Customer Reviews

The Thirteenth Scroll

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

 

 

Fantasy is imagination stretched into the shape of possible truth. The strength of Thirteenth Scroll lies in how it shows the incremental decisions which shape human intentions into individual paths of ultimate extreme.

The tragedy that begins Lysandra's journey is devasting enough for modern times, her own rape and the murder of all who love her who rush to help. The following years of darkness and tortuous healing resonate truthfully, just as her slow gain in confidence and struggle with forces outside herself as she moves toward her destiny show the phases of a hero's struggle. The male hero Renan, a priest with a questionable past, shows not only the inner struggle of pure intention but also the complexity of confusion in his struggle to confront himself honestly. The romance that sneaks up on both heroes proves the subtlety and self-will of human emotion.

The villains are drawn with like complexity, showing the beginning hurt and increasing hardening of Arya as she grabs for more and greater power and the selfishness and greedy passiveness of simplistic Giraldus.

The descriptions of magic and supernatural healing are detailed and intense enough to make them credible. The young Cryf Talog is a fresh archetype, a being who can see better in the dark than the light and one whose seeing encompasses more than physical eyes. The Sight that comes to blind Lysandra more often and more clearly as she grows spiritually echoes this theme of seeing with intuition and the heart, and in connection with other beings. The power and necessity of alliances is another theme that recurrs effectively.

This book has soul. The story takes the reader quickly along the journey with the characters. The writing is fresh, sensual and evocative. This is a story to settle in with and keep on going.

The 13th Scroll has everything you want in a fantasy--action, romance, magic, intrigue, prophecy-all driven by crisp, intelligence prose.

The heroine is fully realized-a woman of courage, struggling not only against a hostile world and dangerous magic, but with her own fears. Her adversary is every bit as strong, driven by a bitter past, and enormous ambition.

The Cryf (intelligent beings who live underground) are an utterly unique race who have hidden from humanity for centuries.

The 13th Scroll is driven by its plot (I stayed up to late on several work nights), but it is also a thoughtful book, asking its characters to face ethical and religious questions which provide no easy answers.

To sum it up-this book is a lot of fun. Give yourself a treat and pick it up.

I highly recommend this book not only to fans of medieval fantasy, but to readers who just enjoy a well-written story with memorable characters. As a Star Trek fan, I discovered Ms. Neason as the author of "Guises of the Mind", my favorite Star Trek book. She also wrote two excellent Highlander novels. I am very glad she is now writing in her own fascinating and very interesting world and I sincerely hope that "Thirteenth Scroll" has many sequels.

When King Ozaza died with no heir, the Kingdom of Aghamore fell into turmoil and chaos. The barons conduct a bloody feud and cutthroats roam the countryside. Men hide to avoid conscription by some petty lord.

Lysandra is on her way to say farewell to her betrothed when thugs attack their town, killing him and her parents and leaving her unconscious. When she awakens she is blind and has been raped. Unable to cope, she journeys from her home until settling in a small cottage with a wolf as her companion. Although she lost her vision, she gained the ability of "sight" that enables her to see through the wolf's eyes. She will soon play a key role in seating the next ruler of the country if she can elude an evil sorceress and her malevolent consort who plan to become the next monarchs.

The ending is a cliffhanger because Lysandra has evil to battle and her own past to contend with before the true king sits on the throne of Aghamore. Lysandra is a complex person who readers will enjoy getting to know through her relationship with the wolf and her adventures. Rebecca Neason is a gifted storyteller whose tale compares favorably with the Shannara saga.

Harriet Klausner

I picked up The Thirteenth Scroll, by Rebecca Neason, at the library when I was browsing for something interesting to read. I was in a hurry, so I didn't have time to do my customary glance-through before choosing it. I'm kind of sorry that I didn't. Not that it's a bad book, necessarily, but it's just not very interesting.

