Customer Reviews

The Shattered World

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

 

 

The Shattered World is the first novel in a duology, followed by The Burning Realm. "There was once a beautiful world of green and gentle continents ... Shining cities were built by the hand of man, and empires rose and fell. In measureless caverns beneath the ground, an inhuman race known as the Chtons ... pursued their own ways ... the world was shattered by a cataclysm that sent the fragments spinning into the void ... A cabal of sorcerers ... provided an envelope of air ... and created runestones ... that provided weightfuness on the surfaces of the fragnents and kept them orbiting each other ... "

In this novel, the thief Beron is caught with the stolen goods on him, found guilty, and remanded to the custody of Ardatha Demonhand for punishment. She informs him that the trial was really a ruse, for she wants him to steal a talisman from Pandrogas, the master of Darkhaven. In return, Ardatha promises to remove the curse from him that forces him to occasionally shapechange into a bear. Unknown to him, the talisman is the runestone for Darkhaven and it is being stolen for the Circle, of which she is a member.

Marquis Tahrynyar has fled to Darkhaven with his wife Amber after an assassination attempt by his enemies. He has been on Darkhaven for a year and during that time Amber has begun to love Pandrogas. While he is not happy about the affair, Tahrynyar owes his life to Pandrogas, who rescued him from the Demogorgon, the ruler of all Chtons, after his ill-advised reading from the Red Grimoire.

This story is a quest for the lost runestone. Pandrogas also searches for the magic of the Necromancer, while Amber comes to realize that she too is capable of magic.

Recommended for Reaves fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of sorcery and intrigue.

As far as dramatics go, this novel is awesome, with a sustained climax of a hundred fifty pages of exotic settings and danger. It takes place in a world destroyed and recreated in cataclysm, where land masses are asteroids floating and orbiting in an abyss filled with breathable air and unpredictable weather.

For me, this is the highest high fantasy I ever read. Why? Because of the beautiful language. It's not like I have an English degree or anything, but I play the Magic the Gathering card game. I kept seeing obscure fantasy words that appear on magic cards... stuff like azoic, sedge, tor, odylic, and autochthonic. This simply reinforced everything together in a united whole. Having one of the main antagonists be the demonic Lord of Snakes, Demogorgon (reminded me of Demigorgon from the original AD&D supplement 'Deities and Demigods'), simply added to this total experience. Is there a prestige class for cloakfighters yet?

Anyway, as much as I loved that stuff, I could not stand a small part of it. One main character is a thief named Beorn, who can turn into a bear. For the first fifty pages, all I could think of everytime I saw that name was Gandalf and Bilbo getting fat on honey while staying at Beorn's house during winter after coming back triumphantly from slaying Smaug in Tolkien's "The Hobbit."

If you like unique and strange fantasy realms, do yourself a favor and buy this book.

It isn't a well known book , actually I only know of me and my brothers having read the book. When I showed it to them they gave me a frown at first and took a lot of convincing to make them read it but once they read it they loved it just like me. The world is richly pictured and very cohesive. The characters are not so well thought out except the thief and his lycanthrope problem, he is a truly 3 dimensional character and you love him from the start. So do give this book a chance it will surprise you

This is a really good book. It has been almost 20 years since I read it, and it has remained one of my favorites. I enjoyed it so much I told my kids stories from the book when they were younger. I just bought "Shattered World" and "Burning Realm" again for my kids since they are now old enough, and I plan to read them again myself.

A story with great character development, intricate magical details and of vast epic travels. If you can find this book new or used, it will enthrall you for hours and hours. You will not want it to end. The sequel is nearly as good!

Uninspired and dull. In an attempt to create a new world the author leads us to a realm that is not fleshed out or properly described. For example, the wizards use spells with names that were meaningless, like "Burnham's Incantation of Evanescence". There simply wasn't enough context to enjoy the more fantastical aspects.

The characters too were lifeless and boring. Let's see, how bout a "super thief" with a troubled past, a mighty magician filled with self-doubt, a slutty, power-hungry wizardess, and a wizard in training with unlimited power that must be controlled...how clever and original...NOT! None of the protagonists are worth rooting for.

Then there is the lack of a decent antagonist (is it the cult of the "one god"? the demons of Xoth?, the magician's cabal?) Who cares. The adventurers leap from fragment of land to another just as the story leaps from plot fragment to plot fragment.

And lastly is the graduate reading level required. I was picking up a dictionary as much as reading the book, and I have a PhD! I mean come on, not everybody is an english major so lay off the fancy words, they only detracted from the already spurious and obtuse plot.

Got my copy for 50 cents, paid too much. Avoid unless you are otherwise required to read this one. There is a lot of good fantasy fiction in the world, spend your time on that.