Customer Reviews

Son of Avonar (The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 1)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've read all of Carol Berg's novels and Son of Avonar is by far her best. She has evolved as a writer and storyteller and has managed to create something refreshing and new in the field of Fantasy - believable, fallible and human characters.

Her character work has always been her strong suit, in that even minor characters are usually fairly well fleshed out. But this book (the first in a trilogy) is a self-contained masterpiece. You could read this book and go no further. I was sure she would hang me out on a cliff like most Fantasy authors do in a multi-book collection, but she wrapped it up nicely at the end, left me wanting so much more but not suffering using tired devices to keep my interest.

This is a moving story, the flashbacks (another device that I never think is used well, though her weaving of it into the present made me look for the past with equal anticipation) lend so much weight to the story and it is heavy despairing stuff, the kind that makes your fist clench in agony as you are reading it. I kept thinking, dear God, no, no, no, for it was too devastating to consider because from the moment you meet the heroine, Seriana, she has you at her side, understanding her, feeling her loneliness and deep sadness. Yet her strength is amazing; amazing, but real. It is the kind of strength of the human variety not super hero.

There is a love story here too, a beautiful love story that too is very real. One of the other reviewers said her words jump off the page - and they do - it is a very active story and the writing is filled with electric energy. It is spare; Hemingway-esque actually at points, without anything overblown. Utterly readable it is a page turner - you will fight to break away from it and probably will not be able to. Make sure you have time set aside and just read it straight through.

I am thrilled to have had the pleasure to read this book and hope against hope that in the series they only continue to get better. I do have what I call Matrix-anxiety about sequels but I have faith that Carol Berg is up to the task. If she sticks to a similar format where each book is inclusive to itself I believe she will have a sure-fire hit on her hands.

And finally thank you Carol Berg for FINALLY creating some characters who are not fourteen year old virgins! Seriana is thirty-five years old, a grown woman and I identified wit her much more than some unrealistic portrayal of a teenage princess or a twenty-something who has never been let out of a castle. Seri is all woman, her own woman, educated, bright, resourceful, but makes mistakes in judgment and often can't see the bigger picture. Just like a real woman.

Carol Berg had my interest with her other books but now she has a fan!

If there's one thing Carol Berg it good at, it's redeeming fallen characters. Her first published work, Transformation, remains her most successful, but this book's derivation of that storyline also works well. Once again, we have an older, emotionally and physically scarred character who reluctantly draws a younger, haughty boy into an understanding of himself. What sets this book apart from Transformation is that the older character is female, and there's a significant plot twist in the young man's self-discovery.

Berg also attempts a more experimental narrative form for this book. Present-time action interweaves with a past that's compelling even though we already know it ends tragically. Ideally, this form would do better than a chronological storyline at giving the past power to illuminate the present. I think that's what Berg was aiming for, and I admire her for attempting it. However, my own opinion is that this would have been better off as two separate books. The suspense would have been drawn out much more in the first story by not knowing the tragic ending, and experiencing that along with the characters would mean more suspense in hoping for a happy resolution to the second storyline. That being said, I still recommend reading this since the two stories are moving enough to make it worthwhile.

My only serious disappointment came at the end of Son of Avonar. The true nature of a number of characters is revealed, but the way it all happens seems very much like the end of an episode of Scooby-Doo: everyone is unmasked at once, requiring a huge amount of exposition to fill in the backstory of why they aren't who we thought they were. In fact, Berg has to bring in a whole new character at the last minute just to cover all that exposition. It's nice to face some surprising plot twists, but it would have been better if there had been more hints of what was to come before the big reveal. That would have made the twisty ending seem more natural.

Nevertheless, I do recommend this book. The characters are fully realized and interestingly flawed, and I was sucked in enough that I was very disappointed to discover we have to wait until the fall for a sequel.

The writing for Son of Avonar was lovely. The setting was good as well. The concept of magic was fanastic. The dialogue was great, and many of the characters were just brilliant...in the slang sense of the word.

Why did this novel get 3.5 stars, then?

1) It was very predictable. I was not surprised at anything--but the main character (someone who was supposed to be fairly intelligent) was stunned breathless. Hm...

2) The main character was supposed to be fairly intelligent. All those years in exile should have hardened her resolve and made her less naive and less foolish, yet she makes mistakes as if she had never done a hard day's work.

3)The main theme was...lacking. It could have had a powerful effect, Seri coming to realize what she had never understood. Yet, it was not powerful. It came across as a theme slapped on too late and only kneaded in partially.