The book reads almost like a Christian feminist fantasy novel. It's very strange in that way. When Neason starts talking about the Church, I thought that it would be very interesting to see a fantasy novel where religion played such a strong part. When she referred to the Virgin and the cross, I started to wonder "why did she have to base so much of this on Christianity rather than coming up with everything herself?" Then, finally, when she referred to real historical figures, I had to stop for a moment. It completely threw me out of the book. This is just a thinly disguised Britain! All the names have been changed, all of the recent (as far as the book is concerned) history is gone, but the history of the Church remains the same.

After realizing this, I started to notice geographical details mentioned in the text that implied that the land is Britain. The book mentions the tip at the extreme north of the land, which does remind me of the northern tip of Scotland. Now I see why there was no map in the book. Even so, there should be a map, because all of the names of the various provinces, as well as the cities and towns referred to, have no relation to each other or to reality. It's incredibly hard to follow when you don't have a map to guide you. It was extremely irritating. If you're going to change all the names, then you need a map!

So why did I call it a Christian *feminist* fantasy novel? The two main characters are Lysandra and Aurya. While you do get some viewpoints from Renan, they don't read very differently from Lysandra's. Not to mention the fact that Renan's point of view sections are usually ways of showing how heroic and stoic Lysandra is, and how Renan is starting to feel more for her then a priest should. He doesn't really serve much more of a purpose in the book other than that. The other male characters aren't really developed at all. They are just people who our heroes (or villains) interact with

This by itself doesn't make it a feminist novel. However, many of Aurya's passages talk about how easy men are to control with feminine wiles. She talks about how weak Giraldus and, by extension, other men are because they are susceptible to manipulation like this. She has Giraldus wrapped around her finger and she seems convinced that she can rule the kingdom the same way. My head started to hurt with how often "women good, men bad" was drummed into it. Personally, I don't think the fact that Aurya's an evil witch takes away from that description of the book, either. Ultimately, Lysandra and Aurya are two sides of the same coin: a light and a dark side. The men in the book, however, are just a gray area (except, of course, the men who raped and blinded Lysandra when she was 17 and killed her family, who are definitely evil).

The book doesn't have too many characters in it, and none of them are particularly interesting. None of them are badly done, necessarily, but they don't draw you in and force you to care about them. Lysandra and Renan are very good people and Aurya and Giraldus are very bad people. There are two innocents involved: an underworld dweller named Talog and the Font of Wisdom. Neither character gets much development and both are basically there to fulfill their plot functions. As mentioned earlier, Lysandra and Aurya get most of the character development, some of which will probably be explored in subsequent books.

There is one other character that I haven't mentioned, mainly because his subplot doesn't end up having much to do with the book itself. It's clearly there for ongoing series reasons. His name is Elon, and he's a bishop who has designs on becoming Archbishop when the current one retires. Ostensibly, this subplot is in the book because Elon has to set the stage for Giraldus and Aurya's triumphant return from their mission. He's a greedy one, more interested in power (political and religious as well as arcane) then piety. He's stereotypically evil, though, with not much characterization beyond that. The way the book ends makes his plotline superfluous, at least for this book alone. The book, for the most part, is self-contained, with just these few plot and character items that will probably carry over to the next book.

Finally, I found the prose a bit annoying. This was mostly when the bad guys were on the scene, namely Elon and Aurya. The narration kept emphasizing how evil and power hungry they both are, so much so that the repetition became very dull. Yes, we get the fact that they won't let anybody stand in their way. We get the fact that, if they succeed, they will rule everything. We get the fact that Aurya will control the Church. We get the fact that Elon will control Aurya. Could we please move on? Other than that, the prose is pretty lifeless, almost light and airy in a way.

Ultimately, I was unimpressed by The Thirteenth Scroll. It's a quick read, I'll give it that. However, that's about it. I've heard that it's the start of a five or six book series. I know I won't be coming back for book two.

