Thrice Bound [Mass Market Paperback]

Roberta Gellis (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Baen (July 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671318349
• ISBN-13: 978-0671318345
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,599,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roberta Gellis has a varied educational background--a master's degree in biochemistry and another in medieval literature--and working history--10 years as a research chemist, many years as a free-lance editor of scientific manuscripts, and more than 40 years as a writer. She is married--to the same man for over 60 years (no mean feat in these days) and lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with her husband Charles and a lively Scottish terrier called Zoe. She has one child, Mark, who teaches Rhetoric (a fancy name for expository writing) at Kettering University in Michigan. Mark is married to Sandra and they have a lovely daughter, Elizabeth.

Gellis has been a successful writer of historical fiction, publishing over 25 meticulously researched historical novels since 1964. The best known of these are The Roselynde Chronicles (ROSELYNDE, ALINOR, JOANNA, GILLIANE, RHIANNON, and SYBELLE). The series has been reprinted many times since its first appearance in 1979, most recently in 2006. Gellis has also been the recipient of many awards, including the Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from West Coast Review of Books, the Golden Certificate and Golden Pen from Affaire de Coeur, The Romantic Times Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period (more than once) and Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy, as well as Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Acheivement Award.

More recently Gellis has ventured into other genres, starting with mythological fantasy (DAZZLING BRIGHTNESS, SHIMMERING SPLENDOR, ENCHANTED FIRE, BULL GOD, and THRICE BOUND). Most recently she has written historical fantasy, with a series of book coauthored by Mercedes Lackey set in Elizabethan times (THIS SCEPTER'D ISLE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BY SLANDEROUS TONGUES, and AND LESS THAN KIND). Before that she was writing historical mysteries, a four-book series set in London and Oxford in 1139 (A MORTAL BANE, A PERSONAL DEVIL, BONE OF CONTENTION and CHAINS OF FOLLY) and one set in the Italian Renaissance in Ferrara (LUCREZIA BORGIA and the MOTHER OF POISONS).

Since Gellis is one of the early addicts to electronic readers---she purchased a RocketeBook way back in 1999---it is no surprise that she was eager to get her own out of print historical romances into electronic format. Cerridwen Press (http://www.cerridwenpress.com) has published the Heiress Series (THE ENGLISH HEIRESS, THE CORNISH HEIRESS, THE KENT HEIRESS, FORTUNE'S BRIDE, and A WOMAN'S ESTATE) as well as the Royal Dynasty Series (don't ask me about that, there isn't a royal or a dynasty in any of the four books---it was a notion of a long-ago agent) SIREN SONG, WINTER SONG, FIRE SONG, and A SILVER MIRROR. Cerridwen offers a variety of formats, one of which can be read by the Kindle and for those too firmly addicted to paper, the books are also available in a very nice Trade edition (but those are rather expensive).

I'm sorry I don't have any amusing anecdotes to relate, as recommended by the Profile, but a writer's life is really very quiet. Sometimes my neighbors ask my husband what has happened to me because they haven't seen me in such a long time. Depending on his humor of the moment, sometimes Charles tells them that I can't come outside because he keeps me chained to my computer---but that isn't true. He lets me get up once in a while.

Roberta Gellis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprising Rewarding, August 20, 2002

By 

Shawna Lanne "Shawna" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thrice Bound (Mass Market Paperback)

Despite the horrible cover, "Thrice Bound" is a highly rewarding novel. Roberta Gellis creates a richly textured world in her reinterpretation of Greek Mythology.

Hekate, Mother / Maiden / Crow, has to flee from her powerfully evil father. Before he drains her of her power and completely binds her to his will, like he did her mother. She flees to the Caves of the Dead, where her father's power is null, and there meets Kabeiros, a shape shifter who has been cursed to be in the shape of a dog when outside the Caves.

Together, Hekate who bound herself to Dionysis when he was an infant, bound herself to an oath of destroying her father, and bound herself to finding a way to cure Kabeiros leave the caves in search of knowledge.

"Thrice Bound" is a great read if you like your plot lines complex and are interested in Greek mythology. The only major problem that I had with the book was that Chapter 23 and Chapter 24 speak of the first `homecoming' of Dionysis to Olympis twice and in conflicting matters. Something was not edited correctly. Other than that, the book was great.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars love me, love my dog!, August 16, 2001

By 

Cecile - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thrice Bound (Mass Market Paperback)

Mrs. Gellis has created another wonderful tale based upon Greek mythology. This time the female protagonist is Hekate (you may remember her from Shakespeare's Macbeth), traditionally a mysterious goddes from the East who was the patron of witches and worshiped at crossroad. We enter an alternate world were people are "gifted" with magical abilities that allow them to appear like gods to the native humans. Hekate was the daughter of one such person, Perses. A great sorceror, Perses drained Hekate's mother of her magical powers and is slowly draining Hekate as well. Once Hekate realizes her father plans to use a spell to make her a mindless drone to help him gain the throne of Biblos, she escapes with help from her mother. In her escape she travels to the caves of the dead where she meets a young man, Kabeiros who is bespelled so that if he leaves the caves he will change into a black dog. The two quickly become friends and Hekate vows to help set him free. This vow along with her earlier vows to protect the boy, Dionysos, and to gain revenge against her father is the meaning behind the title Thrice Bound. In her quest to fulfill her vows she and Kabeiros travels the length and breadth of the ancient near east and along the way her power grows. When she finally arrives in Olympus even Zeus is in awe of her power. Hekate introduces the power of spells and sets Olympus on a new era of greater magical abilities. Meanwhile her love for Kabeiros grows but is frustrated by the obvious fact that he is stuck in the body of a dog. Readers of the series will get reacquinted with old favorites as well as have some of the loose ends from earlier novels tied up. Overall this book fits nicely to cement the series together and lets us get to know this rather mysterious "goddess".

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!, November 12, 2001

By 

Z. Moore "gypsymoon227" (Decatur, Alabama United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thrice Bound (Mass Market Paperback)

Roberta Gellis' Thrice Bound was a wonderful book. I love myth so I enjoyed the story. If you are the type of person who likes to take flights of fancy then you will enjoy this book. If you want realism and facts then don't read it. I love how Ms. Gellis worked in the legends assoicated with Hecate and and traits assoiated with the other gods and twined them into her story. Very interesting story. 5 stars!