I did enjoy it, however, when I was not slapping my forehead at the general stupidty of the characters. One stupid character is all right, and two is fine. Three is pushing it, but when the characters that are supposedly smart are making dumb errors, you know something is off. I do recommend it to anyone in the mood for a pleasant fantasy novel, but do not expect a knock-your-socks-off work.

I have loved every single of Carol Berg's books. I read this one in about two days and I have utterly no idea what I'm going to do until the second one comes out.

Berg elegantly weaves the past into the present as she tells the story of Seri, an exhiled noblewoman who's life was torn apart by her brother and her king. The story is told from Sari's point of view, as she runs into a young man who cannot speak. When people start asking after a young man who matches the mute stranger's description, Sari realizes that there is something special about him. The two of them, with the help of some minor characters, start out on a search for this man's past and his memory.

Sari's story is utterly heartbreaking. She tells it with the reader already knowing the outcome. You come to know and love the characters and when it all comes down in Sari's love I kept echoing Sari's prayers that something miraculous would happen and they would all get away and live happily ever after.

Son of Avonar is a very serious book, but Berg puts just enough humourous, heartwarming moments in it to make it fun to read. The character of Aeren (the mysterious young man) is at once funny and tragic in his amnesia clouded confusion. This story made me chuckle and it brought tears to my eyes. The characters, settings, and cultures are vividly constructed, and Berg's characters are so three-dimensional. It is rare to find characters who are neither good or bad, but flawed, noble, honourable people as we all are. The relationship between Sari and her brother is particularly poignant.

There is also an interesting theme of nonviolence. Sari's culture is especially war-oriented, she often mentions that everyone carries a weapon, but her healer-husband's refusal to lift a hand is interesting. I am curious to see how Berg develops this theme in the future books.

Son of Avonar is a wonderful book to read. It is as good or better as all of Carol Berg's books, an excellant fantasy novel.

I have to give Carol Berg credit for her female protagonist. Seri is in no way your typical fantasy heroine. She's neither young nor blond, she's not virginal or a doormat. She's a middle-aged widow who's borne a child. She's cynical and she shows her age. I liked her because, unlike too many women in fantasy novels these days who are little more than cardboard cutouts, I could identify with Seri; she was *real*.

But on the other hand, there's D'Natheil. He's nothing more than a childish bully for more than half the book. I realize that there was a reason he acted that way, but it didn't make him any less annoying. There's very little attractive about a "hero" who gets needlessly violent and then sulks or pouts and throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

It actually gets worse when the "secret" of his past is revealed. Instead of feeling happy for both he and Sari, I had much more of a, "...the hell?" reaction, because there'd been no build up. Out of the blue, it seemed, we're presented with this fact and expected to accept it. I didn't buy it. And it seemed like a complete dues ex machina, even with Dassine's explanation at the end.

Supposedly this whole thing was foreshadowed by Sari "reacting" to D'Natheil, but that still makes no sense. I, and I imagine many other people, just assumed that she was finally moving on from her husband's murder. Because, despite what the romance novels and poetry try to insist, there is life after death where love is concerned; most people can move on with their lives and find romance/love again. I thought that's what was happening here. What it actually turned out to be, well, that made very little sense.

One of the book's other main problems is in the beginning. Nearly every other chapter was a flashback to Sari and Karon's life together. This is one case when I would actually advocate telling instead of showing. The constant, prolonged flashbacks may have set the stage for later events, but they badly broke the narrative and took away from what was happening at the present time. And they were boring. Dry, dull and after a while, I just started skimming them until the book got back to the interesting parts of what was happening in the present. What those flashbacks were there to do could have easily been accomplished with a few well-placed paragraphs in the present, maybe a remembrance of Sari's or something in the narrative. Anything but what was actually done.

I'm still willing to give this book three stars despite those glaring faults, mainly because the first person narration of Sari 's made up for D'Natheil's dreadful characterization and once those awful flashbacks were out of the way, the story flowed well. Particularly near the end where it raced its way towards the climax. That was very well done.

I doubt this is a book I'd read a second time through or actually recommend to anyone, but I've read many worse.

This book is for fans of sword and sorcery who enjoy the female hero; except this heroine does not wield a sword or even sorcery, she wins the day because she is shrewd.