I'm a fantasy reader by preference, and this has many of the necessary elements of Tolkien-esque fantasy. Reluctant heroes, a group of unusual comrades sent on a quest to save the land from darkness, ancient prophesies and magics coming to light to both help and hinder our protagonists. Like Tolkien, I feel as though the author of this work is more fastened to the world she has created than to the characters. Her world is full of depth and detail, fantastic elements and mighty heroes and villains. Epic in all truth of the word. This is an enjoyable book, especially to fill in travel time or pass the time.

I only give it three stars, however because while this is good, it does not quite reach great. I did not become attached enough to the characters truly care about them, other than Lysandra. Renan and Talog remain mostly a mystery. Even when the viewpoint shifts to theirs, its almost indistinguishable from Lysandra's. We see these characters as valiant, heroic, suffering and troubled. We don't see the little things that connect us to them as real people--they feel like they've been summoned out of the woodwork for this, no connections, no friends. People tend to be either good or bad, which is typical for epic fantasy, but at times here they seem over simplified. Perhaps the most interesting character is Aurya. The author has gone to a lot of work to create an interesting, complex villianess with her own motivations and conflicts. She is one of the most interesting characters to follow in the whole of this book, perhaps moreso because she is one of the most active participants in it, determined to shape her own destiny. The author has crafted a good story, but I don't feel like I love our protagonists, or feel their suffering in the way I could.

For those of you reading this book, be aware this is only the first book in what is likely a trilogy. In credit to the author, the book does not end on a cliffhanger, but at a lull in the adventure, so that its clear there is more story, but this particular quest has reached a satisfying conclusion point. As I have said, good but not great. Especially enjoyable for those who like epic fantasy and world-building in their stories, but may be frustrating for those who desire to identify closely with the characters.

Ms.Neasons' use of descriptive paragraphs make Lysandras' character come to life as she joins forces with Renan and cloud dancer to fight the darkness threatening to overcome the world. I couldn't put the book down. I was left with an amazing feeling and cannot wait for the next book to come out.

I've now read the Thirtenth Scroll for a second time and am again truly amazed at how much I enjoyed this book. Lysandra and Cloud Dancer seem virtually alive through Ms. Neasons descriptions. The book is beautifully written and one that I would recomend to any fantasy reader.

This is the first in a wonderful series about a young woman who takes a tragic event in her life & from it finds her "gift." A young healer isolated, with only her wolf as her companion, and content with her daily earthy exsistence amongst her herbs and flowers is about to change. The second installment, The Truest Power, also delivers - you see the heroine grow and become more confident in the presence of others; overcoming dark nightmares from her past, unfortunately this is where you hold onto your paperbacks and wish for the conclusion, it has been 6 years and the next installment has yet to be published. You might want to wait till the conclusion is written, it has been a long, frustrating wait for me.

How can a blind woman lead you to a forgotten place? What is this 13th scroll? Who is this font of wisdom? How can a blind woman see without eyes? Who is this one who seeks with evil? Will the land, kingdom fine the true ruler? Can you move on after you lost hope, faith, love, the will to live?

The story starts a few years back when a young woman last her sight on the very a day her mother, father, and her beloved friend (who was to marry her) lost their life. Now moving forward a few years you meet her as a healer of animals with a wolf (who she saved when it was a very ill pup). She was in a garden when a spirit showed up with scrolls in his arms, as if speaking a lost forgotten way the woman learned that she must leave and to fine something of great importance. (How can this be?)

That is all I can tell you with out giving away to much of this story about how one group fight against all odds. The author Rebecca Neason wrote the book with life like characters and real-like landscape and if you read this book you'll end up loving or just liking them all.

I like the friends of the forgotten place, where no magic can touch them and they are under ground with a rock of great value to the people above them. I would never have read this book if wasn't sitting and wanting for my sister to finish up that the library (which at one point we were basically living there, because we read all the time and still do) I picked up a book and began to read and then I checked it out. (I can't spell their names. Oh no where did I put the books?)
Here are some books she wrote and on my next to read list. The Truest Power, Guises of the Mind, Avatar and others.