Kerrec ultimately just has to marry someone other than Valeria in order to provide an heir. First I simply thought that was rather contrived and that there was little exploration of other options which in a real life situation surely would have been available. If you can change the law to make a "dead" prince come back so that his children can succeed the throne than surely it wouldn't be the end of the world to have his wife be the famous rider who's saved Aurelia how many times now?!

But even if we assume that there really was no other way, I could barely stand him in that he just thought it was ok to speak to Valeria incredibly briefly about this rather life changing subject and then spend the next 10 days engrossed in wedding festivities and never even bother to take the time to talk to her, make sure she's dealing with this ok, or even realize that she's no longer there. I thought he was acting as a selfish you know what and from the moment he did that my entire opinion about him changed and the appreciation I'd had for him from the earlier books was completely gone such that I really was rather hoping she would have stayed with Euan.

And while we're on the subject of Euan, I was rather disgusted by Valeria's behavior. She just decides in a flippant fashion that it would be a good move to agree to be the queen of the tribes, her country's most hated enemy. And she glosses it over by saying that she knew there'd be war between them but maybe she could temper it or something. Are you kidding me? How could she possibly have thought that that would work out? Her actions with Euan were foolish, disrespectful of Euan and his people, and uncaring for his feelings. They showed no thought on her part, and I just had trouble reconciling the concept that I had of Valeria with the person blithely throwing herself into a wedding that could never have worked as she entered it. If she really wanted to help her people than she should have conditioned her marriage upon a peace treaty, but I suppose no one wanted her to end up with Euan. Anyway I don't suppose it matters much who she ends up with but I certainly didn't appreciate how two characters I'd grown to really love became such unthinking and even petty people.

I suppose part of my feelings may be biased by the fact that I'm not sure that there's a situation that could exist which would make me willing to share my husband/partner/whatever with another woman, but all in all I somewhat enjoyed the book but after finishing it I have found myself to be quite dissatisifed - I was just hoping for that excellent resolution that just never came.

Ok...I have to agree with the previous reviewer on all points. I liked the first and second books but this third one left me wanting to grind my teeth. This CANNOT be a romance book...and trust me I have read plenty. I don't know if the point of this book was to take everyones feelings and grind them into dust but somehow that was accomplished. I cannot cope with a marriage/mistress relationship. Valeria should have married Kerrec....there had to be a alternate route. Then Valeria goes and ruins Euans life by getting his hopes up and then stomping them again and again. I just cant seem to get the bad taste out of my mouth with this book even months after I read it...jeez just thinking about it makes me mad. This book series had such a promising beginning...reminded me of Mercedes Lackey Valdemar Series, but this really spiraled downhill. After all Valeria and Kerrec had been through together it was easily split apart and the ending just didn't cut it for me. They cannot truely be together with a stupid marriage hanging over them. This disregarding of feelings all around in this books has made it one of the worst reads I have had all year.

Third book of The White Magic Trilogy ~ the enemies of the Empire, failing in warfare, decide to bring down the Empire with more subtle tactics, with magical assassination attempts and by using the Riders and the stallion-gods against the very Empire they serve. Center to their plot is the Rider Valeria, embittered by the loss of the mate she loves...



I did not enjoy this book as much as the previous two...there was way too much emphasis on the love lives of the characters to the detriment of the plot, IMHO. In fact, the plot did not even make a whole lot of sense to me, as too much of it was centered around a love quadrangle which in turn did not make a whole lot of sense to me. And two of the main characters of the series act in very immature ways due to their love lives. I had thought a lot better of them both until I read this third book.

Shattered Dance continues the theme of darkness versus light, harmony versus disorder, good versus evil. Brennan weaves her knowledge of the dancing horses throught the story in a fascinating blend of the real and the mystical. There are diappointments, reconciliiatons, twists and turns in the story in plots that mimic life. Brennans imagery around the dance is fanciful and magical but she weaves her words so that it can be felt, seen and heard. I enjoyed Shattered Dance, read until 2am in the morning and look forward to the next book.

I know the reviews are not so great for this series but I love them. This book is the best yet for the series and I can't get enough of this world. Maybe it's just because I love horses, but I also love the heroine and empathise with her difficult choices and frequent moral dilemmas. Plus I'm always a succor for a strong female character. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed this book. The plot concept was different than many I've read. I do love books with horses in, so this was a plus for me.

I loved these three books! I think the characters are lively, emotional, and Valeria worked her magic quite well in a male dominated world.
The idea of having powerful gods taking the form of Lippizan horses and influencing fate by Dancing the patterns of Life intrigued me and I enjoyed every chapter. I'm only disappointed because I just finished the series. I did not want to leave that World!
Some may not like it that Kerrac chose to marry for the sake of the Empire, but he believed that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few or the one, and his sister needed his help to save her empire. He never stopped loving Valeria, and his princess wife knew where his heart belonged, and she was content to live the life offered to her.
And Euan! What a gorgeous, virile, warrior King! What young woman could resist the love and power of such a wildly sensual man! If she would not have been a Rider, I think she would have been a perfect Queen for Euan! How difficult to be in love with two such different men and to be loved back by them both!
I hope that Caitlin Brennan will find a way to bring us back to that wonderful world of White Magic Dancers. There's still stories to be told.

briefly, however lacking Brennan's trilogy may seem to romance fans as a complex tale of love / and hate -- familial as well as romantic --- it's an absolute winner. Brennan refuses easy options and creates wonderfully complicated human characters who are repeatedly forced to face their own limitations and failures, and who get the fates, good or bad, they deserve only after long struggle. Ditto with her horses. I loved these books -- they are engagingly written and highly original -- and I wish readers had given them a better break.

If you read the first two books, you know exactly how talented of a writer Caitlin Brennan is. The first two books left me waiting for more.. Knowing that this is a three book series and that no other books are planned, i was extremly disappointed in how this book ends.. Sorry, but no way in heck would a woman as strong as Valeria would settle to be Kerrec's mistress and live with the fact he's married to another woman. And to expect readers to accept this as a suitable ending is crazy. I hope that maybe Mrs Brennan will deciede on a fourth book, kill off the Princess and allow the two main characters to be together once and for all. And then theres the whole story involving Euan - what a massive disappointment as well. As much as I'm sure readers want Valeria and Kerrec together, you have to question how making Euan turning out to be an innocent victim in this whole storyline is possible. You feel sorry for him. I just found this book to be extremly confusing, not well thought out, and thrown together.. Very disappointing for a very promising series.