The son of Avonar is the heir to magic, but this story is not told from his viewpoint. It is told from the viewpoint of a woman who comes to know first one heir to Avonar, and then another. The world exists, you see, in this realm and another. A magical barrier separates ordinary men from where sorcerers originated, a barrier connected by a magical and hard to find bridge. [Note the series title--The Bridge of D'Arnath.]

Our heroine is Lady Seriana (Seri, for short), and she is sister to a duke, bound for marriage to the next king. But Seri refuses marriage to Evard, turning down a chance to be queen because she has fallen in love with a sorcerer. Now, sorcerers are rare in Leiran because they are feared and hated. Karon is one of the last sorcerers alive on this side of the barrier. He is a gifted healer, so gifted in fact that his patients accidentally give him away to his enemies. Though he tries to hide behind another profession, a sheriff traps Seri and Karon in front of the king. The sheriff stabs Seri in the back, in the heart, and Karon must save his beloved wife or watch her die. He is taken prisoner for sorcery and tortured. All of Karon's friends are murdered for having known his secret without telling the crown. Seri is held prisoner, but because she is a duke's sister, she looses only her station, her husband, and her child, but not her life.

Seri runs away to live in the country. Dirt poor, ten years later when a stranger needs her help, she has little left to give. But this young man is very strange. He is running from those who seek his life. He is mute, and naked. And Seri discovers that he has no memory of who he even is. When Seri sees him do magic, she is compelled to solve a mystery more dangerous than her experiences ten years prior.

This young man is also a son of Avonar, except his Avonar is on the other side (there are two cities called Avonar, one on each side of the magical barrier). Prince D'Natheil, Heir to the royal line of D'Arnath, has crossed over, come to ask assistance from those of his kind on this side of the barrier without having known that they were nearly extinct. But the mystery goes deeper than that. Seri feels drawn to this man . . . almost as if she has always known him.

The book is presented in a flip-flop fashion. It begins in the middle then constantly flash-backs to fill in the back-story. Though it does have enough action to keep it moving, these flash-backs get a bit irritating. So, this reader only votes SON OF AVONAR a five out of ten, because -1- of the heavy use of flash-backs; and -2- because the prose, though very well done, gets a bit too wordy at times; and because -3- the ending did not satisfy [Note: the ending will probably satisfy you if you fit the description in the first paragraph of this review. However, the story led this reader to anticipate romance, an anticipation that was not rewarded. One might suspect that Carol Berg could use this carrot to lead her readers through the series without ever allowing them to become fully satisfied.] This book is for readers who want a heroine who will save the day with her smarts.

For centuries, it was thought that the soldiers killed all the sorcerers and stamped magic out of existence. The ruthless noble Evard is an heir to the Leiran throne and brutally disposes any threats to his goal of becoming king. His closest ally Tomas, Duke of Corrigon and the King's Champion, has a sister Seri who he plans to marry.

Through trickery, Seri forces the monarch to let her choose her husband and the only man who moves her is Karon, the last sorcerer in Leire. Eventually their secret is discovered and Karon is tortured before he is put to death. Seri is imprisoned until she gives birth. Her brother kills the infant and the king strips her of her heritage.

She lives like a peasant for over a decade but another sorcerer crosses her path. D'Nathiel is a prince from a world that is a mirror image of the four kingdoms but he suffers from amnesia and is unable to speak. Seri comes to his rescue and finds a love that she thought lost forever.

Imagination harnessed to talent produces a fantasy masterpiece, a work so original and believable that it will be very hard to wait for the next book in this series to be published. At times, Seri will remind readers of an Amazon warrior, a woman not afraid to do battle if the cause is just. There are many mysteries surrounding the prince of Avanar and Seri just begins to figure them out when he is taken away from her. The next installment hopefully should reunite the two star-crossed champions, as answers to some questions will provide fuller appreciation of these key characters.

Harriet Klausner

The first book in this series starts off rather slow. I also had a problem with the story jumping back and forth in time from past to present...rather annoying. For those of us who are used to powerful main characters in our books, be ready to be dissapointed. The main character in the first book possesses no extraordinary powers. The only thing she has going for her is her sharp intellect and a stubborness to stay her chosen course.

With all that being said, the book picks up well about 3/4 of the way through and really catches your attention at that point. I really enjoyed the last 1/4 of the book and had problems putting it down (I would rate the 1st 3/4 at 1.5 stars and the last quarter at 5 stars). If you buy this book, PLEASE endure it until it has a chance to pick up, because the last 1/4 and the ending is well worth the initial drudgery.

I just completed the second book earlier today and WOW! I give the second book 5 stars! I had problems getting to sleep because I didn't want to put it down! I am hoping the 3rd book is just as good! GO Carol Berg!

Carol Berg offers her own garden in Son of Avonar, not the usual drones of contemporary past and present. It stands out enough from other fantasy novels to be distinctive.

You read a few 1st person narratives you've read them all. The protagonist Serianna, like all outcast, emotionally traumatised females, will of course have that tough-chick-persona. Whether through deliberate attempt or serendipity, Berg has avoided this too much by the interactions her companions impact on her changing emotional spectrum, and how she must adjust to that.

Setting wise, it's a form of medieval heavily flavoured with Renaissance society. The Leirean king wars offpage with neighbouring independents for conquest, while the middle class nobles indulge in cosy cavorting of invulnerable ideological discourse---a bubble that'll pop in time. Magic is resented and persecuted in Leire, harkening back to a time when its practioners dominated the kingdom with it. A case of lets control everyone to better society that went wrong through self-corruption. The sorcerers were overthrown, and hunted since for revenge.

Only they actually descend from another world and placed here for reasons you can find out yourself, scattered, forlorn, and abandoned from both homes. Like the vile Spanish Inquisition and the 1492 expulsion that forced select citizenry to adopt covert identities.

Language is rich with depth and variation. The fight/action scenes are scarce, but mature readers will delight in Berg's mature prose and even occasional witty quips thrown in, even if her companions don't really show much depth and dimensions. It's rare to have such a solid worded book these days, and enjoy it for its rarity.

Much of the book alternates between present time and four years of flashbacks ten years ago. It's not confusing and spaced out with enough pacing that you are learning as you go. It's during this time you see Seri's close circle of friends swapping liberal ideas and arguing over all sorts of free-thinking ideology. Something you don't actually see in fantasy books, so it's fresh and inventive. Seri meets and mates her hubby Karon, whose intoxicating need to magically heal the needy readers anxiously await and dread to see exposed, as we already know from the present-time state of affairs. Once it's done and Seri's background to current events completed, the flashbacks end and you start moving quickly.

The quick trip she embarks on to solve her amnesiac's identity and rid herself of that quixotic annoyance starts a game of hide and seek with wizard hunters and dark wizards themselves. Her accompanying companions have their own loyalty, and it's great to see an author who tries to surprise you in the end---if canny readers won't pick up the un/subtle cues along the way. The book goes for 6 weeks, so the pace is reasonable; 3 months with epilogue matters.

The amnesiac's identity woud have been a surprise if not blatantly revealed in the sequel's backcover, the fool publishers! And the dozens of typos wonders where those editors were.

The finale confrontation came off as vague, but you can decide for yourself rather than spoil it here. What sets this damn book apart are that the characters Seri has spiderwebbed herself with don't reveal their cards. They're emotionally motivated for different reasons, but believe they're acting for the right reasons, or nefariously induced for others'. What this means is that with Serianna's viewpoint all book long and nobody else's, anyone's true heart is up for grabs until they show it.

And it's this way of writing, mis/learning as you go, that makes Son of Avonar a worthwhile read in a sea of fantasy drones and blatant ripoffing of each other.

So I was expecting this to be a deccent book. I'd heard good things about her writing. And it started off decently. It wasn't a waste of time to read the book or naythng so bad. However, I thought the world was a little too black and white. If someone is evil, they are completely evil with no seeming motivation to do anything other than cause chaos/destruction. That kind of fantasy has just gotten a little old for me. It simply seems way too easy to make your villians soulless one-dimensional characters. They feed on pain and suffering, and the good guys feed on beauty and light and laughter--it was a little too much; kind of like Karon. He was too much of a paragon of virtue. *SPOILERS* Everything about him was pretty much perfect which got annoying soon after the second time we meet him in flashback. I was especially mad when D'Natheil turned out to actually be Karon. It seemed like a cop-out, a way to not have to deal with a less-than perfect character, as the true D'Natheil would have been. Soon he started being the perfect man, stupid and giving too much of himself, as Karon had done. Even the magic and realms had been done before: mirror realms/parallel dimensions-it was too much. I wanted to like this book, because originally I like Seri. But she never really fleshed out the way I wanted her to. If you like fairly derivative fantasy with one-dimensional characters, you will undoubtedly enjoy this book. But if you want something a little meatier try George Martin.